Defense. By placing Andrew MacDonald on the second pair, we hamstring Travis Sanheim, who played his best hockey alongside Gudas last season. For Gudas, we retain salary and get a 4th liner? Gudas had a bad game in the playoffs and a subpar (for him) season. For all that, he's still our best option on the right side for that second pairing, and you underestimate the trade value of experienced right-hand shot defensemen. Hate that trade. Would rather MacDonald be a pro and play 7th D man for us. Also, Morin is LTIR, but maybe you didn't hear that news?

Offense. Skinner brings scoring, I get it. I can't see Hexy going for it, however, given the emphasis on building through the draft. Weise is not getting us a draft pick. He has no positive trade value, and you have also traded away much of our cap flexibility with 2 salaries retained now. We cannot then flip someone at the deadline and retain cap to increase the trade value and number of available suitors. Not good long-term planning, especially bartering that flexibility away for a 4th round pick. Lastly, Bozak will fetch more money than that in free agency. Free agency doesn't yield you convenient bargains to fill your lineup. It yields you overpays in salary and term. I bet you we trade for a 3c rather than go UFA, but we'll see.

Please don't just give Gudas away. He was perfectly fine when he wasn't handcuffed with Manning.

Good point. Let's give credit where it's due. Munk, good job keeping Manning off the team.

Thanks for the feedback