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Big time contribution from ConnorMcJesus today!! Round of applause for him everyone, thank you fella!

Nurse is not a player you trade just to free up cap space. What a silly notion. I'm very open to the idea of trading Nurse in a package for a better defender, but not for the Canucks' garbage, and especially for not that poor of a return. Nurse going one way and what's left of Beagle's horrible contract coming back automatically warrants a first rounder back in return, and I'd argue the return should still be higher.

Edmonton's better off suited using a package like that to move Neal out during expansion. Say what you will about Kassian's deal, but Neal's still costs more in the end. Less term might mean they can drop the pick a round or two.

Nuge has already turned down a $7M deal (6 years I think) from the Oilers: he could backtrack on that, but there's a likelihood that he's going to test UFA. Too much term for Rask. Not sure why you feel compelled to give Hyman that much money when all of the math surrounding McDavid and Puljujarvi suggests that the Oilers have something in those two.

Gustafsson's a bad signing for this team. Who beyond a one-armed Klefbom is supposed to play defence?

I think Nurse is probably worth a second one for one, I figured adding a third and taking a one year guy that improves the bottom six may be worth it if it gets you a better player to play with McDavid. That may be my bias showing big time because I really don't like Nurse!

I think it takes more for Neal than what it would for Kassian, but definitely a fair point.

Because Hyman is better than Puljujarvi, getting a proven commodity vs a player who hasn't worked there before.

I had Montour in there before, looking at next years UFA class for D a quality defensive D man is going to be tough to come buy at an afforable price.

They aren’t going to pay anyone to take Kassian and that’s a huge overpay to do it. If they protect all the useful pieces the best player to take is probably Kassian anyway. They will be giving away somebody like jones to get rid of Neal. Samorukov is one they will keep, he’s been one of the top defence in the KHL this year and he fits the mold of the core they are trying to build perfectly. Signing what will be a 34 year old Rask to a 4 year contract sounds like something that would sink them, I don’t see a world where this happens. They need to go with a younger goalie and pick one that can play 55 games and have at least a .915 sv% even if they have to trade for one. The free agent market has lots of names but very little quality lots of older goalies and lots of teams looking for goalies.

Biases aside, Nurse is worth a lot more than a second. Look at what happened when Edmonton traded Petry for a 2nd and a 5th. Adding to the point you have Edmonton taking back a $3M replacement-level player, it's a horrible deal through and through. To further add to the point regarding UFA defenders, if the market is so bad, why trade Nurse? The sum of the Beagle and Gustafsson contracts are more than what Nurse makes. Again, there's absolutely logic in trading Nurse as part of a package for a superior defenceman. There's none in trading him for a pure cap dump, picks outside the first round, and signing an inferior replacement.

I like the Neal+Jones+4th proposals I've seen for Seattle to take Neal, and Jones is very clearly an immediate upgrade to Samorukov. Likely a better environment for Broberg to develop in if there are two more stable LHD in front of him (Klefbom and Nurse) as opposed to someone Broberg may already be better than.

Hyman is three and a half times more expensive than Puljujarvi. If the shooting and possession rates are to be believed, Puljujarvi's career might be on the cusp of a jubilant revival. Odds are against him to ever live up to his #4 status, but we need more time to deduce that. He's been really good on the top line so far this season.