Usually any deal that includes Bouchard on this site I hate.

But this is like extremely hard not to consider.

Need to add a first and Bourgault. This is helping Edmonton out way too much

I don't think trades like the one I'm suggesting can be evaluated in the context of straight value.

If you're Philly, you want to have a competitive team put together in 3 years. Michkov will be 21 years old on a 3 year ELC, which would likely make him the most valuable performance per dollar player in the league by an extremely wide margin.

No defenseman Philly can draft in the next 3 years is going to be capable of being a 1D on a contender in 3 years, let alone a 6'3 right shot one. Bouchard can be that, and by my estimation there isn't a single other player in the league who can be that'd be logical to try and acquire.

Even if Hart and TK are worth more in terms of total value, the chances of either of them bringing in any singular asset that can be what Bouchard is is very low. Philadelphia already has an extremeley deep pool of young talent, the only assets they should be looking to add are high end pieces

I’m very much agreeing with your logic here. Just want to get that out right off, sound logic and I completely understand the 3 years of Michkov elc could be a great competitive window. However, we must have starkly different evaluations of Bouchard. My opinion: far from a 1D, bad defensively. Decent offensively but numbers are greatly improved by the team he is on and being on a PP with McDavid and co. I think on a good team he is their 3D, hopefully second line RD that is the quarterback of PP1. Now feel free to completely disagree, but if you didn’t watch him extensively this past year and playoffs, I’m going to assume you are largely basing off of his stats. I want to reiterate, he’s good, just not this good.

Konecny and hart retained to a team with tight cap has crazy value. Dumping Jack Campbell would take a lot of assets as well. I just don’t think Bouchard covers both those gaps, even though Rd are hard to find

Just take Konecny value in other proposed trades while not retained. From Detroit you’re looking at a first, second and Zadina probably (ironically drafted ahead of Bouchard in that draft haha)
Dumping Campbell is at least a first round pick, but I think much more
Not familiar with Hart value but surely also high?

I get your idea and honestly don't hate it even though I think parts of this trade favor Edmonton. My biggest gripe with this is wasting 2 more retention spots that could possibly be used to add additional assets at the deadline for eating money for half a season in some cases. Bouchard is likely the most valuable asset in this trade but that Campbell contract is just so bad to be stuck with for the next 4 seasons. Love the idea of trying to sign York and Cates to long term contracts, might be over paying them now but in time will be massively under value.

I can't stomach any trade that involves us retaining while taking on the entirety of the 4 years of Campbell.