He's fast, he scores, plus-minus is a horribly flawed stat, and you said it yourself: it was just two second round picks.

You can have some midround picks and the shell of Sam Gagner, or you can get a young, incredibly fast winger that could produce and is likely to extend. One of those is more apt to help in a playoff run in a wide open Western Conference. You're intelligent enough to know which it is. Your choice.

I think he will do well with Mcdavid as a winger

Lately, I have loved the Oilers drafting and was really hoping that the team would develop organically instead of through trading - though maybe that is my PTSD from the Chiarelli era. My thoughts were that 2 second round draft picks could easily turn into 2 star players that could help the team for years to come. I just imagine what the Oilers would look like if they had the picks that turned into Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier instead of Griffin Reinhart. But draft picks are like a lottery and both of them could be busts. So a proven winger like AA might be better than 2 second round picks.

I cannot wait to see AA and McDavid turn a 2 on 1 into a 2 on 0 with their insane speed.

It's a risk you take trading any pick: there have been superstars selected through the 7th rounds before. Stars have been found in the now defunct 8th, 9th, and 10th rounds.

What balances that risk strictly comes down to why you're making the trade: Athanasiou is immediate help and is under club control. The 2020 second round pick isn't accomplishing anything on this roster (historically) until 3 years after his name is called at the draft. The 2021 second rounder - following that logic - wouldn't be NHL roster ready until the onset of the 2024 season. The Chiarelli regime literally admitted after the Reinhart trade that they hadn't seen him play in over a calendar year: these kind of oversights should never be allowed to happen, and probably will not be allowed to happen under Katz' dime again.