Clearing cap space in the offseason

Trading McGinn is a bad idea. He is Tanev’s replacement on a better contract. No other forward does what he does, which is offer enough skill to play up and down a lineup while also bringing toughness to this team that it lacks from our other forwards.

He makes too much money for what he is and O'Connor can do most of those things while offering more speed and skill. If you want to add toughness, do it for league min in free agency. They are getting that toughness from Brian Boyle for a fraction of McGinn's cost.

McGinn is a beast. He is worth every penny of that.

Not to be a fourth liner, no. No fourth-line winger in the league is worth that.

You can like a player and realize he's not worth his cap hit.

I don’t think they trade mcginn a year after they signed him to that long term deal. Take away erods 3.5M which would be a big mistake seeing as though he’s come back to earth. Reduce heinen’s figure to 1.5-2 and you can resign rakell at ~5M or just under that. They can have something like this
Guentzel-sid-rust
Kapanen-geno-rakell
Heinen-carter-zucker
Mcginn-blueger-zohorna