Would Johnson waive?

5th for Oleksiak is fine. Sabres don’t really need depth D

doubtful, but he is getting top line minutes so you never know

Even if Johnson waives TBL can’t take back salary, or what’s the point?

I think that TB would not take Cogs. They desperately need to clear Cap space and they would refuse to take him only to buy him out just after.

To make this scenario work, Dallas need to buy out or trade Cogs with retention. You will never find a team able to take him with 100% of his salary without a sweetener. And because his contract has just one year left, it would not be wise to trade him with full salary and with such sweetener.

Also, you are missing a player on your roster. That will give you around 1M$ Cap Space. Not enough space to trade (with retention) or buy out Cogs.

Maybe trade Faksa instead of giving him that contract?

Dunno.

Meh. Think they've a slot to fill as their 3LD. Oleksiak brings some good physicality to that team.

Honestly the team doesn't matter. Ideally I'd want a 4th rounder for the guy. 5th seems too low as Oleksiak's no means expensive or bad. If that was the max price DAL would rather just keep him.

They're saving money, both short and long-term.

I think it's unrealistic to think that they wouldn't be taking any salary back when trading Johnson. The guy is decent, but he's turning 30 in few days and he still has both full NTC and 4 years left to boot. Their leverage is quite small as they pretty much forced to move the guy.

As for Cogliano, he has one year left at $3M...much easier to dump somewhere...just attach a 2nd to it and most likely some rebuilding team will take him.

Read my previous comment regarding TB taking Cogs.

As for Faksa, I like the guy. I took the contract of Lars Eller as an example, as his role is pretty much the same for our team.

OK so your dumping the problem to TB. Maybe they will bite. As for Faksa, better not give him that money if he plays on the 4th line. With TJ in, you do not need him since you have 4 centers in Seguin, Hintz, Johnson and Dickie. Pavelski and Benn can also play center on limited missions. Dickinson can assume the role of Faksa. Not saying he is the same player but he can assume the same responsibilities. Better in some area and worse in others.

IMO, you should leave JR in the AHL if he is not playing on the Top six. We could kill his development by playing him with checkers. And, yes Pavelski is now a high priced checker than can produce 30-40 points and play on the PP.

Imo Johnson's not a C. Or at the very least he hasn't played that position since 2017-18 season.

I think Robertson is fine on that line. I think it's got many areas covered, as there's some skill, some physicality and goal scoring skill all put on one line.

Granted rotation is an option. If Johnson doesn't work on the first line, I'd swap him with Robertson.

Regardless, I think Robertson is gonna be a regular NHLer next year.

Except you have Honka in the trade too, and what’s the point of trading a Johnson if you don’t get immediate cap relief. Moves of Johnson, Palat and Killorn would be done specifically so they can re-sign Cirelli and Sergachev not look to make another trade.

They do get immediate cap relief. For about $2M bucks.

I do agree that Palat and Killorn can be moved for picks without adding much, but Johnson is a different case. As I mentioned before, there's not many, if not a single team ready in the league taking a 30 year old $5M dollar winger with 4 years left...they're almost forced to take some salary in. In this case they shed some of Johnson's salary, while getting a prospect and some picks to boot.

$2M get real, they’ve already show they will over pay for good, read cheap, contracts and if it means sending a pick to get the full $5M they will. However I do agree that his NMC makes it just about impossible to move because they can’t dump him to say Detroit, so maybe in retrospect you have a pt.

I honestly think Rig-Miro is a stronger pair than Miro-Goose. I also think Rig is worth more to the Stars than the picks he’d get. Same as Johns. Rig isn’t anything special but he’s a big body that skates well and puts up strong possession numbers on a team that sucks at possession. I like adding TJ. Don’t see Cogs going the other way working though