Trades With EDM WPG and PHI

Harkins, Virtanen, 1st for staal and 6th

I'm honestly at a huge loss as to what the Wild are this year. They play games like tonight and beat some of the best teams in the NHL, but then turn around to drop duds against some of the worst teams in the NHL. Maybe that's a good thing for the playoffs since generally good teams make the playoffs? I have no idea. I think I still remain in the "burn it down" camp since I don't see this team even making the SCF, but I could see Fenton buying at the deadline.

As for the trades, I think JEE is expendable with the Rask acquisition. I wouldn't hate a JEE for Puljujarvi swap, although I'd rather just make it 1 for 1 and leave Brown and Kassian out of it. I'm not necessarily a fan of Brown, I just don't think Kassian is worth the almost $2M he's paid.

I don't think any team would be willing to give that much up for Staal. Last year, they absolutely would have, but teams aren't dumb they know he isn't quite that player anymore. You could probably get a 1st and a 4th for Staal and a late pick (5th or 6th).

I also think this is a robust return for Zucker. Remove the 1st and it's much closer, but still probably not realistic. I like Philly as a trade partner for the Wild since they have so many center prospects, but I'm not sure we are great partners for them since they will most likely be rebuilders.

I don't see how JEE is expendable. Staal is old and an UFA. Koivu is old and has 1 year left on his deal. Coyle isn't a good center and has 1 year left on his deal; plus I think he'll be gone before the season starts next year. 4C has been filled by rental FA. There's nothing else in the pipeline.

The flyers are bad this year which means two things. 1. They are likely selling which means they would be looking for picks and prospects not giving them up. 2. Their first round pick will likely be top 10 which makes this deal even more lopsided in Minnesota’s favor.

I don't think Winnipeg touches Staal for that asking price. Not because he's not good enough, but because he'd probably be 3C and some PP time on the Jets, maybe see a little time at 2C but not much. & that's way too high of a price for a 3C rental. They did it with Stastny and saw him walk, I doubt they'd wanna do that again