O my gosh no! How many times do I have to tell you people: stop trading Bura for absolutely nothing! We have the cap space. Keep him. He's a young top 6 forward with speed, skill, and high hockey IQ. You don't just get rid of those guys.

He's going to have a killer season this year. 50 points I bet. His biggest issue is health because every time he plays well and gets going he gets hurt which f's with his consistency which f's with his head. He already said he's getting to gloves that have caused 2 of the injuries and seeing a sport psychologist. Kid is going to be a beast next season.

I agree, I don't think people should be so quick to trade him. He has one year left so let's see if we can get a full season out of him and what that looks like. Ovi took steps last offseason to prepare his body and that worked. Bura is taking steps to take care of his body and his mind. If it doesn't work, then we move on. But we're not in a cap bind right now. If he gets hurt again, we have Walker and Gersich who should both see some solid playing time. With those guys waiting in the wings, Bura could have a very good year because of those guys breathing down his neck. If we need flexibility at the deadline and he's still not producing, then we can look to trade him at that point.

Exactly! Right now his value isn't all that great. We won't lose that match value if he has a mediocre season. It's low risk to keep him and high risk losing him. Not worth the gamble.

I'm not saying don't trade him, I'm saying don't trade him just to trade him. If you can trade him to improve the team then do it.

Few things.

1. Burakovsky is definitely worth something (but so is a first round pick from a team that fell apart last year, even if they've made some big changes.).

2. Burakovsky got on the scoresheet every 23 minutes he was on the ice in the playoffs, same as WIlson. They both did really well. Vrana was a little bit slower, like one every 30? Stephenson got like, a point every 50 minutes on ice? Different roles, sure, but you don't have to pay Stephenson nearly as much as Burakovsky's current deal. He's versatile and may improve to that level, but he's not there yet. source: http://www.espn.com/nhl/player/_/id/3042044/andre-burakovsky

3. Everybody thought Burakovsky was amazing when he played a season with WIlliams and Kuznetsov. He was amazing again in the playoffs when he got into a little bit of a rhythm in a steady top nine spot. I think it's entirely possible he starts the year with Backstrom and Oshie, scores thirty goals, and then gets traded for around two first round picks, or decides to stick around, because maybe he feels like the new head coach respects him more than the old head coach did.

4. If they're going to skate Stephenson ahead of him, and keep him in the press box, he's unlikely to want to re-sign, so then, yeah, if that's the only offer out there, they take it, and hope they get lucky like Colorado did trading Duchene, watching him fizzle without a supportive, confident team around him, and picking high. But it's just as likely that, wherever he plays, if Burakovsky gets a top six spot, he scores twenty-five goals and helps his team win a few more hockey games.

5. Either way, if you're trading Burakovsky and ending up with 4M in cap space, your immediate return is more ice time for Travis Boyd and Nic Dowd. They're both 25 years old, and haven't put together one good Burakovsky season of offense between them, in their careers. If that pick ends up top five, it could be a great, franchise-sustaining, rebuild-preventing move for the Caps, but if it's bewteen tenth and twentieth, it's pretty even, and you never know what team will do well, from year to year. Sometimes a few lucky bounces in the first ten games get a team playing with confidence. Arizona has a ton of recent high picks and decent acquisitions. This year they'll start with a new #1 goalie and a new #1 center, and if Chychrun keeps improving, a good, young top four defenseman added from within, compared to last year. Add in Burakovsky, a decent rookie year from one of their half dozen prospects, and some luck, and they could challenge for a playoff spot. They probably don't make the playoffs, but this isn't one of those times when you absolutely have to trade a rising star because the return is just so amazing.

I think if the Caps' third comes out of that deal, they have to strongly consider it. It's probably more of a gamble than just playing Burakovsky for a year in the top six, highlighting his skills on a second power play unit, and trading him away as a thirty goal scorer, but depending how much faith they have in the guys in Hershey to make the playoffs and actually start looking like a good prospect pipeline again, they could also do the same thing with Walker and Boyd next year, if Burakovsky's gone, although the ultimate return will be lower, because I don't think either gets twenty goals, even with everybody pitching in to make it happen.

Still, if they could get Arizona's top pick for Burakovsky, plus a 3rd for Boyd and a 4th for Walker as RFAs, they end up with roughly two draft years worth of new talent in next year's draft, and I'm confident that in two years Vrana can be a top six goal scorer, and Gersich can play on a third line. Heck, after a year of skating with Carlson, Kempny should be worth a 2nd, and Johansen should be ready to move up in one more year.

Ultimately, the Caps reminded me this year that it's not how many draft picks a team has coming up that matter, but finding the right cominations of players to work together with the big club. But it's fun to imagine.

But at Zona's first for Caps' third plus Bura, the difference in picks is most likely worth about a 2nd. Moving up from the third to 15th overall is something, but it's not huge. Burakovsky scores 30 goals and they can trade him for a Chychrun or a Perlini, or package him with Siegenthaler or Kempny (whichever one has an amazing year next year) for a Zadorov or a Provorov.

I hope you guys are right about him but I haven't seen enough consistency to feel any confidence he can get to 30 goals. He has 24 goals in the last two seasons combined. Even if he didn't get injured, I see his max at 25 goals (if he gets PP2 time).