if youre gonna trade a LHD for peanuts make it russell because he sucks and sekera doesnt - lucic deal is fine but why would u drop montoya and use a guy with no experience instead? hes not even much cheaper. also ty rattie isnt an nhl player and putting him with connor is worse than Lucic. same with hemmer - hes not better than Kassian. caggiula is getting 400k more than he should and Nurse got 1.6M too little at least

Almost swap cap hits for Strome and Nurse haha.

Also, why would you trade Sekera and retain 2m when he's a really good player who is worth 5.5m when he is playing at his best. I don't know if he will get back to his best, but give him another year and he provides his trade list in summer 2019. By then he might have regained his form and have positive value even at 5.5m. Realistically we are not going to be cup contenders in 18/19, so theres no point in giving up picks or retaining salary for an upgrade.

disagree with not being cup contenders next year

IF Talbot AND Sekera rebound, AND Yamamoto and Puljujarvi both have productive seasons as top 6 wingers, AND our team is relatively healthy we could be contenders. Thats a lot of ifs for me though. Also, Russell and Benning are both weak in the 2RHD spot. Give it to 19/20 and either Bear might be ready to fill that spot or we could use Sekera and Russells cap space to fill that hole.

If the Oilers spend anywhere near the cap, Lucic can be bought out for about $3.2M and you wouldn't have to lose a pick. OR, eat $2M of the contract and you'd probably get someone willing to take him off your hands and actually give you something.

Oilers don't have a talent problem, they have a chemistry problem. That gets fixed by trading kids for pros. Too many kids make for bad habits. Too many pros make for play-for-pay teams that lack heart or fun. Team is out of whack right now.

Sekera has injury problems and Russell does not. Montoya is not a good backup for Edmonton, wouldn't you want to give Ellis some experience so that he can be a solid backup? More reps in the minors can only go so far for players, eventually they need to play NHL hockey. Ty Rattie is already better than 75% of the oilers lineup and I think he is definitely ready for the league. If you want Caggiula to stay and not file for constant arbitration, then you will pay him a little more. I agree that I gave Nurse a low salary but that's because he isn't all that amazing. I would give him up to 3 mil max for a couple of years and let himself prove to the organization that he is worth paying higher.

let me break it down for u - russell sucks at hockey, sekera is good at hockey. ty rattie will never be an nhl regular and caggiula is also a brutal player. nurse is a 4D at worst, and i suppose ellis is fine as a backup