I think I'd rather trade Paul this trade deadline and keep Brown, at least until next trade deadline.
And we will be looking at a late 2nd rounder if even that. Imagine what we would have got had we traded him last trade deadline.
No offense but a lot of you lacking vision. We must either have extension in place for C.Brown now(and he signs is off-season) or we trade him in trade deadline. Letting him go into next season without contract would be horrendous asset management.
Look at what NJD did. They turned Blake Coleman(who is similar in ice-impact as Brown) into Mercer. Who is not looking like a spectacular top 6 piece moving forward.
THAT'S asset management. Coleman was still pretty young enough to stay on team that looked like it was on the come up with their young future core already on roster(Hughes,Hischer, Zacha, Bratt).
EDIT: Just saw your latest post, yup, that's the mindset we must have.
Cup contending teams will absolutely pay a 1st+ for Connor Brown. He is an elite bottom 6 piece with excellent contract and 20 goal ability for next 1.5 years. We can even eat half of his contract no problem.
I am typically all for keeping talent. I wanted to keep Stone and believe letting him go is the biggest blunder we made. At the same time, however, we are given a possibility to allocate some of Brown's money to a legit top 6 threat while getting another pick in a deeeeep draft. It helps we have budding bottom 6 prospects eager to get ice-time as well.