Quoting: herzausstein
So which 1 or 2 of Ekholm, Josi, Ellis, Fabbro, Miller are we leaving unprotected at the end of next season? Seems like a waste of a return for Johansen.
Having a 4M third pairing dman seems like waste when Jarnkrok and Sissons are both in the top 6 and the bottom 6 are almost all AHL caliber players
I'd argue that the 2nd to EDM needs to be contingent on Puljujarvi's performance in the NHL instead of him actually signing on with Nashville.
Can't complain about the rest. Smith will be luck to get a 2nd but with how teams are currently overpaying for pieces he very well could. I like the Bonino trade personally.
I'd expose Miller to the draft. Poile will have to make a decision on wether he's protecting all of the other four, or trading one to protect more forwards. Someone is going to leave the team via expansion no matter what, and the only way to avoid losing a good player is to only have the bare minimum of good players heading into that draft. By trading RyJo we're still getting a 1st, a pretty good young player, and a lot of cap space from an area where NSH has a surplus. Even if it's just one year of Miller before he gets claimed by Seattle, it insulates the 3rd pairing next year from having three inexperienced players in the #5-7 D spots (some combo of Carrier, Allard, Davies, Tinordi).
Yeah, the forward lines are brutal after all these trades, but to be expected after such a huge sell off. UFAs would obviously need to be signed in the summer, to fill out the forward corps.
Good point about the conditional pick in the EDM deal. I thought about that too, but wasn't sure where to set Puljujärvi's performance levels for it.