You forgot to re-sign Tobias Rieder. His 10-15 goals would guarantee a playoff birth for Edmonton

No. The bottom 6 is awful.

You have Zack Kassian on your top line conceivably playing 15-20 minutes a night....

I feel like that answers the question well.

Well no sh*t. You get rid of dead cap hits without actually giving up assets and add another #1 center + top 4 defenseman

Contend for what?

For a playoff spot, baby steps

I don't think any team with Matt Duchene on it is aloud to contend for anything playoff related

MTL wouldn't pay even pay for a 3m retain Lucic.... EDM would still have to give something. 3m still 3m less on the cap

For first to the golf course

leafs have zach hyman playing 20 min a night and their top 5 in the leuge

good trades, realistic maybe give up another third or fourth for lucic but maybe wild card drat would need another great season though

Zach Hyman blows Kassian out of the water in terms of upside. Hyman's in his 4th NHL season, was an excellent B1G athlete, and had almost 30 points on the bottom 6 in his second NHL season and first full season. Hyman basically follows the blueprint for a prospect with middle-top 6 upside.

Kassian also had almost 30 points... 5 years ago. He's been a pro since 2011 and his numbers have stagnated since 2013.

11th place in the west

Pretty hard to put up points when you are relagated to 4th line minutes. Take a look at Connor Brown.

I don't follow your argument. Connor Brown does put up numbers. The guy was a 20 goal scorer two years ago and then was 14 last year and generally has decent possession metrics. Nothing crazy, but decent. His form is definitely dipping this year, but if we're evaluating him, I can live with a down-year. Zack Kassian on the other hand has put together a span of 6 down years of productivity and is a black hole where puck possession goes to die.