Quoting: OldNYIfan
This trade makes little sense for Las Vegas. Rodrigues and Hutton are cast-offs and the Golden Knights have adequate depth at forward and goaltender. Once you get past Stastny for Ristolainen, there is no real benefit to Las Vegas in doing anything else, particularly trading Alex Tuch.
Idk about that?
I’m a Sabres fan, so maybe my bias is shining through here
But Stastny isn’t what he used to be
He’s a low 40s point Center now-a-days
They are probably better at 2C when Glass is ready to slit in there
Idk if that’s next year?
But even if it’s a year too soon,
they can probably get away with using Stephenson there for a year, or even re-signing Eakin
Since they can replace Stastny,
getting a much younger Risto (who they could re-sign) would be a great deal for them
*although with Schmidt & Theodore, they really need a LH guy more than a RH defenseman
That part of the deal is a clear win for Vegas imo
Could always turn around & trade one of their RD for a LD
The rest of the trade just amounts to how they feel about Tuch
He’s just not producing at all in a 3rd line roll this year
With Stone locked in at RW1,
do they see Tuch moving up & taking Reilly Smith’s spot on line2?
If so, they keep him
If not, then they gotta think about moving him
BUT... bc Tuch has had such a down season,
Idk what they can get for him?
Samuelsson was just Cpt of Team USA
I think a very good LH defenseman prospect like him could be just what they’d be looking for
It seems pretty fair, IF they’re ready to move on from Tuch
The rest of the trade just doesn’t make a lot of sense
Throw it all out the window
From a Sabres perspective,
I’d hate this trade
Again, Stastny is a low 40pt Center
There’s no way he’d waive to come here anyways
And even If he did, we just get beat in the 1st round
He’s too old (& not good enough anymore) to want to re-sign
So there’s no way I’m giving up Risto for him
Tuch is intriguing
But not worth losing Risto, Samuelsson & Johansson
Easy pass for me