Toronto will gladly take the first-round pick without the prospects. Tenth overall? Twelfth? you bet.

We are currently in the playoffs race...

Not really though. Who ya going to get past? Have to beat 2 of the following. The red hot hurricanes, the fully loaded blue jackets, Sydney Crosby, and Montreal. Not to mention you’re about 6 points behind already. Not impossible by any means. But good luck lol

We are 5 points behind the canadiens and the blue jackets with on game in hand

We're all hopeful that we make it but realistically it's a long long shot. We need of the 2 teams ahead of us to fall apart and to keep putting together the run we're on (against mostly playoff bound teams) from here on out.

Our first round pick is likely to be in the 13-18 range.

If Fletcher does the above trades I might just become a Seattle fan.

So you want to designate $55M in 2021-2022 without having Oskar (needs to be signed in 2020-2021), Patrick (also needs to be signed in 2020-2021), Sanheim, Provy, Morin (he may be a casulty of the cap), Myers (who will need to be signed in 2020-2021), as well as Carter Harter signed. I like the two big free agent signings, but not at the cost of losing several of the players I have listed. If you assume the cap will go up about $3M each year, that will leave about $33M to sign at least 6 forwards and 3 defenseman and 2 goalies. I just don't see it being feasible without losing too many of the young guns (maybe that's your plan to lose them).

Realistically you'd be moving JVR, Kadri, and Ghost after 2 years for ELC players. After The first season you maybe move one of Laughton or Hartman. We still have the likes of Farabee, Allison, Rubtsov at forward and any number of D to fill in on the bottom pair. I could have moved Ghost now to free up more cap but you might as well keep as many good players as possible for as long as possible.

I don't understand why we are trading Jake for scraps?

A 2A goalie and a 1st? it's not nothing. It's also to free up cap room for Panarin which is an upgrade and the cap doesn't let us have both.

I see what you are saying. So how do we get rid of JVR without having to retain salary? I agree there is a lot in the pipeline to fill in, but I think JVR kills us.

Kuemper has played well but is completely unnecessary for us. We better get a more useful package for Jake if he is moved.

I hear OTT needs to get to the cap floor. It's not like JVR is useless.

That I can get behind. I was also thinking maybe "dealing" him to Seattle, but you would have to give them a 1st or a prospect at least to take it on. Same would go with OTT. He isn't useless, I just think $7M was way too high for a guy scoring at 25 goals a year.

Over 82 games he is on pace for 30 again. That is the price of a UFA that scores 30. He is paid basically what he is worth.

You're currently gazing wistfully upwards at the playoffs race.

But if you get there, you can remind everyone, including me, of this post and have a laugh or two on me!