Islanders would give up anything for this guy

I know it's more chancy but the Wings can just hope that Trouba is available as a UFA in two years without giving up a valuable first rounder. Or the Wings spend that 7m on another player and keep their first rounder.
Trouba might be a tough trade as he might not sign long term without a guarantee of going to team that he desires. And if the Wings know that, maybe they don't have to give up as much.

Not interested in Mason straight up, may consider as part of a package.

We're not trading Trouba. A 1st pairing RHD for a guy who has less points per game than Jack Roslovic, and a 1st round pick that will take 1-3 years to develop. We're trying to win a cup next year. Think about that for a second.

I agree but how are you going to get everyone under the cap for next season?....in this scenario that is. Laine / Wheeler / Conner? My signing of Stastny could be deleted I guess. Also, for those thinking that Myers is going to fetch a big return you can forget about that. It seems every Armchair GM believes that he is the guy on his way out. Sorry, but Trouba will be the target to address future cap issues.

However after all that being said Chevy has been a wizard managing the cap. Other than the Little deal he's done pretty good.

Trade Myers. He's a 3rd pairing Dman on this team right now who makes 5.5 mill. The only people who don't think he won't get a big return are Leafs and Oilers fans, and that's because they don't want to give up their 1st. He's got 36pts in 82 games. The only free agent RHD that did better was Carlsson who will make 7-8mill. He will absolutely get a 1st round pick or an early 2nd, especially if he agrees to an extension. It's ignorant to think otherwise.

Bridge Connor and wait till Buff comes off the books, to sign him to the long term deal. And don't sign Statsny. As much as I love him as a jet, Roslovic showed us that he's more or less the same style as Pauly and his points per game and corsi indicate that he will be an above average 2C next year. I think he plays the kind of game that can mesh well with Laine and Ehlers. He's very responsible defensively and he is very good at making those stretch passes that Ehlers and Laine love. If you reaaaaally want Statsny, you could trade Little before his NMC kicks in on July 1st, but even then, the only reason fans are higher on Stats than Little is because Stats meshes better with Laine.

If you want to reduce cap even further, you can move Kulikov. It will be little to no return but you clear his cap and the UFA market for LHD's is very strong this year. Hickey or De Haan could get signed for 3mill or less for a year while we wait for Samberg to develop.

Finally, we have a ton of assets that you haven't even addressed. Petan, Lemieux, and Dano are all good LW prospects and at least two of them won't ever play for the Jets if Vesalainen develops into what we think he'll be. You can use those guys to move our cap to rebuilding teams like the Islanders, Wild, and Coyotes. Also Samberg just had a monster year at college and the WJC's. He's an LHD, we have Niku who set the record for rookie scoring in the AHL, and Morrissey who will get signed long term. That's 3 good LHD young players and prospects who can make our Left side formidable for the next 10 years. That means Stanley, who is an absolute monster is left outside looking in, meaning we can trade him too to either dump serious amounts of cap or acquire draft capital that we can use in the next 3 years.

We're only in cap trouble if we can't move two of Myers, Kulikov, Little and Perrault (I love him but he can be replaced by Vesalainen), and if you want Statsny we'll have to move 3. But that's not going to be hard at all given the amount of assets Chevy's acquired.

I'll agree that good teams/ true contenders should not worry about their upcoming UFAs. Contending teams trade for upcoming UFA at TDL. If the Jets think Trouba is needed for the next two Cup run....just keep him.
But it many upcoming UFAs do not hold as much trading value as fans want and think. Other teams have cap limitations or time lines that doesn't necessarily fit with acquiring such players.

We agree to disagree. No matter what happens it's going to be an interesting off season.

... wouldn't mind islanders 2 first round picks would use them to trade up or get 2 good prospects drafted close to where trouba was
jets right def lines would then be... just sign myers for a few more years
buf
myers
poolman