Can't wait for people to say "Jackets decline" without explaining

I don't think we trade Lee's contract. More likely Pageau, Palmieri, maybe one of Pelech or Pulock

Jackets probably accept tbh. While Lee isn't worth the 7M he's still a 20 goal scorer and a leader for a very young group of guys and they get out of the Gaudreau contract who won't be worth 9.75M by the time they're competitive and need to pay their guys.

You can pay the hawks a 2nd to take Pageau. Anything other than that the hawks are fine not making a trade here.

Maybe because we don’t feel we should have to explain why a team wouldn’t trade the top free agent they’ve ever signed two years into his seven year deal?

Much of the time, the explanation's already been given so many, many times over that it ceases to be interesting to do so and responses become merely rote actions delivered just for the sake of reminding people that our team has its own ambitions in the League rather than existing to fuel those of others.

In this case, the reasons for the "no" are:
* we're in no hurry to move Gaudreau; he's been more than fine here
* Lee's capacity as a potential mentor would be useful but that's literally the only value he'd have here
* the pick is of no real interest because the prospect pool here has already been built - we're at the "grow and develop the kids" phase rather than "add more kids" - and the pick isn't high enough to get someone good enough that it'd be worth setting that aside.

Hawks aren't going to pay anything for JGP. Moving him w/ two years left on his deal takes something attached from the Isles to move him to Chicago.

Explanation? I think it speaks for itself. Gaudreau is the best player in the trade and you are essentially offering a cap dump and a meaningless 1st. Gaudreau is more important to the Jackets than trading him. Gaudreau also has been a victim of terrible coaching and personnel decisions since he got here. I expect Gaudreau will break out this year bc he very likely to have more consistent linemates and whoever is the new GM will likely try to improve this team bc the rebuild phase is over and now it is more about making a move towards being a contender.