Pretty good. Certainly better than the fantasy crap we normally see on here. I think Brodin is more of a second pairing guy, but he's certainly top four, so that's an upgrade. A couple swaps I would make. I don't think Donato is ready to play center in the NHL. He played a couple games there this season and looked really, really, really bad. I also don't think Backes is capable of top 9 minutes anymore. I would have Kuraly centering the third line if Donato can't handle it,

I would DEFINITELY swap Carlo and Miller. Carlo is lightyears ahead of miller.

Lol yes, error on my part with Miller and Carlo. Should be:

Brodin-Mcavoy
Chara-Carlo
Krug-Miller
McQuiad

ya, i mean that's a good D corps top to bottom. Very good. The bottom six is pretty weak, it would be great if they could find a way to get another center in the mix so donato can play a year on the wing. Could a Krug for Brodin straight up swap make sense?

My idea was to trade Krug for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and take a serious run at Carlson.

Krug for Brodin straight up i don't think would work. Get the sense they'd want to add a forward as they are fairly set on d with Suter, Spurgeon, Dumba. But who knows, there will be a new GM there so no idea what their plan is.

Also, As much as I'd like Carlson, B's are pretty set long term on the right side D with Mcavoy and Carlo. Furthermore, if the caps do go on to win the cup this year it's hard to see him leaving

I'll give this 4 stars because the trade is pretty realistic. That SHOULD get it done..but who knows. I will say that Tim Schaller will want a bit more than $950K for two years. Czarnik shouldn't be making more than him at this particular juncture of their careers.

The issue with trading Krug for RNH straight-up is that you're not shedding much cap space to sign Carlson.

EDIT: Actually, you're taking on a little more cap from RNH's $6M hit.

So?

I could be wrong on this, but I think Carlson has played a considerable amount of time playing the off side.

Anyway, I think at this point Carlson will be hitting the UFA market. If they could reach a deal they would have done so by now. At this point why would be not test the market? He might return, but he's hitting free agency.

What do you mean so?

I haven't crunched the numbers but I don't think you can trade for RNH ($6M cap hit), and still find a way to sign Carlson without trading someone like Krejci ($7.25M hit). See what I'm saying?

You might want to try crunching the numbers.....you most certainly can. It would be a problem after next season, but backes and krejci lose their NMC.