This ain't even close for Tampa

Zero chance of either Johnson or Killorn waiving for Ottawa, Don't see either wasting their time on a rebuilding club that's still 4-5 years away from being extremely competitive.

You’re funny with 4-5 years away. More like 2 if you wanna be safe. There’s also a big move or two coming in the next year

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here, Ottawa is going to be a very dynamic team here shortly. But even teams with the most talent doesn't always translate to cup contending teams. There has been tons of teams in the past that had talent and what it took to win cups but yet never had.Right now on paper Colorado is the best team but being the best doesn't guarantee you cup success takes a lot of things to go right to win a cup.

NTCs are very avoidable... Just put Johnson on waivers and Ottawa claims him and in return gets the first same with Killorn... Very doable... And the thing is Tampa, has tried to no avail to give up these players and a move like this will likely be necessary to keep everyone

Also yeah more like not this year but next for Ottawa (I'm not even an Ottawa fan) but they will be good with JBD and Steutzle joining their lineup the next year

On paper, Tampa is the best team!!! Like hands down and have been for years but you are right that they will likely get knocked out in the first round in that year but Johnson and Killorn will likely not mind playing there if they are making playoffs. The real stopper on this trade comes from Melnyk never wanting to spend money

Seriously though...

Ottawa doesn't want these guys. They are on the downside of their careers, in their decline years, with a combined cap hit of $9.45MM, for three years, and a fourth year at $5MM. Ottawa is a young team, with good young players. Ottawa is going to have 3-4 players move up to become full time NHL players this season, 2-3 players next season, and another 2-3 the following season. That's possibly half the team over the next 3 seasons. No room for your guys.

Alex Formenton
Rudolfs Balcers
Tim Stuetzle
Josh Norris
Logan Brown
Drake Batherson
Erik Brannstrom
Jake Sanderson
Jacob Bernard-Docker
Lassi Thomson
Marcus Hogberg

BTW, what's up with Tyler Johnson?
66 19 26 45 - 0.682 ppg (points per game)
81 21 29 50 - 0.617 ppg
80 29 18 47 - 0.588 ppg
65 14 17 31 - 0.477 ppg

That's three straight years of decline for the 30 year old, and four more contract years with a cap hit of $5MM. I understand the two first round picks now, which is fair, to a rebuilding team. I'd suggest a team just entering their rebuild because those first round picks aren't arriving for at least 5 seasons (the first pick is still one season away from being picked), and not helping for a couple after that. It's not like they will be top10 overall picks.