not enough, especially if you want Ottawa to retain 3 Million

an expansion team with no 1st round picks for two years and 650k cap space...yikes

McPhee isn't wreckless. He knows William Karlsson isn't a 40 goal scorer every year and won't overpay him. He'll probably get between 5.5 to 6 million AAV with a fairly good term (5-6 years). Players always outperform themselves in a contract year, then they tend to regress back toward the mean.

Too much money for W. Karlsson, not enough for EK and Tatar won't fetch a second let alone Nelson on top of that

Ottawa is going to be at mercy of the demand of Karlsson. Not many teams can afford him. Mix that in with his NTC. Plus if you want to move Ryan with him you're really limiting yourself. Ryan and his contract have negative value. OTT isn't going to get the moon for Karlsson. There's demand, but of those in demand, not many can afford him.

McPhee isn't reckless but didn't he trade Forsberg for Erat? You'd be surprised.

I have said this many times but if you want Karlsson than you will have to give up glass, tuch, Theodore, and a 1st...anything lower and we wont accept it!

Then don't trade him. No other team can afford to give up that package. You're asking for two young players who had a huge impact on the success of the Knights cup run and are only 22, another top prospect that's a projected 1C, and another 1st round pick. I know Karlsson is good, but be realistic.

There isn't one active GM in the league (besides the first timers like Dubas, etc.) who don't have at least 2-3 bad deals under their watch. It happens, and as long as they're rare it won't jeopardize their careers (like Milbury with the NYI).

At the end of the day, McPhee's two built teams just played against each other in the Stanley Cup Final. Not a bad outcome for his resume.