bottom 3 team.

100%, lmao. Only thing that matters at this point is Ovi scoring goals

Value on Graves deal seems fine. But I doubt we would do that at beginning of year, but maybe at deadline if we are out of playoff picture.

CGY doesn't need to add a 2nd Rd Pick to get a 6th Rd Pick for Monahan.
Eliminate the 2nd and you have GMBT listening.

Philly had to attach a 2022 2nd and a 2022 7th for Arizona to take on Shayne Gostisbehere's contract and his cap hit was only $4.5M. Calgary also has ~$27M to sign Gaudreau, Tkachuk, and Mangiapane. Not to mention CGY has only 12 players (6 F, 4 D, and 2 G) next season with that. Evolving Hockey's contract projections have Gaudreau getting an 8 year deal with an $11.630 cap hit, Tkachuk getting an 8 year deal with an $11.270 cap hit, and Mangiapane with a 5 year deal with a $5.835 cap hit. Those three contracts alone are $28,735,000. You're going to have to pay to offload Monahan's contract. No one is taking his cap hit for "free", especially not without CGY retaining some of that salary.

The Monahan idea is actually fairly smart.

. But can you explain to me why the Caps would light a 2 on fire to trade Johanson for Graves. Like why give up a 2 and a young 3rd pairing LHD for an expiring contract LHD in a year that you’re tanking. So so so so so dumb.

Mainly because one Johansen is only 3 years younger than Graves, and two, if you're bad at the deadline you can still flip all these expiring contracts including Graves. I also think that the front office has committed to remaining competitive (or at least trying to) to Ovi and Backstrom. I also usually tend to "overpay" in trades to avoid comments like "that wouldn't get x player!" comments rather than "the core of this package does or doesn't make sense".