So this was who Vegas decided to spend their MAF money on. As a Sharks fan, I'm happy to see whenever McCrimmon screws up with trades and signings. But as a general hockey fan, I just don't get this trade apart from being a cap dump for a team that really doesn't need cap dumps.

I don't feel like it is a buy low deal, it is in terms of what they gave up, but I doubt Dadonov would be worth 2/5m per on the open market, and the cap space is more important for VEG, you could be right about a turnaround tho.

Vegas didn't need a RW and are now over the cap.

The only way this makes sense is if Vegas use Dadonov in their offer for Eichel, by directly flipping him and/or sending other wingers.

It's a better use of capspace than backup goaltender.

Philipp Danault would have been a much better acquisition for Las Vegas, and at no cost. Coupled with the Fleury debacle, I don't know what the Golden Knights' front office is thinking. These deals make absolutely no sense unless they are to facilitate an Eichel deal.

This trade doesn't make sense to me, especially for Vegas. For Ottawa it looks like a salary dump for a team that doesn't need to dump salary, though at least they got some useful assets in return, so it could be good for them. Holden won't be around when their rebuild starts to bear fruit, but he's still a good player and he might be able to mentor their younger defensemen.

I didn't see the Sens enough this season to know if there were extenuating circumstances contributing to Dadonov's bad numbers or if he just proved that he's only as good as his linemates, but I suspect it's the latter. Before last season Ottawa let Anthony Duclair go and brought in Dadonov as a UFA. Duclair took Dadonov's spot in Florida and put up better points-per-game numbers than Dadonov had in that position while Dadonov's numbers in Ottawa weren't anywhere close to what Duclair had done there. Considering that Ottawa didn't think Duclair was good enough to qualify for under $2M, that doesn't look good on Dadonov. Ottawa must have reached the same conclusion because even after signing Tkachuk and Batherson they would have had more than enough cap space to keep Dadonov and give him another chance. So why did Vegas want him? That's the part that really has me baffled. Their only weak spot appears to be at center, but Dadonov is strictly a winger, and as far as I know they don't have another top 6 winger they could move to center to create a spot for Dadonov. So why would a team who always seems to be trying to free up cap space to go after the next big name available take on a $5M cap hit for a guy who doesn't address their biggest need, doesn't seem to be good enough to play in their top 6 and hasn't shown any ability to succeed in a lesser role? I don't get it. I suppose you could argue that Pacioretty was coming off a bad season when they acquired him, and that worked out pretty well for them, but I don't think Dadonov is in the same class as Pacioretty.

Too much intelligent and thorough analysis, which has only improved with time. Too bad that it seems to have been wasted on desert air.

In light of what's happened since, this trade only looks worse than it did to 87 of us at the time.