Arizona would love to take Zaitsev for free

Nedeljkovic cleared waivers, so you will have to trade for him and the Habs (or any team) aren't likely to trade for a guy they could have gotten for free less than 24 hours ago.

1. Ottawa chose not to claim Nedeljkovic..

2. Montreal and Chicago accept.

3. Arizona does not.

Arizona needs a D to fill a spot. I can add a 4th at most, but Zaitsev has mor value to Arizona than Ladd, and Ladd about the same value to Ottawa than Zaitsev. Zaitsev can eat up up to 20min, and isn't horrid defensively.

They can get him retained. Thay can then trade him, if they want, 75% retained to a team in need (any team with goalie injuries) for 750K.

By holding on to Ladd until the end of the season without playing him, Arizona receives a 2023 3rd round pick from the Islanders.

And Arizona doesn't want to be paying out any signing bonus money to Zaitsev.

Montreal doesn't need retention and he isn't worth enough to trade at 75% retained to make it worth it.

Dude Alex Nedeljkovic cleared over 2:45 minutes ago

Ottawa isn't making the playoffs, So Savard isn't happening

Ned isn't getting traded. This puts Ned in the minors until Helberg is traded. If Helberg hit waivers right now, any number of teams would pick him up at his 1 million cap hit. Ned is 3 million. A lot of teams can't fit, or don't want to waste, Ned's cap. If Helberg went to waivers, he probably gets picked up by a bottom team...Ottawa would make sense, but I doubt he'd get that far. Then he stays on the roster for 30 days, and gets traded at the deadline to any team needing goaltending depth.

From Detroit's perspective, Helberg has been better than Ned. If Detroit is still in the playoff hunt, they probably keep Helberg and if playoffs are out, Helberg is a good enough backup at low cost. Plus, if a team prefers Ned, and Detroit doesn't burn his free waiver time, Detroit xan trade Ned and the team acquiring him doesn't need to make any roster move to get him, as the roster sizes open up after the TDL.

Ingineous move by Yzerman.

Montreal declines. The package for Savard would need to be much better. He brings tremendous stability the our defense.

I stand corrected.

What do you need? Bernard-Docker+? Greig+?

My understanding is that we're going to keep Savard and Matheson as the seasoned players supporting our young D. I believe it would take an offer we just can't refuse to let him go. Honestly I don't know what the price would be. Savard has been injured for a few weeks recently and we lost many games in a row -- the D really missed him.