Rushing the Rebuild

No kidding youre a caps fan. Ill tell you 1 thing, this is called f*cking up the rebuild not rushing it.

Arizona doesn't consider that

ARI declines fairly easily.

Horrible trade for Arizona

With eight picks in the first two rounds of next year's draft, I get the feeling Arizona are not finished selling.

The logic here is that Gusev and Jaskin each score a ton when they play on Russian teams, but then do nothing in the NHL. Kuznetsov should get back to what he can be while helping both of them break out as top line wings in the NHL, finally.

That pushes Kessel, Fischer, and Dzingel to middle six roles against easier competition. They still play big minutes, and get a lot of points, raising all of their trade values. All three are gone at the deadline. If the increase in their values plus what the team can get for Kuznetsov at next year's draft, coming off his fifth 70+ point season--if all that adds up to more than Chychrun is worth right now, then this deal gets Samsonov for just Crouse.

They still might not do it, but WSH might not either. It'd be tough to replace Kuznetsov with just 3.7M of cap space, this late in the offseason. Definitely takes another creative trade.