Teams. Don't. Trade. Cup. Winning. Goalies.

they do when theres a suitable capfriendy replacement...cup winning or cup final goalies traded or not resigned after going deep in playoffs /winning........fluery .......bishop...... niemi are examples are goalies who were replaced by a suitable back up after having won a cup or losing in a final

but yeah it never happens

Buy low, sell high. Holtby can fetch a little more than that. There's a Flames thread this morning suggesting Brodie, Rittich, 1, 2, 3 for just Cory Schneider and filler (https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/174722). The comments agree that's too much for Schneider, but I think you've overcorrected, here. Holtby is what, 2nd all time in playoff save percentage? I think he's worth a lot. Not that I wouldn't take that next summer if it's the only deal on the table and Samsonov is clearly ready to start in North America. Kylington isn't necessary for the Caps right away, but he's a decent prospect, with some trade value they can flip for a future pick, and picks are always good to have, long term.

Signing Ward who has won a Cup is good insurance.

I still think Burakovsky for Josh Anderson requires a 2nd from CJB to Was to happen today, but doesn't make sense for Washington during this season. If the Caps are completely sure they can't afford Burakovsky next year, then they should give him every chance to stick in the top six this year, get him into the power play rotation, bloat his stat line, and let teams bid for him as an RFA at the draft, like Chicago did with Brouwer.

Other possible ways to keep Burakovsky's cost from growing next season, without losing offense during the Ovechkin era:
trade him for Kovalchuck with LA retaining 50%
Trade him for Saad with Chicago retaining 50%.
Trade him for Lucic with Edmonton retaining 50%.
Trade him and Kempny for Nylander, and sign Nylander at 6Mx6y.
Sign Burakovsky to a 3.3Mx5year extension today.

That cheap extension, he'd totally sign today, given that he's a tenth of the way through the season with one point, on pace to not get a qualifying offer, and end up in the dregs of free agency like Anthony Duclair last summer (Burakovsky has 25 more career points than Duclair, so that's a pretty big fail if it happens). The big trade ideas require Burakovsky to look alive and put up some points. They require the Caps to give him extended auditions on each of the top two lines, based on his experience and skill, rather than going for the cinderella storyline of an apparent twenty goal season for Chandler Stephenson as above. In terms of value for cap hit, I think Burakovsky, if he continues developing with regular ice time in the top six, could be a better deal at 3.5M than Stephenson necessarily is at 2.5M.

Burakovsky is a year younger than Stephenson, with 44 more NHL goals, 50 to 6. Burakovsky got .5 ppg in the playoffs last Spring. Stephenson got 0.25 ppg in the playoffs, but had .50 ppg in the AHL playoffs the previous season. Promoting Stephenson over Burakovsky due to injury in the Pittsburgh series was helpful because the Penguins, who usually beat the Caps by being a bigger and stronger team, had switched to beating the Caps by being a smaller, faster team. Keeping Stephenson on the bench and developing him a bit is a fine idea. Paying him $2.5M based on lower production than Devante Smith-Pelly in easier minutes with better linemates? No.

Riley Barber and Shane Gersich each getting a raise to $1M? Generous.

Chandler Stephenson at 2.5M and Josh anderson at 1.85M instead of Burakovsky at 3.3M (q.o.) and Smith-Pelly at 1.5Mx2yrs, or so? Saves 300k, gives up a small fraction of a playoff ppg. Only about 8% of a point, in last year's numbers. Gives up 23 playoff points worth of experience (AB and DSP have 16 apiece, career. Anderson and Stephenson have 5 and 6). Gets an average of half a year younger. I'd say the 96 games of combined playoff experience you get with Burakovsky and Smith-Pelly is worth more than a half year of youth and 300k of cap savings. They have been to the dance, and they get things done there.

The apparent trend of Anderson recently scoring more goals comes from what line they're playing on, minutes, linemates. Ideally the team gets Burakovsky, like Eller, to agree to several more years at about the same cap hit, to stay in contention, and then rewards him with increased power play time, increased ice time, and can build around both. The appeal of Stephenson is that he played so well as a rookie, but he's 24. Burakovsky is 23. So who is more promising?

imo Stephenson is a Swiss army knife....he can play all 3 positions and is talented enough to move up and down the line up......he easily could sign for 1.8-2 million I was just going worst case for him barber and Gersich....you never know what contract they might get...I was shooting for the high end.

Anderson plays a more physical game and would score more of the "ugly" goals....if bura signs that contract I would be on board but he looks like a full time 4th liner on this team again

They just put him with Backstrom and Oshie in practice yesterday. I think they've made their point that he's not a one-man offensive catalyst, and doesn't need a huge raise. Hopefully now he picks it up a bit and shows that,, when he's played with suitably talented linemates, his skill and creativity make him more valuable than the other guys who have been filling in up there, so far this year. Stephenson definitely is good at just skating fast and getting to the puck from wherever you put him, and had some great faceoffs last year in the regular season, at least. When Burakovsky is on his game, he's twice as good offensively, but he hasn't played more than a couple games at center, which I think is a tougher position to play than wing.

Anderson hits way more than Burakovsky, but not necessarily as much as DSP, when DSP focuses on checking (with all the team changes, you can see DSP's numbers focus on different things, as he's coached differently, so I think he might also be a bit of multitalent).

I think they need to Burakovsky three more goals and then offer him a five year, 16M deal, and start giving him power play chances. At this point they have all the leverage they need to make such a deal, but after that they want to look at keeping him fresh, building his confidence, and building his potential future trade value, in case they really do end up needing to give Vrana a gigantic raise, or possibly not wanting to trade the greatest goalie in team history for a bag of pucks.

Ideally, I think they could package a ton of talent, just a ton, for a Seth Jones or another emerging #1 defenseman, to be a big part of the team for a long time. If the Jackets trade away Bob and Breadman at the deadline, they might be willing to listen to something like Bowey, Holtby, Burakovsky, and Stephenson for Jones? I'm not sure how much more you'd have to add. But at that point the Caps can trade off Niskanen for futures, and still have a solid team, while Columbus gets right back on the playoff bubble, after drafting a bunch of players, and the Met stays a very exciting division, for a long time.