Not even close. Jackets decline

If anybody is moved from CBJ, its for futures.

I can't see either team doing this. Kuzy has less money owed and a shorter contract, so what's the incentive for Washington to take on Laine, outside of he's a younger player?

Same reason I think CBJ would at least be somewhat interested -- just change things up. Caps have given Kuzy an incredibly long leash to get back to his best but he honestly looks like the teams 4th or 5th best center right now. You hope that getting Laine out of CBJ to somewhere where he can just be a secondary guy gets him back to what he was his first couple of years in the league. For CBJ, maybe getting Kuzy finally out of DC (where he supposedly has not been happy for the past ~3 years) will bring him back closer to what he was from 2018-2020.

Caps can also afford to be a little more generous with the money. Short term, Backstrom retiring gives them a ton of room to work with. Long term, they realistically have just this year and next before they really blow things up.

I can see the argument for it, I just don't know that *I* would take the offer. But then again, I'm just some schlub on the internet haha

As a Caps fan I'd do it. Depends on what CBJ thinks. It works for them. They desperately need a center and they like Russians. But they might still see Laine as a 50 goal guy, which he is, but don't think he's doing it in CBJ. He's not a play driver but McM or Strome can do all the heavy lifting and he can just score.

Oh yea totally agree, feel like as a Caps fan and fellow schlub on the internet the main reason I would want the deal is it would just be something fun to talk about lol