How do you justify those free agent caps? Agostino more than Chiasson?? Acciari also?? I know its not big deal but considering how money EDM has left to play with it could make a big difference.

Also I feel your overvaluing the Minny trade way too much. It wouldn't cost that much to move up from 12th to 8th.

Yikes. Klefbom might not be the best d-man in the league, but that d-core looks scary bad without him.

OMG! Now that you've opined that Edmonton might have to pay Chiasson $1.5M or even $1.75M, I won't be able to sleep tonight. Or do you think he should get Pasta money?

Your view of the Wild trade will be music to the ears of Minnesota guys (especially @TanSor ) who have floated the Zucker-plus-number-12 idea and been rejected by Oilers commenters.

With or without Klefbom, that defense is weak, and you can't trade them all away. In that context, and assuming the Zucker acquisition, I still think that there's merit to Nugent-Hopkins for Pesce and then getting other assets for Klefbom.

Edmonton has no reason to make that Klefbom trade. Bean is putting up about the same points pace in the AHL as Bear and Jones are, and the Oilers have two even better prospects coming out of junior this year in Bouchard and Samorukov. They don't need Bean.

Also, because of the number and quality of defense prospects I see them drafting predominantly forwards this year.

And what did you do with Puljujarvi?

People underestimate the value of moving up in a draft. If a team likes a player they will give up the necessary assets. Last year the rangers gave up a second rounder to move up 4 spots in the bottom 1st round(26th to 22nd I believe). Obviously the closer you get to the top the higher the price.

The Klefbom trade is effectively "forced" (for cap reasons) by the Zucker acquisition.

I think Puljujarvi might start realizing his potential if he played alongside a fellow countryman (Barkov, Aho, Koivu, etc.), so I was trying to work him into the first trade and couldn't to my satisfaction, and then just forgot about him. Other than Nail Yakupov, who I understand was a real jerk, I don't like to see the label "bust" put on anyone.

Well Im not wrong am I? Chiasson is a 20 goal scorer. Won a Stanley cup just last year. Making less than Agostino whose an AHL journeyman and Acciari whose a pretty average 4th liner. I even mentioned that I understand that it isn't a big deal, just considering EDM has 1.3M left in cap, it may end up realistically being almost zero if a guy like Chiasson gets what he should be getting. Probably around 2M. Look at other guys getting 2M+. Martinook, Reider, Janmark, Vesey.

As for the Zucker trade, both Zucker and EK together just to move up 4 spots? I mean Bear is decent but he's the least valuable piece in this deal.... If you really want to move up, by all means. I just don't think the difference between 12 and 8th is going to be worth what they're losing. There are pretty darn good players at 12th and Zucker is easily worth minimum a late 1st at the TDL. Throw on top of that EK, a former 1st round pick who with Staal and Koivu getting up their in age could start getting some more top 6 minutes at center.

My reason(s) for paying Chiasson only twice what he's getting this year is his history: (1) this is his 5th team in 7 years, (2) he won a Stanley Cup and his team wouldn't even offer him a contract at the League minimum, which he had to take, and (3) no one but Edmonton seems to have been interested in him. There's something about him that you and I just don't know. For the record, last summer I had him signing as a free agent on several of my posted teams at $1.5M or $2M.

As to the Minnesota trade, my esteemed colleague @TanSor posted a couple of efforts to move up based solely upon Zucker, and most of the fans of the teams he selected thought Zucker alone was insufficient. To me, removing the two other players is indeed a fair price, as you imply.

Yes but that was before this year. This season changed a lot for him don't you think? Career highs usually will do that. Earned a 1.2M deal back when he came off a 35 and 26 point season. He was trending downhill ever since thus probably had to take what was given to him. This year showed that he can be effective.

Yeah I feel some of the Minny guys may be sulking on what seems to be a bad season and a GM that is making bad moves left and right. Zucker may not be an all star but he's got value. Minny may have to either eat some cap or take a contract back but I'd think that is less a problem than getting as much value back as possible. Plus Minny fans seem to feel a retool/rebuild in necessary. If that's the case, all the more reason to keep EK. He's too young to give up on. IMO

I agree with everything you say here. My only comment (and it's not a dissent) is that my figure for Chiasson was based not on my personal evaluation of what he should be paid but on the way he has been paid in the past.

Sure I guess. I mean he got what he deserved based on his production. He played better this year. That should get him paid higher. Whatever we're bantering over peanuts. Lol

Yeah, but he played better last year than he had the two previous years, and he had to take a pay cut. That's what puzzles me. In any event, you're right, we're talking about peanuts.

Sure, but no doubt you could get a much better return - say a high end forward prospect. Also, if you badly need the $3.3M you get from trading Klefbom, you could always buyout Sekera and NOT degrade your young defense corps.

You know, I think that you're absolutely right -- look at the Muzzin acquisition. I should have added one of Carolina's 82 left-handed-shot forward prospects.

Good comp. I think Klefbom could get more than Muzzin though due to age (25 vs 30) and contract (4 years left vs 1.3).

TOR 1st = CAR 1st (likely similar picks if both lose in the 1st round)
Durzi > Bean (NHLe 28 vs 25, RD vs LD)
Grundstrom = ?

Necas, maybe? Necas has a few more points/game in the AHL this year, but Grundstrom has more goals/game. And that's just getting you to Muzzin's value, not to Klefbom's... and of course as I pointed out Edmonton has no interest in Bean anyhow, so you'd have to substitute a forward there. But then - why is CAR trading for a defenseman anyhow? I thought they were stacked?

Anyhow, the MIN trade is the kind of thing a team does when it is trying to Win Now, while the CAR trade indicates Rebuild. It can't be both.

Carolina has Hamilton, Faulk, Pesce and van Riemsdyk on the right but only Slavin and then de Haan on the left, so I think that they might like Klefbom.

Zucker is signed for four more years, so I think that the Minnesota trade is a good move for Edmonton's future.

Edmonton would have an interest in Bean if they traded Klefbom.

Trading a 25-year-old defenseman on an amazing contract for picks / prospects is not what a team that wants to make the playoffs does though. I don't see them trading Kelfbom at all, nor do they have to in order to free up cap as I showed earlier. And Bean doesn't move the needle any more than Caleb Jones or Dmitri Samorukov do - not an area of need in Edmonton at all.