Quoting: Subbanator7667
Dont get me wrong, without a star playing with him he is still a good two way center, capable of 50 points or so but thinking he is going to go to another team and out up the same totals he did while playing with Taylor Hall or McDavid isnt a smart bet.
And 50 point centers making over 7 million a year (which he will be after on his next contract) arent the best way to structure your cap.
As much as RNH has benefited from playing with star players, those star players have benefited from playing with him. He is not a guy who will consistently drive play, but he is a skilled and cerebral player, with a solid 200-foot game, capable of playing at least reasonably well anywhere in the top six and making positive contributions to both special teams.
The balance of assets exchanged makes sense if Edmonton is prepared to delay, or derail its current progression and if Buffalo is truly concerned that it will not be able to develop, or acquire a decent 2C who can help put the team into contention very soon. Frankly, I doubt either team wants this trade.
What would be interesting would be to see RNH and Mittelstadt playing together. I think there is a lot of potential that RNH could help Mittelstadt break-out.
Two more points:
1. Playing Mittelstadt as a 3C might not be a good idea. His pedigree and skill scream top-six forward, and he would likely be deployed with Yamamoto, as a right wing for McDavid and Draisaitl.
2. RNH is the last of Edmonton's "six-million-dollar-men" (Hall and Eberle were the others), and his contract was intended to over-pay earlier in his career and come in as fair, or team friendly at the back-end. Guessing what his next contract will look like is pure conjecture. Regardless, even at $7M per, RNH would be a relative value compared to Jeff Skinner.