Not gonna talk much about value (if anything you might be undervaluing which is kinda surprising, especially the EDM deal considering you’re taking Neal) but one comment I wanna make—don’t expect 3 1sts in 2022 (likely two in the 20s and a top 8) plus a top 10 pick in 2021 to immediately spike you up to a top 10 prospect pool, you really have to hit on your 2nds/3rds, and if you’re really lucky some later picks, to supplement a prospect pool like that, especially considering that despite an above average draft this year (I thought Wiesblatt might’ve been a bit of a stretch with Peterka, Khusnutdinov, Gunler, Wallinder, etc. still on the board but I thought Gushchin was great at 72 and Bordeleau was solid at 38 too, although again Gunler) the Sharks still have one of the worst prospect pools in the league, probably still 30th if we’re being honest, nothing’s worse than Pittsburgh but the Sharks are pretty close. Unless they get lottery picks both years and add like Lambert+Edvinsson to their pipeline it’ll take a little longer to turn around (for example prior to the 2020 draft where I thought they blew it out of the park, I probably wouldn’t have had Detroit as a top 10 prospect pool despite having the second best D prospect in the league in Seider and another 6 or 7 top 40 picks, including Zadina). Patience is gonna be a virtue for a San Jose rebuild, the EK65/Burns/Vlasic/Jones contracts and even Couture/Kane to a lesser extent are absolutely brutal to the point of preventing the team from improving until they’re nearly done, you’re likely looking at 4 or 5 years of mediocrity if you pursue a rebuild now (which is of course better than 6+ years if you don’t lol), but on the bright side you’ll likely have at least 3 top 10 picks and probably 7 or 8 1sts in the next 4 drafts if you’re smart about it.

I think the returns should be better than this, I think you are error on the side of caution. PS what did labanc do to deserve that?

Nothing wrong here per se. I can't really vouch for EDM, OTT or NYR regarding whether they would want to make those deals in the first place, but I think you're underselling on all of them. Especially the oilers trade.

I’m not disagreeing with you, most have the sharks prospect pool at 26th lots of mediocre talent/ mid level pool but very few if any elite prospects. Tanking and getting 4 picks in the first 4 in a super deep super talented draft will help, if you notice I said out next playoff window would be 2025/26 that’s 5 years from now and cup contention a few years later. I expect this to take time.

I am underselling but with the whole Covid thing stagnating the markets is making for an very bullish market, hoping for better return but I’d be ok with these returns,

Just think Wilson overpaid him and he won’t live up to the contract, I like him at 3.2/3.3 a year not 4.7

I wanted Ottawa to go after Leblanc during the off-season but I agree with you, the odds of him living up to that new contract are slim.
For $5.875M Ottawa could nab a better UFA on a 2 or 3 year deal.

Your about 1.125 mil off he is at 4.75 a year.

Nope. I'm bang on. Labanc is owed $5.875M in REAL money for both of his final seasons. Since CAP is not a concern for Ottawa (especially the next two years) they would be looking at how they could spend that $5.875 and NOT give up any picks. It's an easy NO when you think of it that way.

And that money would be far better spent on a defensemen.

Ok that fair.