Graves and maybe even Halverson are meaningless in an NHL trade. And you still force Avs to take on 5.7m Staal unnecessarily. An easy no from the Avs.

staal has negative trade value. no thanks

Graves and Halverson are mid-level prospects with Graves having an outside chance at NHL this year if it wasn't for logjam at D in NY. Willing to take on SOME of Staal's deal but at the expense of less or later draft picks. Colorado has 3 defensemen and crazy amount of cap space. For a player like Hayes, they are more willing to take on a contract like Staal.
Honestly, I don't think you know what you're talking about. You comment and **** on other's posts all the time but I've NEVER seen you post a legitimate deal in any way shape or form.

You can't say Staal has no trade value when Girardi, who has played worse than him by far the last 2 seasons got a 2 year 3million dollar contract from Tampa (middle of the pack last year in GA). Colorado sucked last year. No question about it. SUCKED. Staal is a veteran with experience winning who is a capable 2nd pair D-man on a team like Colorado.

Haanrngrsfn311. So you are so blinded being a Ranger fan. Teams aren't interested in mid range prospects....than want guys that can play in the NHL. You have to know Graves is very unlikely to play in the NHL and maybe even Halderson. Of course you conveniently ignored, Staal's NTC. I'm sure he would veto a trade to worse team in the league.
I'm not a big Duchene supporter and Hayes and something for Duchene makes sense. But please you trading AHLers and negative value Staal for also. Any GM even Sakic can spend 5.7m better on other player(s) than Staal. Sorry that's the reality of Staal's value.

On a terrible Hartford Wolfpack team, Graves was a bright spot. He plays on the top pair in Hartford and won the hardest shot competition in the AHL. He has good value. Halverson was a 2nd round pick just 2 years ago and is highly ranked. Had a poor year last year on the Wolfpack team but that is to be expected with the way the overall team in front of him played. If not Halverson, take another goalie prospect. Rangers have plenty of them. Huska? Nell? Georgiev? Who do you want?

Also don't tell me Staal doesn't have value after Ron Hainsey got a 2nd round pick just last deadline. Or when Kris Russel fetched a 2nd rounder that could have turned into a 1st two years ago.

Actually it's very likely that Graves has a career in the NHL. He had a promising season in the AHL this year and I believe he's only 21 years old

Just to keep back to trading values of Hainsey and others. Those trades are done with players on expiring contracts at TDL. The comparison to Staal isn' the same.

jwerner, You may right about Graves. But guys who are 22 years old and haven't seen the NHL and not likely to see it this year and getting more "suspect" than prospect. But if he's good enough for the NHL, he will find a way on some NHL team. Leaf fans (am I'm one of course) often over estimated the NHL value of prospects. It's a big jump from the AHL to the NHL.

yes cause not everyone is a McDavid or Ekblad who can step in right after being drafted, many good NHL players didn't get NHL-time before their mid-20 and Graves and Halverson are only 22 and 21 so saying they are unlikely to play NHL already is very foolish

Hayes is a good starting point for the offer, but just about every other piece doesn't come close to a) what the asking price has been and b) comparable to what has likely already been offered.

As a Ranger fan think of it this way, Derek Stepan got you:
A blue chip, 1st round pick, offensive d prospect (which is what Colorado wants
A #7 overall draft pick which became Lias Andersson, who by all accounts seems like a blue chip , can't miss, all-around top-9 forward. So much so that he might make the team at 19 yrs old.

Now if you're honest, Duchene is better than Stepan. By how much can be argued, but I would say that his offense, skating and ability to take draws puts him a step above Stepan. I would rank him as not elite, but a true #1 center by any standard. Where Stepan wouldn't be a true #1, and only ends up as the 1c if the team doesn't have one. Fair? OK.

How can you expect Colorado to trade Duchene for a center who at the moment can't be called more than a #2 C (questionable at that, talent aside), 2 middling prospects, and a 2nd round pick??? (the other picks are essentially lotto scratch offs, and don't add much to the deal).

Lets go deeper:
Graves is a decent prospect, plays a smooth all around game and has a 100mph shot. But only Ranger fans and super hardcore hockey fans would know this, which is true of all mid-level prospects. Nobody knows these guys until they hit the NHL and people hear their name mentioned during a game. Add on top of this that if we are being honest, and all goes as good as you could possibly hope, Graves is a 2nd pair/4th d man on his best day. Colorado is looking for a first pair projected/offensive d man type of guy.

Halverson (as with most midrange goalie prospects) still has a lot to prove. Maybe he is starting goalie material, maybe he is an AHL'er, still a long way to go to tell. Again, nearly all goalie prospects are hard to predict until they start facing pro-level competition, so this isn't a knock on the guy. Only the blue chip, elite goalie prospects don't follow this pattern. Either way, you can't expect Colorado to jump out of their shoes for Halverson, it's not like you're offering Igor. Why do you think goalies don't get picked in the 1st round? because of exactly this!

Both of these guys would be great to throw into a deal for any team, but as some of the main ingredients for a deal when the asking price has been much more...it's not gonna happen.

Now addressing Staal...
He can still play decent, sheltered 4th-6th dman minutes for a team that lacks depth. It's when you look at his contract that he becomes a problem. His contract pays him like a top pair, 2nd or 3rd d man. In order to get a team to be interested in this, they need an incentive.

The deal you offered isn't enough to get Duchene...how would it also be enough to make them take Staal? Where is the incentive?

You want to include Staal?:

Hayes
Deangelo
Graves
Halverson
2019 1st

Hayes, Deangelo & the pick fill the price for Duchene, the two prospects gets Staal moved in the deal. Done.