Some defensive changes

Boston will gladly take a pick and a prospect back. I really was starting to like Vaakanainen so getting him back would be nice.

I don’t think there’s any trade with VGK where taking back Lehner makes sense if he’s going to play again. Two extra years of 5M of an older goalie with significant injury history is not ideal to open the competitive window. That’ll be two 5+M guys with significant injury history on the roster next season after re-signing Z, Terry, Drysdale etc.

Also if Helleson has a solid season he’ll probably have a good shot at making the team next year. Don’t know a ton about either but Helleson looks like a similar player to Korczak with similar upside based on draft spots. Plus there’s quite a few decent possible UFAs available or use the assets accumulated to make a more significant addition than a mid level prospect.

I think we all agree we wanna see this team take a solid step this year so next offseason is about becoming a playoff team and growing from there. Just think there’s better ways to accomplish that then helping a division rival stay competitive right now.

Both trades are an L for the Ducks imo

I would burn down the Honda center before I sent Gibson to rot in Vegas. I don't care that it's steel and rock and ice, I'll find a way to do it.

The reason we have Benoit and Vaak is the same reason we have Zelwegger and Mintyukov, to see who is the better player and move the other. Maybe is Vaak is the odd man he is 7th D since he goes both ways.

Trading one of them for Reilly is flying in the face of the youth movement. We are still rebuilding, there is no reason to trade out the youth to get older to speed things up by one year. If we feel neither Vaak or Benoit are a fit, we go shopping next off-season when half the league is in free agency.

You are also trading out the only reason to try and accelerate the rebuild. The only reason to rush things is to try and use the prime years of Gibson (other than the ticket sales argument). Getting Lehner puts our window opening in question and likely delays it over standing pat. Don't get me wrong, Lehner seems like a great dude, but an age 31 goalie coming off of major hip surgery that looses him an entire season, that Vegas forced to play injured, that contract is going to age like milk.

You build dynasties through the draft, the only reason to ship out the youth is to keep a cup window open. The kids need time to simmer and meld at the NHL level, and we have everything we need for a great team for several years in our farm system, we don't even need all of them to hit, since we have duplicates of basically every position available.

Be patient, and in Verbeek we trust.

If anything, getting Reilly is like getting Strome but on defense. It’a filling a need they have. I think they’d rather have a veteran be playing with Drysdale. It’ll help the defense’s development and give it a higher level of competition. Making that trade is not accelerating the rebuild completely. Maybe it’s better to just trade a pick not a defenseman too but this move would be helpful and low risk.