so someone that we just grabbed off waivers and a complete cap dump is going to net us Barrie?

Why pay to dump Hoffman when his buyout is 1.6 mil for 2 years?

We have Wideman who is just a cheaper version of Barrie and only had 14 points less than Barrie last season. Barrie makes no sense to trade for.

Forget Barrie, useless.

if you win the Bedard sweepstakes, you need a goalie and a proper RD.

Throw some money at Jarry in FA, and throw some money at one or two of Dumba/Serverson/Klingberg/Sanheim

Can't waste the young guys, or get them discouraged.

-Hoffman's deal is backloaded - it's a $4.5M AAV but this year & next year, he's paid $5M. Arizona usually doesn't take on a cap dump where they pay out more than the cap hit they're getting, so you're going to have to pay up to get them to take it. Probably throw them that 2025 1st you got from Calgary. Since you have the cap space to just carry Hoffman's deal, though, there's zero need to dump him off right now. Just keep him and your prospects & picks.

-What is Edmonton getting out of this? Armia is an overpaid bottom-6 player with 3x$3.4M left on his deal; Kovacevic is a 25 year old RD with 4 NHL games to his name. He might turn into something but is past the age where that normally happens. No reason for Edmonton to accept this package if they wanted to move Barrie; and beyond that, if this is 2023-24, why not just sign one of the several strong RHD talents that will be available in UFA? John Klingberg, Matt Dumba, & Damon Severson are headlining a pretty strong free agent crop at that position, just go for one of them.

-I can't see Joel Edmundson being a target for the Panthers - he's going to be 30 by the beginning of 23-24, and coming off his second straight season where he missed significant time with an injury. They've got 14 players under contract with only $10M in cap space - dropping a third of that on a guy with that kind of injury history isn't really a smart move when they could just sign a guy like Dmitry Kulikov or Olli Maata to play that role for a similar or lesser hit and hang on to their assets.

Barrie is a cap dump.

While Barrie in this case is somewhat of a cap dump, he’s far better than Wideman.

Good point, I don’t see why we couldn’t buy him out. Wish we’d bought him out this year.

14 points difference on teams at opposite ends of the NHL talent pools! Wideman could have easily made up those 14 points playing with McDavid and Draisaitl

Y’know I didn’t really look at Florida’s cap. I saw they had Hornqvist coming off at I think 4.5 so figured they’d have the room and they need a Dman. This is the team that traded a 1st, prospect and a 5th for Chiarot. The price for this kind of D is steap. I wouldn’t put Maata in the same boat. That dude probably shouldn’t even be in the nhl at this point. You’re right about Kulikov, but there is only 1 kulikov and not every team can have him. Just consider this Edmundson to random team for a pick. I agree though he’ll have to stay healthy for the majority of this season.

As far as Armia for Barrie goes, they’re both overpaid for what they bring but considering Armia’s value in the playoffs I could definitely see Edmonton wanting him. They clearly want a wing with size as well with the Virtanen PTO that didn’t work out. You have to look at the full context of a player as well, Armia has more to give but there is no ice time in Montreal. One bad season doesn’t make a player. He had 30 points in 50 something games the other year. I wouldn’t put it past Holland to see the upside in him if he’s put in the right spot with the right ice time. And he really was an animal in the playoffs. He was one of our most important players.

Sure but this is more about moving off of Armia by taking on another cap dump. We need right handed Dmen. You’re telling me you wouldn’t trade Armia for Barrie right now? We don’t need either of them, but I’d rather have the power play quarterback who’s a liability defensively than the bottom 6 power forward who lacks offense, personally. Edmonton needs secondary scoring, good defensive players, and size. Habs need offensive puck moving Dmen. It’s a win win in my book. We have so many forwards that need to make the team.

I would rather have Armia TBH, the guy is a beast along the walls, plays a great defensive game and has a great shot. He can also contribute 15ish goals a year in a 3rd line role. Look what Lehkonen did once he was traded. They are similar players with similar point totals, are you telling me you would rather have Barrie than Lehkonen?

The difference is Lehkonen has a non-stop motor while Armia only plays great 1 out of every 5 games. And in a vacuum I’d probably rather have Armia, but we have about 5 forwards who could probably make the team next year that are being blocked by having a 30 year old Armia on the team. There is no future here for him.

Hoffman, Drouin, Dadonov, Byron, Dvorak and Monahan (maybe) are all likely to be gone by seasons end, Armia is the least of our worries. there will be plenty of room for the young guys.

Even with Dadanov, Drouin, Byron and Monahan gone there still won’t be much room. There isn’t even enough room for all of those guys to be in the lineup now.

Edmonton easily declines. Barrie is not a cap dump not even close to the dump of armia..

Oh Barrie is absolutely a cap dump. A complete liability.

Please list all the other perennial 50 point RHD making less than Barrie's $4.5M. I'll wait.

50 point S who is a liability defensively. There’s a reason he only got 4.5 mill.. he’s not valuable. Ffs Chiarot just got 5 mill, Gudbranson got 4..

Barrie was offered 6million with term before coming to Edmonton he makes 4.5 because that's what Edmonton could afford and he wanted to be here.

The Oilers score more goals when Barrie is on the ice than the allow. He's not a liability.

Doesn't the fact Chiarot just got more money prove Barrie ISN'T a cap dump?

And you haven't listed a single equivalent player who is making less.

his offense more than balances out for 4.5 mil cap space, and if he is a cap dump why would Edmonton move him to take on more 3 years of Armia? theres just no logic there, they can wait and move him as a rental (they wont because he still produces) if they really wanted to move him.

This talk of being a liability is kinda getting old... He's not nearly as bad defensively as he's made out to be.

I’m saying he’s a cap dump because his contract is too rich for what he brings. So is Armia’s, but Edmonton has a need for a player like Armia. And I think it’s highly likely that Holland values him more than fans do considering past trends. Edmonton could use some size, secondary scoring and two-way play in their bottom 6, and they don’t need a 4.5 million dollar Dman who’s on their 3rd pairing. Bouchard makes Barrie expendable.

No what that proves is that nhl GM’s don’t value Barrie as much as you do. They would rather have Chiarot than this so called amazing 50 point Dman you speak of. So his value in a trade is not as high as you think. If he were a valuable asset teams around the league would’ve offered him more than the 4.5 he got from Edmonton. The reason Edmonton will want to move on from him is because Bouchard has now made him expendable.

Barrie on their 3rd pairing at 4.5 mill is not a good use of cap space. They signed Virtanen to a PTO, it didn’t work out, but it tells me they want someone in their top 9/ bottom 6 with size and who can bring some secondary scoring. If they could pickup a middle 6 winger and a cheap bottom pairing D for Barrie they might do it.

Wait, what?? The last (only) time Barrie was traded Nazem Kadri was the return - that's FAR more than Chiarot got on the market. And he signed for just $4.5M in Edmonton because he wanted to stay and that's all they could offer. It wasn't about the money.


This is hilarious and very wrong. First, Barrie and Bouchard have very different play styles/ skill sets, although both are offensive defensemen. Second, teams do successfully carry more than 1 offensive defensemen on their rosters - look at Colorado, for instance. Third, Bouchard hasn't superceded Barrie.


Barrie is on the 2nd pairing right now, and the Virtanen PTO (since released) had NOTHING to do with Barrie. Holland likes to create competition in camp so that rookies feel like they have to fight for a roster spot, rather than coming in feeling entitled. And besides, he traded for RW Klim Kostin since then, so no, an offer of a third pairing defenseman + a depth forward isn't going to garner any interest from Edmonton.