Why not just trade the pick for a forward, instead of further increasing the age gap between our forwards and defensemen? How does trading Guhle speed things up if you're creating a hole on defense that's only going to be filled in 3-5 years? (hopefully).
Now, is Necas or Zegras worth the 5OA pick? In my opinion they likely aren't. You get a handful of those high picks during a rebuild, so you should aim at franchise-altering talent.
It's a good argument you propose but my agrument's underlying assumption is as follows:
If Demidov is off the board, and maybe even Lindstrom too, then at 5OA the 2024 NHL draft will have a d-man whose ceiling is higher than Guhle's. Levshunov, Silayev, Dickinson, Buium, Parekh. You pick one of them and then deal with the excess of LDs.
Guhle himself is not worth the 5OA pick. Swapping someone like Guhle (or Matheson) out for a forward will have us ahead within a year with a net gain in team talent.
Of course it goes without saying that the 5OA pick has to hit, and he has to become better than Guhle, but every move has uncertainty and risks. Guhle is injury prone himself. Keeping him has risks too. (and it goes without saying, I would prefer to sell-high and trade Matheson over Guhle because I don't think Matheson will be on our team when the results matter.)
Hughes has brought in a young forward every offseason so far, so there's really not much reason to criticize him on that front. But it also doesn't mean that a similar opportunity in terms of price and reward will present itself again this offseason.
For what it's worth, I would love them to take a shot at Laine.
I don't think Monahan, Newhook, and Dach are in the same tier of acquisition of Laine, Necas, Zegras. It's not a criticism to say that the rebuilding Habs didn't acquire serious assets to improve the team yet.
I think if Laine is available the Habs absolutely have to take a run at him. We have cap space and if he's cheap to acquire it's pretty much the definition of a low-risk high-reward move. Even the conservatives here (90% of the Habs fanbase it feels) would agree.