Quoting: palhal
No, I wish people could think for themselves.. So I'm asking you...and not some BS you heard from the media, do you think Ottawa would be even remotely interested in the trade you proposed?
I don't think it's that bad of a deal to be honest. The cap hit doesn't really matter to Ottawa, Wheeler's actual salary averages to 7.375M per, which, for a top 6 forward, is pretty decent. I think getting any value out of Brannstrom is going to be tough, he might be worth a 3rd round pick at this point, so packaging him with a very late 2nd round pick for 2 years of Wheeler isn't terrible value. Wheeler was very close to a point a game the last 3 years. He's getting older but I think there's still some value in him. Worst case is he plays a year and a half they flip him at the trade deadline as a rental and have one of the internal players such as Greig move in if he is ready. It would likely end up being a net neutral deal, and they might even make it out ahead with retention, as I think Wheeler as a rental could bring a decent return.
I don't think that Wheeler should be the Sens first choice though, I would try to go the free agent route as there is at least 10 really good free agents available at this time that I would have interest in. My first pick would be the obvious one, Claude Giroux. But there are others, and ones that won't cost a ton, such as Burakovsky, Niederreiter, Copp, Mikheyev, Trocheck, Marchment, Nichushkin. And if they want to spend $$ they could always take a run at Forsberg, Malkin or Kadri.