Ban Price trades
Joined: Oct. 2017
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I can appreciate the Clifton signing to an extent but moving Kulak out (and to an extent Ceci even) seems like terrible asset management. Likewise, I doubt Soucy signs for so little: if the hype train surrounding him on this forum is to be believed, his next deal starts in the $4M range. Kulak is a fantastic defenceman and it's within the Oilers best interest to not move him unless they absolutely have to this summer. The market to replace Ceci is not good this year: none of the FA options, Clifton included, can meet the TOI that Ceci fills at the same success rate as Mr. Cody Ceci. Severson is off the market, Dumba is a husk of what he once was. Mayfield is a maybe, but is going to cost more, and Clifton has never played more than bottom-pairing minutes.
If the Oilers are going to upgrade on Ceci, it will be via trade, and the earliest it happens (unless San Jose just willingly gives us Karlsson) is the 2024 deadline.
Guentzel would be a great add but Pittsburgh likely doesn't have want for another LHD prospect and the Edmonton faithful are unlikely to approve of moving Kostin this offseason. Bourgault would be the preferred option for the Penguins.
Foegele maybe returns a 6th on his own: Bettman deciding on the $1M raise to the cap puts teams looking to shed cap into the same dismal situation that they've been in for the past three seasons. His recent injury is also going to make him very hard to move. Like Kulak, I'd like to see what he does in a more consistent third line role with McLeod before committing to moving him (unless it absolutely has to happen for cap reasons) as the duo has very strong underlying numbers. I think we'd see more production out of the two of them if the coaching staff would quit riding the top six into the ground every chance they got.