I want Ottawa to steer clear of Milano. I don't buy him as a top six NHL player.

If Tampa was going to make a deal on Panarin, it would be rental deal. They still have Point to sign and he's going to get paid a lot. There's no way they would give that for Panarin, who wants closer to 10M AAV

That Ottawa trade is brutal. Duchene alone, even as a rental, gets a 1st and a prospect. And the "best pieces" coming back are Milano and the Wennberg salary dump? No thanks.

Although Wennberg's had a bad season, I wouldn't call him a salary dump. He could be still be useful center for OTT. Milano could become a middle-6 forward, and same goes for Stenlund.

Yes, Panarin is a rental for TB. And most likely his price even as a rental strengthening will be a roster player, a prospect and a 1st round pick. I'm almost certain of this, since we're speaking of TOP15 winger in the world. And if there is a bidding war coming, I wouldn't be surprised if the cost would be quite hefty.

Me neither as of now. But he could become one. I see some kind of new Mikkel Boedker in him.

Wennberg's last 3 seasons shows a steep downward trend: 13g, 8g, 1g. And with 4 more years at 4.9M... yep, that's a salary dump. As for middle 6 forwards we have plenty, thanks. It's a bad trade.

To be fair, Wennberg's never been a goal scorer. But a change of scenery might help things out. Just look at Domi for example, two years in a row only 9 goals, now 17 and more to come.

For Ottawa's sake, I hope they can keep Duchene. But it seems they can't, because everyone's incompetent in that organisation.

Max Domi had 18g and 50+ points in his rookie season and was trapped on a bottom dwelling team while Wennberg stats spiralled on a playoff team. Not a great comparison. Wennberg is a middle 6 pivot, which we already have in Chris Tierney, who's making millions less while contributing more.

Ottawa knows they have to keep ONE OF Duchene or Stone. My bet is they'll make the cheap/bad choice of trading Stone, then overpay Duchene in desperation, because that's what I would do if I were an idiot. Haha.

To be fair, Wennberg had great numbers, but they started lowering after CBJ acquired a new first line. Wennberg was great in 2016-17 season when CBJ's first line consisted of himself, Saad and Atkinson. Then they drafted Dubois and acquired Panarin, and eventually Wennberg were dropped to 2C, and then 3C. With different linemates, his game has downgraded a little.

And if I were OTT, I'd try to keep Duchene in every possible way, because the team lost so much when they acquired him. But Melnyk is never going to overpay for anyone, because he's a cheap f*ck. He'd probably rather have a team consisting of ELC's than pay Duchene more than $8M per season.

We'll have to agree to disagree on Wennberg. Ottawa currently have 3Cs with better stats (Duchene, White and Tierney) so it isn't just that Wennberg got dropped to the second line.

And Ottawa can't overpay for Duchene just because of what they gave up. Gotta look at the forward picture or you only get burnt worse, IMO.

I don't know. If OTT really lose the potential Hughes pick, Karlsson, Hoffman, Stone and Duchene in a time-span of 2 years, that pretty much equals to being absolutely burnt to crisp so badly that there's nothing left. Everything should be renewed at that point. Beginning from a new owner and the team location to new staff and all.