Fiala Trade - Who says no

I'm not knowledgeable enough on the value of Ottawa or Minnesota's assets to feel entirely comfortable giving a verdict, but I'll just say that with Minnesota's cap issues taking Zaitsev's contract (retained or otherwise) isn't a good idea.

I do think Ottawa wins this one though, and pretty easily at that.

Minny says no. Simply not enough value going the other way.

You haven't hardly gave anything up if your Ottawa.

Zaitsev is a third pairing guy with a decent cap hit which Minnesota doesn't need.
Brown is on an expiring contract to a team with no cap space, plus trading away a centerman Jost
Swap first round picks is close to a wash
And a goalie prospect with limited nhl production to a team that has Wallstedt

It’s funny because I see it the exact opposite.

Ottawa’s giving up a top 5 pick unprotected. Arguably their best goalie prospect (definitely their closest to the NHL). Brown, who’s been scoring at a 60 point pace all season and is only signed for 3.6m next year, realistically worth a 1st all by himself. And then Zaitsev is serviceable but Ottawa is stuck retaining 2m for the next 2 years.

Don’t really care for Jost but we can say him and Zaitsev are a wash and if Brown and the Minny 1st cancel out, Ottawa isn’t trading their 1st for Fiala 1 for 1 but they’re still adding Gus on top of that somehow.

That’s a pass.

1. The main value is in the first round pick that will be TOP 5 vs 16-24 range.

2. Brown is one of the most underrated players in the league. Complete game. Plays in all situation. 20 min/game. Has a RH shot (which Minny lacks) . Has a super reasonable contract. He is worth a late 1st as a rental. Also in a year, Dumba, Kulikov and Talbot are off the hook. Possibility to extand him long term to a more reasonable cap hit than Fiala's.

3. Gus allows minny to ease Wallstedt along in the AHL next year and step in the following year when Talbot is off the hook.

4. The addition of Zaitsev on the right side makes Dumba expandable. He'll be able to eat enough tough minutes to ease Addison into the lineup.