Not when your owner is the richest in the NHL. Show me some proof where Winnipeg has side said they will make stupid trades to save actual dollars.

Obviously he never said that. But when their income on the year was negative and they cant even break the 1st round, the guys upstairs probably start to get a little worried

It's not a panic decision to be prepared for potentially something happening in the future. If anything, it's more of a foresight than a needless panic. Keith and Little's cap hits are pretty much equal, but Keith has one year less on his contract and he's actually able to play. Also...

1) Keith alone is not worth a 1st, but with Little coming back I say it's justified.
2) WPG has a need for a D, and looking at their roster it wouldn't hurt at all if he had some experience to boot.
3) He's literally from Winnipeg. I think the likelihood of him waiving his NMC is much higher than staying for the rest of his years in a rebuilding team.



Also this is probably the most naive take I've ever seen on this site. Literally the whole league had to make a new CBA because teams and owners were worried about the actual money. The actual money matters as much as the cap does for at least half of the league now, or how would you explain for example CBJ clearing up $14M of cap space in one day without signing any significant players from the free agency...

While completely stripping the team of it's future. Toews is a great player but that contract is not very good and we sure as hell would not be giving up a 23 year old top 4 defenseman with top pairing potential, our #2 prospect, our next #1 pick and Sam Bennett for a 32 year Toews at 10.5m, a contract we wouldn't be able to afford anyways.

What'd you consider an appropriate return then? I do think Toews to CGY has some merit behind it terms of needs and all, and it's not like the guy moving too cheap either...

Nothing remotely close to what would be close to the equivalent of 4 first rounders that you suggested. That is nothing short of laughable.

Well in a rebuild type trade the Flames aren't the right team because we need to move out nearly as much salary as we bring in. We would need the Hawks to eat a significant percentage of salary and Backlund + a 1st would need to be the starting point.

Boston had no use for Durban as we already have 6 goalies under contract

Really it's naive to think that teams will deliberately screw themselves with an unnecessary move. Have you ever heard of insurance? Little's contract is insured. The Jets are out no money if he doesn't play. The contract is covered by insurance. To think that billionaire owners will throw away money and assets by making a brain dead move is very silly. They didn't get to be billionaires by panicking and making incredibly stupid decisions.

You also know nothing about Keith obviously. He was born in Winnipeg, but moved away when he was one and spent his early life on Ontario. So, he's not waiving to go to a city he had no allegiance to.

Winnipeg can't afford to waste $ 5.5 mil of cap space on a ridiculously old defenseman they have zero need for.

Fortunately, this is all for fun and we won't have to worry about this kind of foolishness in real life.

Thats not a good trade at all for Calgary.