Quoting: OIlers4Life
You just made the team 3 times worse... and lucic will never catch up to mcdavid
While I agree that trading RNH is a huge mistake, that's a scalding hot take. How so? Shuffle his lines a bit and:
Vanek | McDavid | Puljujarvi
Yamamoto | Draisaitl | []
Lucic | Strome | Grabner
Caggiula | Khaira | Rattie
Nurse | Green
Klefbom | Larsson
Sekera | Wideman
I think there is a viable market for Kassian, and Benning is worth something somewhere (Jarnkrok?) He's a #2RW away from having a decent roster - Farabee is committed to college for at least next season and can't play in the NHL. All things considered, he's got about $5M to play with.
If he opts to keep RNH, and shaves off $500k from Strome, $600k from Grabner, $300k from Caggiula, and like $250k from Vanek, he's cap compliant. RNH can resume playing #1LW, Vanek can play #2LW, and Yamamoto can (theoretically) play #2RW. The kid should still get some AHL time though.