Meh. I like my trades but I think that my FA signings need a little work.

Trades are fine for Washington, except that 2nd in the Orpik deal. They'll get that when they flip him at the deadline. Throw in a couple prospects you don't see making the jump soon, and it'll have more value to Arizona.

If you're throwing in a 2nd you can get a decent player back.

Which is important because you only signed one of Green or Grabner with 6M of cap space alloted. Market forces will tell you which, but I think there's more demand at defense, so it's Grabner. But you should also take Beagle's cap hit and some of Grabner's to lock up Madison Bowey for as long as he's okay with, because Niskanen is awesome but over thirty, and Karlson is only effective on days he can get his skates on over the casts.

If you want to sign Tavares for 77M, and he's cool with it, and you're not signing John Carlson, trade John Carlson for the right to defray Tavares' cap hit over eight years, which only the Islanders can do. This gets him down to, like, 9.9M? And you're back to being able to afford one of Beagle or Bowey.

I was going with 7@$11M or do the trade like you were doing and go 8@$10M. One issue is the assumption that the Islanders want Carlson for that kind of $, so I just skipped it.

I feel that the Caps will have to pay "dearly" in order to dump Orpik's salary on someone (if not taking a bad contract back too) and I didn't want to take cap hit back.

I actually don't want Green... That was more toss a bone to the fans kind of thing.

It's great to have feelings. I've had conversations with fans of Vancouver, Buffalo, and Carolina, who felt that getting a 2nd pick could be enough to take Orpik and send back a smaller, but equally bad contract like Sam Gagner (rough year, but only 3M, but longer term), Marcus Kruger (in the AHL, but only 3m, only one year left), or Matt Moulson (in the AHL, at 5M, but to get a 2nd, they'll talk retention, and also only one year left). When you offer a 4th, no one is interested. So the puzzle there is to try to get one of those three for a 3rd, I guess? But I got bored of asking. Want to take over? The best player in the lot is Gagner, by a mile, but Vancouver fans seem the most set on writing off next season and selling cap space and veterans, so that's probably the most doable. Maybe Orpik, a 3rd, and a future 4th, for Sam Gagner (whose cap hit is 500k more than Orpik's buyout cap hit, and who got 50 points two years ago)?

Of course, given the state of the Columbus series, the Caps might also be selling massive amounts of cap space for draft picks in a couple weeks.

Posting in mid June, after you've commented about twenty negative comments on various posts of mine, just telling me I'm wrong about stuff without really getting into any hockey-related reasons, I checked back to see what your ideas are. This is the only Caps team you've built. Your other three builds are Penguins teams. I'm sorry if my telling you Orpik still has value got us off on the wrong foot, but Orpik still has value. https://starsandsticks.com/2018/06/15/washington-capitals-stanley-cup-worth-long-celebration/

He was 2nd in the playoffs in hits and blocks. First in the playoffs in plus/minus. Had a multple point game to eliminate Columbus. Two game-changing points in the Finals.

I give you very specific reasons, you just choose to ignore them. I have given you reasons why Orpik is not the defensive GOD that you think that he is. I have given you reasons why sin&trades don't happen, I have given you reasons why ransom trades of UFAs don't happen. It isn't my fault that nothing sinks in.

I've really only done 3 total GM's, the "Groundhog Day" one doesn't really count (take a look at the trades).

Maybe you should build more teams. It might be more fun that just telling the rest of us amateurs how bad we are at this?


Edit: Orpik is probably mortal, but he played the last 2:22 of the season to hold a one goal lead and win the Cup with two hand injuries, one of which had had surgery, and the other of which will get surgery this summer. He also has as many career playoff GWG as Erik Karlsson. So as far as the range of mortal defensive defensemen goes, he's not in the bottom two thirds.