So what you’re doing is crippling the Habs so they’d have sergachev. Ok sure

With what cap space? Besides it's a 23 man roster not 20 man roster and you've 0 cap space.

I agree, although he only gutted the 4th line and a 3rd pairing D (although Mete will likely be better than that soon).

Sound like a move to make on NHL 21! Cuz COVID didn't happen in gaming land and the cap will be higher .

Yeah i'm sure in this flat cap world teams are going to lineup and take your scraps from you, Not even remotely likely and fat chance i see Sergachev signing an offer sheet from Montreal after being dealt several years ago.

Not at all. Standing pat with today’s team leaves Byron and Armia on the 4th line, Weal in Laval, and Mete maybe as the 7th D. Berg said clearly the kids in Laval will get a chance to step up and plug in if someone falters or gets injured. There’s just not enough minutes to go around to justify Byron’s and Armia’s salaries as 4th liners. Also, in today’s market there are a ton of serviceable veterans that can be signed at the league minimum if need be.

I think that out of embarassment alone, Montreal or Bergevin would never make that trade

Bare minimum is 20. Max is 23. Teams such as Toronto have already said they’ll be carrying 20-21 players with constant roster shuffles to and from the AHL as needed.

I disagree. It would be a shrewd move. Imagine that 3rd pairing.

Montreal is stacking and setting up the team for a long stretch of contention. He’d be remiss not to consider it.

So why wouldn't other teams just sign those serviceable veterans at league minimum themselves rather then trade for the likes of Armia (who I'm a huge fan of btw), Byron, Kulak, etc?

The numbers actually just fit this year and work going forward using Arpon Basu’s excellent Athletic article on how the cap may be managed by the team going forward.

So not only would Sergachev never play 3rd pairing minutes on this team, but I'm talking about the fact that they traded him away. I'm not saying you can't trade for him again, but you'll look kinda dumb trading a way a player, then paying way more to get him back.

Byron, Kulak and Armia would be much more than 4th liners on those other teams. It’s been said and is obvious that Montreal now has three 2nd lines and a 4th line. Doesn’t make sense to pay spare 2nd and 3rd liners and 4th liners.

I'll take Armia for that

Honestly, price dependant, I would rather the Jets got Kulak and Armia than some of the Free Agents left available (with more emphasis on Kulak since he fills a need).

I like the idea, there's a few things I'd change here though:
1: Keep Mete. He's super cheap, you can easily afford him and he would be good on the third pair.
2: You may have to Pay to trade Byron with the flat cap, maybe try to package him with Kulak/Armia and someone will take him. Weal you may also have to attach a late pick/low end prospect to as well.
3: Pay Sergachev a little bit less. You want to leave yourself with a bit of wiggle room and a 20 man roster is a really bad idea. It leaves you with only select players able to come up from the AHL that have allow enough cap hit. Give Sergachev 7-7.5. It still puts Tampa in a bind.
4. Play Sergachev in the top 4! You don't want to give 7 million to a bottom pair defenseman!

There's probably not going to be an AHL season next season, Hence why players are playing over in Europe right now. 20 man roster is risky for several reasons namely injuries. The only thing that might help a 20 man roster is that it's probably going to be a shortened season this coming season possibly only 46 games so that would help.

Each pair would play between 18-22 mins a night, so there would actually be three 2nd pairs and three 2nd lines.

Remember, it’s only a 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounder, and Drouin is still around and healthy now. The NHL is about looking forward and learning from past mistakes. Paying for what the player is now. The trades would definitely make the team better.

With the condensed schedule and possibly no AHL, I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be taxi practice squads of up to 10 players per team.

All of this is just speculating and having a bit of fun.

It still doesn't make sense. Why would you pay someone over 8m, just to cap their playing time at 20 minutes, while also letting a literal garbage player in Edmundson get the same amount of playing time?

I agree with much of what you said. I was just quickly showing that it could be accomplished without mortgaging the future or wiping out the core of the team. Regarding Mete, I believe he’s too 1 dimensional for the style and makeup of the team going forward. A healthy Juulsen or a progressing Fleury is more suitable going forward.

I believe the 3 D pairs and top 3 lines will all play almost equal mins each night, so Segachev will definitely end up playing 18-22 mins each night depending on the matchup. It also allows you to manage the other older 4 D more efficiently over a condensed schedule in a potential Canadian hub.

Edmundson is hardly garbage. 3 equally balanced and effective D pairs, 3 equally balanced and effective 2nd lines which will all be interchangeable depending on the matchup would be a nightmare to play against. Heard the term earlier on TSN 690 of pick your poison against the Habs already without any more moves.

I wonder if they take a deal like, say, Drouin for Sergachev?

Well, you'll be disappointed next season I hear

Byron you'd probably have to pay to dump and both he and Armia are good 3rd line wingers, pretty sure the last thing the Jackets need is another LW so would have to ship Byron somewhere else.

I think Montreal would much rather have these guys on the 4th line even if they're too good and pricey to be 4th liners cause it gives them actual quality depth in case of injuries, like do you really want Belzile moving up to the 3rd line if one of Anderson, Gallagher or Toffoli get hurt?lol, it makes little sense to clear out good forward depth for a dman who while very good just blocks all the young dmen the Habs have that are knocking on the door for a job.

Maybe the Habs move one of these guys but unlikely they move all of them to try and acquire Sergachev.

And back to the original point, any of these teams could pick up a similar caliber player by signing one of the remaining decent free agents that are still available, there's getting to be less and less cap space left in the league so guys like Granlund, Haula, Galchenyuk, Duclair, Athanasiou, Vatanen and Hamonic are likely going to have to settle on some really cheap one or two year deals if they want a job.

Well I agree with say Armia as he's a solid player that's been sorely missed but what I'd ideally like to see the Jets do is an aggressive move to get Sergachev and if they could dump Perreault and Lowry then sign Haula and Granlund, imagine having a 3rd line that could contribute on the score sheet, it's all dreaming though as Chevy is super risk averse and dumping Perreault would be difficult, could probably move Lowry easy enough but this dumb **** organization loves that ****ty plug for some reason so he isn't going anywhere unfortunately.