I’m not sure Tatar is the right target for the top 6. He’s scratched right now on a cup contending team.

Probably pay Coleman more but you’ve go the cap space to do that.

Like Oleksiak but I honestly hope Klefbom comes back.

I’m not as sold on Merzlikins as most. I think we need to aim for higher profile goalie

I don't see why a tampa fan proposed that. They are cap strapped and Neal costs more

You forgot to retain 2 million

Would need to retain on neal to make the cap make sense for Tampa however doing so makes TJ cost that much more which doesn’t make sense for Edmonton. Interesting deal but I’m not sure there is a middle ground money wise to make sense for both sides.

Retaining on Neal just makes the deal absolutely stupid on the Oilers part. His buy-out is a little less than $2mil so we'd be break-even with a buyout for 2 years before saving money in years 3 and 4. On top of that, they would expect us to take a bad contract and give up a decent asset in a 2nd. Horrible idea.

We Lightning literally can not do this deal without retention. You are giving them about 750k extra and they are already cap strapped

It's just a deal that doesn't make sense for either side. Oilers intend to spend to the cap too so keeping salary to make it work for the lightning doesn't make sense for us. A deal I've had pop into my head was Johnson for Kassian + picks/prospects. Same term but gives Tampa $1.8/year extra which is meaningful for them. Oilers would have to add to make up for the fact that Johnson is much better than Kassian.

Koekkek is not better than russell

They would trade for Neal so they can buy him out.

Koekkoek is more offensive. You need someone who can trade pucks with Bouchard it’s key to his development koek is much better with the puck than Russel.