If you’re wondering right now why I would make this trade, here’s why:

1) The Kraken would take on the awful contract of James Neal for some veteran service and to get to (salary) cap floor (also don’t forget he has experience on an expansion team with Vegas in 2017-18, so this could help Seattle’s success).

2) The Kraken could acquire their future first line forward in Yamamoto, who is actually one of the few players in the NHL from Washington State, so I’m sure he’d love to play in his home state.

3) The Kraken get a first round pick in this trade for taking Neal’s contract, and when it comes to expansion teams, draft picks are extremely important to have so you can draft players and build your franchise around them. That’s pretty straight forward.

And Finally,

4) The Oilers get rid of Neal’s contract and can spend the extra cap space somewhere else. On top of that, in my opinion, Yamamoto did not meet expectations this past year, and if he stays on the Oilers for the next couple years and continues to play the way he does, he may not develop into the player he should be.

I also forgot to mention that the 3rd round pick from Seattle could also just be expansion considerations instead. I couldn’t figure out if expansion considerations were an option for Seattle to trade on Capfriendly. If anyone knows how or if you can trade expansion considerations, please comment below this post.

I feel like this a lot for Edmonton to give up for a cap dump, a top 6 winger and a top 20 pick is a lot

So cause of a down year we give up on a young top6 forward thats finally solidified our right side?

Giving up a top 6 under 23 winger AND a 1st for a buyout friendly contract is not the way for edmonton to become better, it makes them have to find an additional outside piece to fill a self-created hole.

Oilers have enough to deal with regarding filling forward gaps as is and moving yamamoto ruins one of the few things actually good with the roster.

Lmfao. Um, nope. No. No. Nope. No.

Top 6 winger and first round pick for a contract that next season will cost 2mil over 2 years to buyout?

This is absolutely horrible for Edmonton. Neal only has 1-year left on his deal and can be bought out easily this year. There's absolutely no need to give up assets to get rid of him. Especially a top 6 young winger in Yamamoto who has been one of the NHL's top prospects for the past few years prior to last year, who just so happens to be apart of that lethal Nug-Draisaitl-Yamamoto 2nd line, for nothing but a 3rd Round Pick. That's basically Yamamoto for Future Considerations. It makes no sense whatsoever.