Revisting the Canucks interest in OEL last off-season... Not saying it's a great fit for Vancouver, but GMJB seems stubborn.

Arizona gets out from under OEL's contract—and the 10.5m/10.5m/10.5m in salary due in each of the next three seasons. They replace him with Nate Schmidt who can carry the same minutes at only 6.0m/6.0m/5.0m for the next three seasons.

Both players are the same age. Schmidt has four years left on his contract. OEL has six years.

Vancouver gets arguably the better player, but they will pay much more salary over the contract term, and assume the greater long-term cap risk.

we get the worse defensive player on a bad defensive team.

We don't want his contract or his play and we happily pass.

I think there is some decent redemption value in OEL with Brad Shaw coming onboard. He’s done very well working with other top-pairing defensemen like Pieterangelo, Jones, and Werenski.

His cap hit is high, but the Canucks are only in a cap-crunch next season before their skies clear. His cap-hit is only $1-2mm more than what his UFA market value may be. Considering how hard it is to acquire defensemen of his profile it may be worth the cap hit given the potentially low acquisition cost.

if we were interested in that redemption value then we would wait a year until we could afford it. I know we can sign Quinn and Elias but we have no extra room.

Personally I would pass for all eternity on OEL but even if that wasn't the case it wouldn't be this offseason.

Toss in the Canucks #2 and the Hawks #5 and the deal would be worthwhile for Arizona.

Toss in a 2nd and 3rd and this would be good for both sides even though OEL has a big contract, he is more worth his money than Nate and a change of scenery will help him I think.