Interesting trade, I wouldn't be mad if it happened but Wolanin's upside is really good. He looked like a 2nd pairing D man last year before he got injured

I don't think Penny pinching Melnyk would retain any money, but I love the idea. I've proposed sending both Abdelkader AND Nielsen for Ryan and then Detroit retaining approximately 2m of Nielsen's money. This works on multiple levels, because Nielsen and Abdelkader's real money is less that their AAV, whereas Bobby Ryan's AAV is actually lower than his real dollars owed. Ottawa saves a ton of real money short term, while still getting to the cap floor, but take on a little extra term in Abdelkader (Nielsen and Ryan's term cancels out). When all is said and done, Ottawa pays basically the same total real money, but spread out over more years and for 2 players, while getting more AAV to count against the cap. Now, all of this is contingent on both Nielsen and Abdelkader waiving (which Detroit could play hardball and basically say, take this or we waive you and send you down) AND Bobby Ryan being cleared from the NHL assistance program (he has been away from the team for 2 months dealing with a personal issue), so the odds of this going through are very low, but I love the idea.