22-23 NYR TRADE DEADLINE - TOO QUICK TO GET MOTTE

Team: 2022-23 Custom Team

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 1, 2023

Published: Mar. 2, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

will start by saying I am making some assumptions on actual trades that occurred - specifically timing of Kravtsov trade and Lafferty trade to TOR (1 day earlier than the kane deal announcement - keep in mind the announcement of the deal was delayed for a few days )
don't think there was a need to rush out and trade for Motte - could have waited and instead worked on making the Kane deal bigger. Picking up Motte when they did actually made it harder for them to free up the space to get Kane
A) Kravtsov should have been traded earlier - should have focused on that as soon as Tarasenko deal was done. Would have gotten his salary off the books much sooner to allow cap accrual.
B) holding onto Gauthier would have given the Rangers an extra $550K in space prior to the kane deal
C) work with AZ to expand their end of the deal - include Bjudstad in the deal for Gauthier - AZ needs salary to meet cap floor
D) expand CHI end of the deal to include Lafferty for a draft pick - either 2024 or 2026 2nd rd (what Toronto gave CHI in their deal so can't see why it wouldn't work here)

This leaves the team with a 22 player roster with a close to 400K in cap space - some wiggle room if making a salary in/salary out trade - instead of 21 they have now.
Doesn't address need for an extra D but I feel Bjugstad & lafferty bring better defensive play.