This offseason we saw the departure of long-time tenured Mikko Koivu and assistant captain Eric Staal. This opened up the ability for Minnesota to target a top-6 center with a Matt Dumba trade. The reason Matt Dumba is being traded is most likely due to the Seattle Expansion Draft as Minnesota has to protect three NMC defensemen (Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Suter, and Jonas Brodin). However, most teams are not willing or don’t need to trade for an offensive RHD like Dumba at this time so suitors are far and few. In comes Cirelli.
Anthony Cirelli has shown top-6 potential in a lot of aspects of his game. (STATS)
With newly acquired 2019-20 OHL point leader, Marco Rossi, projected as a top-line center, it would do Minnesota some good to obtain a 2nd-string NHL-ready centerman to back him up when Rossi starts playing NHL depth minutes.
In order to get such a quality center, Tampa would want a cheap center option and future prospects or picks in return. Minnesota can offer Joel Erikkson Ek (RFA 2021) who carries a $1.487million cap hit going into his RFA season and can serve as a good middle-6 centerman for Tampa as well as key prospect Matthew Boldy, a two-way winger drafted 12th by Minnesota in the 2019 draft. Along with this already quality package, Minnesota will send one of its two third round picks in the 2021 draft to secure Cirelli.
There are a couple of big problems with Minnesota acquiring Cirelli.
Minnesota can not afford to sign Cirelli if they got him. With only $2.7million in cap space, Minnesota would have to unload Dumba with minimal salary return in order to sign Cirelli.
Tampa Bay cannot afford to take Dumba’s contract. The Lightning cannot afford to sign their own RFAs so there is no chance they take on a contract as large as Dumba’s.
Let’s switch over to the 3rd team involved in this trade to make it work.

The Philadelphia Flyers have shown they are a force to be reckoned with. With an elite group of forwards and a young, flourishing goaltender, there is not much building left to do. One area they could address is getting an offensive-minded defenseman for their special unit. The most offensive defenseman they have at this moment is 23 year old Ivan Provorov whose eclipsed the 40 point mark once in his short 4 year career in the NHL. Shayne Gostisbehere’s production has plummeted these last two seasons and besides those two, you are looking for offense from Travis Sanheim and Erik Gustaffson. To make matters more dire, the only two right-handed shots on the blueline are Phlippe Myers and Justin Braun. To take an even deeper dive, the highlight defensive prospect, Cam York, is also a left-handed shot. It’s needless to say that the Flyers would only improve with the addition of Matt Dumba on their roster, but what would it cost? A 2nd and maybe an additional 3rd round pick should be enough to get him out of Minnesota but there is a catch. Tampa Bay needs cheap options for their roster if they want to attempt to sign both Erik Cernak and Mikhail Sergachev, so LHD Robert Hagg (UFA 2022) would be the obvious choice at $1.6million AAV over the next two seasons.
The net loss from Philadelphia would end up being Robert Hagg, and a 2nd and 3rd round pick in 2021 but they would have an offensive defenseman under control until 2023.

Now onto the most interesting party in this trade, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Unfortunately for the Lightning, the amount of quality players on the roster along with a fixed cap hit has caused some serious problems for signing their RFAs. Let’s face it, if the Lightning want to keep 2/3 of their RFA’s, they need cheap options to fill out their roster if they want any hope in signing the remaining and upcoming RFAs. Cirelli will probably come in as the most expensive RFA they have, so as much as it may hurt to hear, he may have to be the expendable one in this situation. When you look at the package they are receiving for Cirelli, it looks very acceptable. A middle-6 centerman and a 3rd pairing LD that collectively come in at under $2.5million between the two, as well as one of Minnesota’s top prospects and a third round pick. This will allow Tampa to make further moves to sign both Cernak and Sergachev.

Giving up Dumba, Boldy and Ek is too much for Cirelli. Cirelli is great and all but that is just too much.

MIN is giving up a lot here. I would take out Boldy and the picks and just have Dumba + Eriksson Ek for Cirelli. maybe something more like this?
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out: Dumba, Eriksson Ek
in: Cirelli
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out: Hagg, 1st
in: Dumba
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out: Cirelli
in: Hagg, 1st, Eriksson Ek

Minnesota is giving up a lot. Maybe if they were giving up a lesser prospect or were returning better futures it could work but when it comes to this, They might as well be making this into 2 separate deals.

I like the premise but it still needs work. Like I said, Minnesota is giving up too much and Philly? They make out like bandits.

I do however think that Tampa's side, from a value perspective, is close. Not much to worry about there

Why would u write this much