Well, Gibson 100% isn't available.

Wouldn't expect him to be. But just hypothetically, if he asked out & the Ducks were forced to rebuild; that package would be pretty tempting, no?

EDIT:
A likely top 5 pick; our pick, which is currently 12th (and dropping); any 2 of our non-Makar prospects; and a pick in the early-to-mid 60s? Plus Anaheim's own pick would skyrocket without Gibson & Rakell. That would be a massive infusion of young talent to an already strong pipeline, that set the forced-rebuild up bigly.

Dont see why the Ducks trade the two players they should be building around.

I feel like the package for Gibson is pretty steep, not sure I could pull the trigger if I was sakic, also I dont like the toronto trade at all, kadri is an upgrade on kerfoot but EJ is lightyears better then zaitsev

That would put you right at the cap next year...Gibson a 4m raise, Ratanen a 7m and maybe some more players.

More of a hypothetical, what if Gibson asked to be traded & so they were forced into a rebuild. So that a top 5 pick, the pick of a team that's currently just 5 points ahead of the 2nd worst record, any 2 of our non-Makar prospects, and another top 100 pick; let them really load up on young talent...given their already impressive prospect pool...

FWIW Sakic ever crawling out of his bunker for long enough to pull something that bold off is easily the least likely part of this whole scenario...


It's steep, but Gibson is the best goalie in the NHL (for my money), he's proven his class over multiple seasons already, is signed to a wonderful contract for the next 8 years, and fits perfectly with MacK n Mikko age-wise...plus it wouldn't just be Gibson, it would be Gibson & Rakell; who's also a very good player, right in the middle of his prime, & is also signed for a song.

EJ is better than Zaitsev, but eating Zaitsev would be the cost of getting Kadri without adding anything significant to EJ. Kadri's a POS, but he's a great 2C...and with Rakell we'd have the makings of an exquisite 2nd scoring line that could match up with opposing top lines in a more defensive role...especially if we successfully wooed Stone in FA to complete the unit.

Even if we couldn't land a star like Stone in FA; with Gibson in goal behind them & that forward core in front of them, life would be a lot easier on our blueliners. And between Barrie, Makar & Girard, we could really tilt the ice in our favor if we rolled them & played the sort of more aggressive game that having a goalie like Gibson & that kind of forward core, would allow.

We'd just need to account for paying Seattle to pick Zaitsev in the expansion draft, in our plans.

I think you mean Rantanen at 9.75M...if we're super-lucky...and more realistically in the 10-11M range, but the room is there to fit everyone of importance in for the next 3 seasons. At which point some difficult decisions would likely need to be made, assuming all our kids don't bust. But that cap cull that'll need to happen before the summer of 2023 is coming either way. So we might as well give ourselves some serious swings at the cup before that time comes & we'll need to start a re-tool.