Stacked roster 2021-22

I’ll take that Nichuskin trade.

Honestly I hate trading him, but I needed to find $1m capspace so he was the logical candidate. Alternatively (and probably more likely actually) it could be Namestnikov or Compher moved... basically whoever has the worse 2020-21 season would be the one moved.

In terms of what he gets resigned for, he deserves a little bit of term as a reward for his stellar play this season, but short enough to keep him hungry. I think he'll be signed for 2-3 years in the region of $2.25-2.5m. It wouldn't surprise me to see him get $3m though, he's been very good.

I don't think Zadorov or Jost fetches that much.

Zadorov is a solid defender, but at 3.2/season it is a bit much. I could see him getting a third.
Jost has some upside, but time is running out. A late 2nd or a few mid-round picks seems reasonable.

Zadorov has been a top 4 D for most of his career. It's only in the last couple of years with the emergence of Girard and Graves that he's been bumped down. He has a very unique skillset due to his size, skating, hitting, and ability to defend well in transition, so I don't think 2nd + 3rd is too far off what he'll get. Players like Dillon, Martinez, Braun, etc got similar returns in recent trades.

Jost still has time on his side. The guy has played 210 NHL games, but he's still only 22 years old. A lot of prospects don't even make their NHL debuts until that age just to put things in perspective. Kreider for example only established himself when he was 22/23. There's also a lot of value in young, cost-controlled (cheap) 3rd line forwards who are defensively responsible and can play all situations.

As fans we often massively overrate how much picks are worth, because statistically only like 10-25% of 2nd round picks actually become NHLers. A young guy like Jost or an established top 4/5 Dman like Zadorov has more value to a lot of teams than two mystery boxes.