No thanks. We need Lemieux.

You could pluck literally any knuckledragger from the AHL last year and he would give you roughly what you get from Brendan Lemieux. He's not good.

Maybe. But could I get them for Kempny and save 1.3M in cap space?

I doubt NYR is down to offering Lias for a top-4 D.

Hilarious takes from all over lol - NYR we need him, random fan any knuckle dragger from the AHL - love the Kessel trade

Why would Arizona do Panik for Kessel? Panik is 29 years old with 3 years remaining. Those are contracts that they're trying to shed.

Try and bear with me here, because this could get really complicated: Richard Panik is better at hockey right now than Phil Kessel. Not just because Panik kills penalties really well (he does), or because Panik is just as quick with the puck (he is), but because Panik got less ice time last year than Kessel and still got one more even strength point than Kessel. Does that make sense? So what I'm saying, if you can follow my complex train of thought, is that Arizona wins the trade flat out because they get the better ice hockey player in the deal. And it's not just because he's on a better team. Panik's 2.16 points/60 minutes were fourth among forwards on the Capitals, while Kessel's 1.13 points/60 this year were 10th among Coyotes forwards. I know this is not the narrative you expected because I haven't mentioned currency, but Arizona makes this trade to win more hockey games by scoring more goals. Arizona takes the guy who got 22 points in 620 minutes of even strength because he is flat out better than the guy who got 21 points in 920 minutes of even strength. Remember when Detroit used to worry about stuff like that?

Of course, is Washington going to gamble that Kessel bounces back and becomes a star again? Yeah, they'll hope. And if they play him with Ovechkin and Backstrom it just might work. But who knows? I'm not offering to sweeten it, if that's what you're hinting at.

You've just convinced me to reject this trade as Caps GM.

Thanks. I'm on the fence, myself. I think the team is likely to make a move just to make a move, and they could do worse. If Kessel takes the PP1L spot and moves Kuznetsov full time to PP2 with Vrana and Wilson, PP2 could be really decent, and develop as the PP of the future. Now, could they just put Panik in those spots? Sure, but would they?