Ristolainen isn't what we need. We need defensive D-men and Risto's defensive game is bad

Hes still youngish, can hit and carry puck. In the above, hes playing less minutes with a more stable defensive partner than he was. With the different coaching, I'm taking a chance they can address his limitations, or make Sanheim the more stable stay at home guy. Hes a risk, but only one year left and would come relatively cheap in trade for a 1st pairing guy.

Beyond the real need for Savard, theres really three guys I'd target for the defense: Risto (can play big minutes, good with puck, hits), Dumba (Not as physical as Savard, but good mix of offense/defense, can log big minutes) and UFA Oleksiak, (huge guy, physical, could play 3rd pair and PK, but would require York/Zamula to move to RD).

Massive overpayment for Domi. He is coming off of two seasons of mixed results while JVR was tied for our team lead in points. There's not a chance I make that trade with retained salary AND sending picks/prospects - the advance stats and counting stats agree.

I wouldn’t give up a 2nd for Domi let alone a 2nd 1st, Obrien and JVR. Thats just stupid

No, we are not taking on JVR. That contract is murderous and extends into the 2022 offseason wherein we have to be resigning most of our core.

With the retention, its less for JVR than Domi, and one less big contract to worry about next year. With the retention and expiring contract, and reliable production, I would say that JVR is more tradeable.

Its JVR at 5.3mil for 2 yrs, 12th overall pick, 43rd overall pick and former 1st round Center prospect O'Brien coming off 16 pts in 16 games at Boston U for Domi and 1 yr at 5.8mil?

Really?

If we need the cap space, we have the option of letting Domi walk. If we had JvR, we'd have to try to trade him, and would be paying others to do so because it'd be obvious to everyone we were in a cap crunch. So, still no.