(Very) easy no from the Rangers

Drury says NOPE.

CBJ trade is fair, but as always, any deal for him would depend more on what he's willing to sign for than the trade cost itself.

CBJ have a handful of top prospects that they'll be looking to give long-term deals to coming off their ELCs, including Johnson, Marchenko, Fantilli and Jiricek. Plus, there is also Sillinger, Chinakhov, Voronkov, and Mateychuk that they will all likely want to re-sign as well.

Yeah I get that. I think it's unlikely all these players will require large contracts though, some will probably bust and some will just become average/replacement level players

Of course anything can happen, but right now those first four look like very safe bets to be star core pieces that CBJ will want to lock up long-term. The second group of four will almost certainly have a couple busts and/or average players. That is still a lot of money to be doled out.

If two of the first four become stars you'll be lucky. If all 4 becomes stars you're looking at a Tampa level team, which... seems unlikely

But like you said anything could happen

In order of likely to unlikely:

CBJ

NYR















SEA

Just for fun and for the sake of debate, CBJ are actually in a very similar position as Tampa was before they exploded. They have some really solid veterans in Gaudreau, Laine, Werenski, Jenner and Kuraly already in place who all want to stay in Columbus (although Laine could always change his mind).

Three of those four aforementioned potential stars are top-6 picks (much like Tampa had with Stamkos, Hedman and Drouin), and the other, Marchenko, came over from Russia and put up 21 goals in 59 games in his first NHL season at age 22. Jiricek has dominated the AHL as an 18-year-old (very rare), KJ looked great putting up 40 points as a rookie with not much support on a team decimated by injuries while having very good zone entry and transition numbers - not to mention scored a Michigan goal and made it look easy. Fantilli is not yet proven but is pretty consensus among scouts as about as sure a thing as you get in a prospect due to his combo of size, speed, skill and compete. I'd put money on 3 of those 4 becoming top of the lineup core pieces, with a more than decent chance that all four do. It's hard to say any of them will come to be on the same level as Point, Stamkos or Kucherov, but they will still help create a well-rounded lineup with high-level skill.

As for the second group of four, all have shown potential, but have yet to put it together at the NHL level. Certainly, they could all bust, but I think Voronkov probably has the best chance to succeed of them all because of his size, intelligence and mean streak. Mateychuk's skating, vision and passing are elite, so he's probably going to adjust fine. Sillinger worries me the most because his skating and anticipation are currently not good, but he has great work ethic and maturity to be able to work on his game and still become a decent NHLer. Chinakhov is a real wildcard who has looked dominant at times and then has completely disappeared for stretches. I'm not counting on any of those guys, but 2 of the 4 could/should become very solid NHL contributors.

This also doesn't even consider they have a dynamic scorer in Jordan Dumais playing in Juniors, another big, fluid-skating, two-way RHD in Ceulemans who is still maturing, and handful of other prospects who have looked like real candidates to become solid two-way players like Luca Del Bel Belluz, Stanislav Svozil, Gavin Brindley, Alex Texier, and still more prospects who are longer shots but have very unique traits or skills like Kirill Dolzhenkov, Wiliam Whitelaw, Guillaume Richard and Sergei Ivanov.

Now they also have a coach in Mike Babcock who is well known and respected as a detailed tactician they can actually get the best out of this team.

They also still have all their own picks except a 2nd, with an extra 3rd and 7th.

They also could still trade Peeke, Boqvist, Bean or Roslovic for extra picks or prospects.

The uncontrollable factor here is injuries, which could happen to any of them, but if they pan out, yes, I think we're looking at a very competitive team for a lot of years, much like Tampa, with hopefully at least one Cup mixed in.

Chytil to Lindholm isn’t even that much of an upgrade. On top of the fact they won’t re-sign lindholm or to that amount, so losing chytil and a 1st for a rental is stupid

Fair points for sure. Except that Lindholm is certainly a huge upgrade on Chytil, don't be ridiculous

Defensively sure he’s a bigger upgrade. But huge? I don’t think so. Chytil has been good and only played 3rd line minutes while lindholm gets top 6 and special teams

Yes, huge. Chytil has scored over 30 points once in his career, while Lindholm has average over 70 points per 82 games in his 5 years in Calgary

Yea and I wonder how much the TOI and special teams usage comes into effect and linemates

Yeah I guess that's the nice thing about a young team, they could develop into anything. The one area CBJ appears super weak is in goal, even if Elvis bounces back he'll still never be a Vasilevsky level talent in net. How do you think they'll address that moving forward?

Rags say no - they don’t have space to sign him to extension unless they can move Troch. Between him and Mika, plus the other deals coming up for them there’s just nowhere to fit lindholm in.

SEA isn’t moving Wright+ for Lindholm. Realistically Wright may never become as good as lindholm but it also seems silly for them to do an “all in” type move when they don’t need to. They’re just gonna close their window earlier by making a move like this and giving lindholm an 8 year deal where he’ll fall off in 3-4 years, whereas Wright likely gets better and slots in as a middle 6 cost controlled C for years to come.

Maybe CBJ does this- seems like a decent fit but idk if they want to clog up the path for some of their young forwards.

Elvis has had a rough couple years. Bad defense in front and the trauma of witnessing his best friend die didn't help. The talent is there for him to be an above average netminder, and this year should tell us a lot since the defense and coaching have been majorly improved.

Vas is one of the top-5 in the game, no doubt, but I think we can all see how voodoo goaltending is and how teams regularly win the cup with average goaltending or just get a boost from a goalie with a hot hand. I'm not too worried about goaltending for that reason, plus, Tarasov has shown some real brilliance in net as well and could easily become the guy if Elvis can't cut it.