Joined: Jan. 2022
Posts: 1,712
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I think you're overrating what St. Louis is offering each of these teams or not considering the needs of the other teams:
-Edmonton has Nurse and Ekholm as left shot D, what they really need is a better partner for Nurse than Ceci. This deal prevents them from doing that and ties them to Leddy's contract for longer term. Maybe they try something like Nurse-Ekholm, Leddy-Bouchard, but that doesn't seem complementary at all.
-Pittsburgh is trying to compete while Crosby et al are competing at a high level. This deal reduces their cap flexibility and sets the timetable back in futures. Its the only somewhat realistic deal since Pittsburgh can pivot from the deal with the assets they get, but as straight trade its not ideal. I don't see why St. Louis would do this either.
-Montreal has a very deep prospect pool and is starting to graduate guys that will play in the middle/bottom 6. They need elite talent. Neighbours has value, but Montreal almost definitely prefers just playing RHP, Farrell and Slafkovsky instead. Neighbours and a 2nd is not going to come close to convincing Montreal to move from 5 to 10.