Unless ror gets moved for a parayko or another high end rhd, I have no interest in this.

Why would the Caps give up so much for a guy to play third pairing minutes, especially when it makes our forward group extremely thin? What makes you think this is a good idea?

Nothing about this trade makes sense. For either team.

Value is there, but I also dont know why you move so much for a 3rd pair guy, It also makes Buffalo thin on the right

Bowey's going to be pretty good, but isn't yet, much like the Sabres. Better fit. Same with Burakovsky, who adds one more Swede, and a Cup ring, to help welcome and teach Dahlin.



Lotta hits, decent offense. Young. Seems like he'll develop into another Niskanen, and Orpik can help mentor him. Total defensive disaster playing Carlson type minutes on an injury-ravaged Buffalo when he clearly wasn't ready for that much ice time, but he should be a huge upgrade over Bowey or Djoos next year on the third pairing. With Orpik to teach him how to not be a -25, I think he should add a lot.

The Caps did better at the end of each playoff series by outhitting and outskating opponents with a combination of guys who can do one or the other. I think Ristolainen can do both.

Risto is THE most overrated dman in the league. He's bad. I'm not giving up all of that for him.

I know most of Ristolainen's regular season points were on the power play, and almost all were assists, and for each minute of ice time he averaged he got a minus. But he got a fair bit more offense than Bowey, and more hits than all the guys I gave up put together. Again, with four of the five leaders in hits through the postseason, I think the Caps wore down their opponents and were able to come back against very skilled teams in every series.

So I think this summer should be about adding to that strength. The right defensemen with 200 hits last year were: Adam Larsson, Luke Schenn, Ristolainen, and Stephen Johns http://www.nhl.com/stats/player?report=realtime&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20172018&seasonTo=20172018&gameType=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=hits

Of those four, I think Larsson is actually the most overrated, having already been traded for Taylor Hall, and not getting as many points as Ristolainen. Schenn is kind of slow has no offense (but could fit if he's willing to take a pay cut).

Johns doesn't strike me as a future top pairing guy. Ristolainen does, even if he's been rushed into it, with mixed results..