Thanks to Pierre Dorion, Ottawa ranks 32nd in the league in prospect rankings. Ottawa NEEDS to start adding to their future with picks and prospects, and having four first round picks this draft will allow them to do that, and can even make space for a trade come draft day.
The additions of Brisson, Stranges and Kyrou will be extremely beneficial to the prospect pool.
With Stone being on LTIR (good work on letting this happen every year Gary!), Vegas could use some scoring depth, and with $9.5M free'd up, you can add Tarasenko and Kubalik for reinforcments down the flanks, and only spend half of Stone's contract doing so, giving you room to add another defensmen or more depth scoring.
Brannstrom to Vancouver just makes sense in my eyes. Vancouver is making a huge push for the cup this season, and adding a defensmen like Brannstrom just works. Left-handed but plays both sides, small and agile puck moving defensman who can start the rush. He didn't really work out in Ottawa because we have no breakout structure, but in the right system, Brannstrom can thrive as a bottom 4 puck moving D-Man.
With getting rid of Kubalik, Tarasenko, Chychrun, Brannstrom, and having Norris on LTIR, Ottawa free's up SIGNIFICANT cap space. This can open them up for cap dumps from contenders to collect picks or prospects.
There may be the concern about Ottawa not trading for "seasoned veterans", however Ottawa shouldn't be looking for that right now. Yes, it is a need that has to be addressed, but the UFA market this summer looks amazing. If you spend this trade deadline acquiring futures and pieces to trade with, you can sign any number of players in free agency. With Murray, Ryan and Del Zotto's contract's coming off Ottawa's books after this season, and the cap increasing around $4M next season, Ottawa can bring in guys like Montour, DeBrusk, Toffoli, etc. Who have experienced playoffs and can add some starpower to their team.
This trade deadline doesn't exactly address goaltending, which has been a huge issue for Ottawa this season (and the last 5). Ottawa can buyout Korpisalo, which would cost them $1,333,333 for the next eight years. I honestly have no clue what Ottawa will do for their goaltending situation, and this will prove to be a challenging problem to solve.
Unlike other years, where there is typically one or two favourites to win the cup, this year there is like 10 teams who I can see as serious cup contenders. If Staios can play his cards right, and take advantage of these teams desperately wanting to add players in exchange for futures, he can re-invent the Ottawa Senators into an extremely good team with a bright future.
The sens will not retain salary for next year. We will need all money we have
You retain $1.6M for this year and next in exchange for a high end defensive prospect, middle end forward prospect with a high ceiling, a first and 5th rounder, I feel like that's a no brainer.