Im so confused...... So you are saying they should acquire bad players on bad contracts?

Good luck with that!

Vegas will and should stand pat

I'm saying Fleury hasn't won more than 9 playoff games in any of the last eight seasons and he won't this year. Luongo has a better playoff save percentage than him, although nowhere near the ballpark of Holtby (on a less good team that overpays a couple stars and has to get really creative to field a supporting cast), Keith (injured) or Murray (going to win it again in Pittsburgh if Vegas stands pat).

Luongo's contract is indeed much worse than Holtby's, so Vegas really has just one winning move to make.

Oooh boy...... Ok man, nothing to debate here in my mind.

...because expansion teams should be content to build for the future, even when they're easily better than all the contenders in their conference, and stocked with prospects? Or because Fleury is still 20 years old in your mind?

They should make bigger trades and field a serious contender this year, that they can afford to keep together, long term: https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/596439

none of this makes sense. from the trades to the reasoning and argument

For the same reason Luongo is nearly 40 years old and on a long term contract....... Any reasoning as to adding Luongo at this juncture in time for LV is asinine. If I need to explain that one than we are at completely different wave lengths here. No point in debating any further.

Just to confirm, you mean his, right? If so than I agree!

Right. This is my counterexample after people said I paid too much to rent guys they could actually win with. They should make bigger trades and field a serious contender this year, that they can afford to keep together, long term: https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/596439

As a Caps fan, McPhee's best days were the trade deadline in 1998, and the day he traded three prospects who never did anything in the NHL for Jaromir Jagr who, in the absence of a salary cap, with a billionaire owner, probably was not actually responsible for the bottom falling out of the Caps franchise a couple years later.

McPhee built a great team through the expansion draft. I'm not trying to tell him how to win a Cup with it, but if you think he shouldn't do anything at the trade deadline, just because he can make the playoffs without dealing, I disagree strongly. Fleury is not good enough in goal to do it all by himself. Schmidt is better on the left side than the right side. Getting him there requires adding a third right handed defenseman to the organization. This is pretty basic stuff.

The best options at those spots are Carlson and Holtby--guys McPhee found before, in the draft, probably has a good relationship with, and could keep, long term, to make Vegas a contender, not just this year, but for years to come.

Holy crap man, no one is denying Holtby and Carlson. Im only doubting Luongo, Orpik and the other band of rejects that no one who is actively looking to win cup would want. Luongo is a contract NO ONE wants. Same goes for Orpik. These are not upgrades. At best they are lateral!

Fleury with all of his misfortunes is still a cup winner. Luongo is not. I highly doubt the guy they've deemed the starter and one of the key franchise marketing pieces is going to play second fiddle to Luongo. Not to mention that VEGAS HAS LITERALLY ONE OF THE BEST GOALIE POOLS IN THE LEAGUE. Their 5/6th goalie Legace actually did very well considering he is expected to be a ECHL goalie only.

Im not saying they don't want/need depth but if they do, they aren't going after Luongo and Urpik to fill it. They go after UFA's!

Orpik would be cheaply available and won a Cup WITH Fleury. Luongo is the only other available goalie besides Holtby whose playoff save percentage is better than Fleury's. I agree that Fleury will play at least half of the playoffs, and that Vegas has a lot of potential in net, but if their goal is to win the next few Cups, the best guys they could add are Holtby and Carlson. The Caps have a pretty solid backup goalie, too (Grubauer is their all time leader in regular season GAA and SPCT), so Holtby might be expendable if he waives his NMC and the Caps agree with me that they might as well rebuild because they're already not going to get through Pittsburgh and Tampa this year, before the deadline.