I am an Oilers fan and all these teams will decline

It's simple to take it a face value and say that, sure. But hear me out.

1. The Saad trade moves out a poor performing $6 million player who is being outplayed by younger & cheeper players. So they save money and save further when they bury Gagner & Manning in the AHL and the following season they are gone and the Hawks don't have ineffective Saad on the payroll.

2. Granlund is in the same boat as Saad. He has simply not panned out as expected. Bringing Russell boosts the bottom pairing D who include Tinordi, Irwin and Weber. Russell is much more expensive, but he is also a much better player. Chiasson moves to 3RW and Arvidsson moves to 2RW.

3. Sure Neal is pricy and long-term, but he bolsters one of the worst PP units in the league. With Hughes and potentially Lafreniere, Neal brings a lot of potential value, for this season and in the future. Whereas Wood is a player NJ is rumoured to be very unhappy with.

I think these moves are quite possible

You are giving crap and more crap for these players in trades. What 6 million dollar guy is struggling. if its Saad you are talking about, if he wasnt injured he would be on pace for his 2nd best year to date goals wise with crap aging defensman. I would love to have Saad, but the value is not there to get him.

Nobody wants Neal, he is slow and his 5 on 5 play is horrible. Most of the game is still played 5 on 5

And moving out 2 cap dumps for Granlund aint going to happen, there is no picks or anything for a rebuilding team, they can just cover those positions with crappy UFA guys

Chaisson is of pretty much no interest to the Preds. Russell might be, with retention. Moving Granlund to fix that problem is... not ideal. It might end up going that way, if he's tanked his value that badly at the deadline, but it wouldn't be my first choice.