Yes, I said three and posted five. The last two are just there to illustrate my thought process and are not part of my actual proposal.

Please provide constructive criticism for the first three trades.

MIN has no reason to do any of these. More, older and expensive players that don't make the team better.

Rask for Staal works the same way my personal favorite of Rask for Backes works: Rask saves those teams cap space this year and next year, while the Wild will be able to afford buying out Staal or Backes next summer (or just keep them and not have to deal with any dead cap). Rask is only $1.33m over 4 years to buy out, so that's easy enough for Boston or NY to work into their cap.

I don't see the Wild trying to get a reclamation project like Okposo or Ryan out of Rask. I think at this point, Guerin just wants to fix the mistake Fenton made as quickly as possible and move on.

I think that description applies to the Dubinsky trade. That an equivalent to the thought process of Lucic-Neal. And so far that trade has worked for one team (early judgement, yes). Both of these players had some impact in the past. They might not rebound to any reason, but a swap of equivalents, or a lesser player at lower term is still value. This trade doesn't fit the MIN management perspective though.

Staal - Rask makes lots of sense to me. It's an exact swap of needs. MIN needs depth defense and to free up their forward positions for their prospects. Does it make them better? I think it does. Staal might be fading, but he is still a far better defenseman than Rask is a forward. It's only Staal's contract that balances the value difference. And this works for the Rangers in that they get their much needed cap relief next year (they can't do any buyouts next year). IF it doesn't work for the Wild, buying out Staal's remaining year (2 year buyout) is much easier to handle than Rask (assuming they bought him out next year) over a span of four years. Staal might cost more overall, but term/length is more valuable than individual dollars.

The Okposo trade mirrors your Ryan trade. Okposo is slightly worse than Ryan, the difference being weighed in the 1.25 M less. That's 2M less considering I have Okposo heavily retained. Okposo is far better than Rask, and has bounceback appeal. The reasons for BUF are similar to the Rangers. BUF might let him stay as their fourth line center next year though or experiment him in a scoring role again.

The big advantage of my Ryan trade is that it makes sense for management AND ownership AND the players AND the teams. All of these moves fail in at least one of those categories, many fail more than one.

I think you misunderstand the Wild's current situation. They have plenty of depth at defense, with Pateryn, Soucy, Seeler, Belpedio and Hunt competing for the bottom pair spots. As for Rask taking away a forward roster spot, he isn't. The 2 forwards who will likely see NHL time if there's an injury is Nico Sturm and Gerald Mayhew who were both good enough to make the opening night roster, but not good enough to play over a guy like Donato or Greenway. Since they want them playing, they're in the AHL. Rask isn't taking playing time from anyone, he's sitting in the press box collecting $4m and probably won't play much unless there's injuries.

Okposo is actually a good player and sabres really probably won't trade him...

Unless it's next year and it saves a lot of cap

I would never trade Guddy for Rask... Guddy is good... Rask wouldn't make our top 13 when healthy, no need to add an extra year of nearly 4 mil and get a worse player, now JJ for Guddy cold work... JJ buried all 4 years is a bit over 8, Rask buried would cost a bit under 9, but it's more/year so tougher to manage for a cap team... Pros and cons both way imo

Nice analysis but the best option reallly is to buyout Rask. His buyout really isnt anything to lose sleep over. Seeing the players Minny would get back, it just makes more sense to get rid of the problem altogether and just have a little less cap space to work with.

Why even bother trading Rask? He's not hurting anything by being the pressbox FWD.

MN has 0 need or want for another d-man. They have a good top-4, and 4 bottom pair d-men already on the team.

Buf has no reason to get rid of Okposso.

The Dubinsky trade could work as a change of scenery trade, but Rask just had a change of scenery to MN and hasn't worked out. I see no reason CBJ to make the move. They could possibly make a different change of scenery trade with another team and it might actually work out for them.