I wouldn’t be completely against the blue jackets trade if they are willing. The rest not soo much.

Ottawa declines

Getzlaf is very untouchable at this point. He’ll be a great guy to develop their prospects

Sharks accept!

There's absolutely no benefit in this for Ottawa so they decline very easily. Here's a really simple way to put it.

Anisimov = good player, overpaid by about $1.5M, expiring this year. If his contract can be lowered, he's a positive asset.
Khaira = bad player, overpaid by about $1M, expiring this year. He's a negative asset regardless. He is at best a 4th liner, is replaceable by anybody, and is therefore overpaid.
Neal = good player, overpaid by about $2.5M, 3 years left. He's very overpaid, he has a long time left, but he's real good if he clicks. Or get Calgary'd and be a mess.
Gaborik = dead player, LTIR contract, expiring this year. He doesn't matter cause he gets covered by insurance.

So the Sens keep Gaborik because they don't need to give him up (they've got nothing but cap space), taking Khaira back for Anisimov helps with the cap issues that are associated with Artem (or they can retain) and then he's actually good and worth a pick, and then the Oilers can pay handsomely for taking on that terrible Neal deal. Not the awful way you have it. More like starting with Anisimov for Neal, Khaira, a 1st.

A mid-6 forward, a bottom-6 forward and one year of Adam Larsson? Nothing we can use.

Why would Columbus trade their starting goaltender? You don't think that return favors the Blue Jackets, do you?

Not a big fan of most of this. Our bottom six is horrible!

I’m very confused how can suggest someone making 1.2 million is a million over paid? He’s more than capable of 4th line duties and excellent pk player. If don’t want him so be it welcome to opinion but no need to insult him suggesting he’s over paid.

I would easily do the Jackets trade and maybe the Ottawa trade (just not sure what all the cap implications are of Gaboriks contract)

The others are really bad for Edmonton. Value aside, you're trading young guys in their prime for players for very old players. The Oilers window isn't the next 2 years. Its as long as you have 97 on the team. Having Burns contract on the books is only going to cause complications down the road

SJ accepts!

Yeah he wants to be career duck they won't move him.

If the Sharks are trading Burns, no salary should be retained.

OTT has absolutely no interest.

Fair enough, good point. I for some reason had it in my head that he was making $1.8M, so I was suggesting he should be making league minimum. Good catch. He's still a nothing player that's not moving the needle one way or another though so the point still stands, and the Sens have overwhelming amounts of bottom 6 players; their issue is that they have a team full of them. The trade would be the Oilers giving the Sens nothing in return for taking a real bad deal in James Neal (albeit the Real Deal James Neal) and a relative nobody in Khaira and expecting them to just take it, while getting depth and a better pick. The assets with value are on the wrong side here, and they would need to be a lot more valuable to get anything done.

But is neals deal really that bad? He’s as safe of a bet for 20 goals managed 19 this year which was cut short and was hurt for a large portion which doesn’t have injury history to suggest he’s prone for reoccurring injuries. Very reasonable healthy could still hit 25-30. That production doesn’t come cheap ya it’s almost all pp but it’s still production that doesn’t come cheap.

He did that while playing with McDavid for a large part of his ice time, and if not him, Nuge. He's in no realm a safe bet for 20 goals. In fact, he managed just 7 in Calgary, which is far more similar to the situation he'll see in Ottawa where their best center is Chris Tierney or Colin White. Who is going to be spoon-feeding him these 20 goals? Neal scraped together the season he had this year (~45 point pace) while playing with the best player in the world for at least 20% of his even strength minutes. How on earth does that make him a candidate to hit 25-30 when his new best center wouldn't even be a quarter of the player that McDavid is?

At best, he's lining up across from Tkachuk, and that's still not a better player than Nuge. So no. Neal's deal is bad. It's real bad. It's 3 years of a guy who at best might be a 2nd liner for them, but is more than likely suiting up alongside Bobby Ryan on their 3rd line and will do nothing but count towards their cap and maybe put up 30 points if he can scrape together a nice season beside elite center Filip Chlapik. We're talking about an entirely different species of hockey player here...

He had one bad year in Calgary every other is very consistent. Could that one bad year be result of several long post seasons in a row with Nashville and Vegas. Then just didn’t fit with one team and bounced back? He’s a limited 5-5 guy but among the best in the league for pp use. Oilers pp wasn’t top of the league until Neal joined the team so can’t contribute everything on playing with mcdavid or nuge.

I can understand that. Kinda looking for a cheap way to squeeze out Neal. Thought taking some money from a broke Ottawa franchise may be possible. Cuz edm ain’t shedding Neal with a 1st pick. That’s dumb. Vancouver I feel should spend that first to shed Louis, they need it bad.

That’s why he’s will be a shark forever. Same with pickles. Either retain salary to trade or else no one will take them until there is 3 or less years left.

So, Neal is about as good as Anisimov. Anisimov is cheaper with 2 years less term.

Gaboriks contract is one of Melnyks favourites, paid by insurance so he doesnt have to spend a dime

Its not going to be cheap to dump Neal

He played over 50% of his time beside Perron and Haula in Vegas during their best years in their careers, and yet he still only put up 45 points. They had unreal seasons and he still could only just crack just over half a point per game. If you look at his time in Nashville, Vegas, Calgary and Edmonton, he's been a ~45 point player in all but 2 seasons; one he put up 60, the other he put up 25. So yes. He's consistently a fringe 2nd line player. Ideally a 3rd liner that is a PP specialist.

He helped the Edmonton PP with McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH, and Klefbom to be one of the best; you can absolutely contribute a heck of a lot to playing with the literal best player in the league. Even the worst forward out of that group is better than the best forward on the Sens. In Vegas, he rode alongside Perron and Haula on their career year benders. Again, the Sens can't compare. Neal is the Real Deal, but he's not the real deal. He's not worth his contract, he's not worth any assets, he comes with a sweetener, and he's not a lock for 20 goals on a team where their best center would be a 3rd liner on a normal competitive team. There's no twisting James Neal into any sort of shape that justifies him as anything but a bad deal.

So what your saying is he’s a bad deal because Ottawa can’t provide him proper nhl quality to play with? I’m not saying it’s a good deal because I think it’s actually not a good move for Edmonton but I like to hear people’s reasoning for comments get a kick out of most of them.