dumping the extra bodies and competing

The Hawks may pick up 1 defender on the left but not 2. Not with Carlsson, and they will keep 1 of Forlsing, Koekk, or Dahlstrom who will slot in the 3rd line pending Carlsson who has a real shot. So bottom line, about $3M extra dollars is wasted on Methot and you should have at least $5M in cap reserved for the next season with strome, Cat, Caggs and Kahun needing to be re-signed. It is absolutely dumb to move Gus right now; not until Boqvist is ready and don't think that is next season. Trading Gus, who reports are at least 10 teams were interested at the TDL and at least 3 offered a 1st round pick, is just not smart especially for that awful trade value you proposed. AA and Gus for JP? No way. A better offer is giving AA plus a 3rd for JP. Dahlstrom is also worth more then a 1 step up from 4th to 3rd round pick; he alone is worth a 4th rounder. Dzingel likely gets a bit more and maybe Ferland too, but think both of these signings are good signings. Perlini won't get more then $1M and if Barratt isn't ready, Highmore will leapfrog Johnson IMO. Minus trading Gus and adding Methot unnecessarily, this is a good team.