Is that trade a joke? Serious question.

One years of Nurse>>>>>Harkins.

As already mentioned, thats a shocking low return for Nurse. Despite his flaws, he is the Oilers best dman this season with Klefbom out. Im not saying hes a number 1 dman, but he's worth a whole lot more than that.

Yeah I'd pay to dump Neal's contract

Unpopular idea I know some hate is give Seattle a choice can take jones or upgrade to nurse with the condition take Neal. That way it opens up 11 million to pursue Hamilton and avoids nurses next contract extension which I will admit to being one that is fearful of his next deal. I would not consider using picks or prospects to get Seattle to take Neal.

FOR HARKINS?

I'm somewhat ambivalent on going after Hamilton. I think someone is going to overpay him and regret it, and I don't want that to be the Oilers. Some points:

- Evan Bouchard has a TONNE of offensive ability and will be ready to go full-time in 2021-22
- Tyson Barrie is as good as Hamilton offensively and will be millions cheaper, they could sign a defensive specialist with the money they save.
- Hamilton's skillset probably doesn't fit Edmonton's system as well as Bouchard's or Barrie's IMO
- There will be some really, really good D available the year following, 2022: Parayko, Jones, Giordano, Letang, etc.
- What happens with Klefbom will impact this decision, and to a lesser extent the play of Samorukov, Broberg, etc.

So, instead of signing Hamilton, I'd re-sign Barrie and /or Larsson for 1-year after the expansion draft takes place (depending on their play in 2021), then go after a big fish in 2022 if that's still an area of need.

First off Nurse is worth way more then Harkins. I do think that we need to trade Nurse though if he thinks he is a 7-8M dollar player. I would personally stay away from Hamilton, I would wait a year and go after either Jones or Parayko.

Dougie is a good player, but he is not the guy to pay 9mill to

Offering up Nurse to take Neal on is a dangerous but interesting idea. Would definitely give Holland a lot of cap flexibility

He's got cap flexibility already though. Based on $2.25M for Yamamoto & Kahun and $6.75M for Nugent-Hopkins (and a few minor $1M deals to Ennis, Koekkoek, Haas, etc.), they'll have $8.778M in cap space with which to fill a few holes*. If Klefbom isn't healthy next September that number rises to $12.945M (with a 22-man roster). Buying out James Neal brings the cap space to $16.778M with a 21-man roster. Treating your #1 defensemen as a "throw in" to get rid of 2 years of an overpaid but still contributing 25-goal scorer is insane and very short-sighted.

* https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/404110