Quoting: justaBoss
It's really tight with FLA but I don't think they HAVE TO move Horny. They need to do some moves that's for sure but should they acquire a D-man then they need to include him, cuz they can't add any cap.
CBJ was in the situation what you described and they had to make a choice between bad and worse options, and they chose to deal Bjorkstrand cuz they didn't want to lose any futures. FLA is not in this situation yet.
I mean, they kind of are? They’re non-compliant right now, and the only way for them to get technically compliant is to run a 20-man roster (with Duke on LTIR), which would leave them shorthanded in the case of (inevitable) future injuries. Swapping Hornqvist for Zaitsev gives them another D (admittedly not a good one, but probably better than throwing one of their young guys to the wolves would be). I don’t see how they have the assets to upgrade their D tbh. Like there’s no shot they get Chychrun when all they have is Samoskevich and what, a conditional 2026 1st? That’s not gonna cut it, especially because Hornqvist would also have to be included in that trade. The best they could hope for is like a Verhaeghe for Mike Reilly swap maybe, to save 1.4mil and move money from up front to the blueline? But then that really weakens their forward core even further, especially because of the Duke injury. They’ve been able to turn reclamation projects into useful players before, but that was with Barkov and Huberdeau on separate lines carrying them. Tkachuk’s more than capable of driving a line, but he hasn’t shown the ability to elevate mediocre players to good (he just facilitates good players into great). Like he was successful even with Backlund because Backlund on his own is good and Tkachuk made him better, but they were successful in spite of whoever was on their RW (Frolik, Dube, several random guys in the AHL or Europe now, etc.). So I’m not sure that a swap like Verhaeghe for Reilly (or a similar cap-shedding trade, that’s just one that sprang to mind as an example) is really worth it. Their top 4 D are Ekblad, Forsling, Montour, and Gudas. That might have to work, and they just ride them hard, because right now their 3rd pair is Marc Staal and Lucas Carlsson. They have 5 great forwards (Barkov, Tkachuk, Lundell, Reinhart, Verhaeghe) and then Bennett, who’s a question mark without Huberdeau and Duclair (by far his two most common linemates last year). And then a bunch more projects. Like are Balcers, White, and Cousins capable of forming a 3rd line? Probably but I wouldn’t expect a lot out of them. Even bumping Bennett down to 3C between two of those and assuming he stays good means now you’re plugging one of them into the top 6 and I’m not that high on any of them. Their forward group really took a hit with Marchment and Giroux walking, plus the Duke injury. Not a great situation for them to be in at all, capped out with no futures and holes to fill in their depth.