The chances of the Hawks giving up that package for EK is slim, Keith is a key piece at a very reasonable contract., so he is not going anywhere.

Way too much to give up from Chicago.

Why does Winnipeg want Keith? Also, why would they want to pay a first round pick for a 35-year-old declining player?

Good point, mone would be this will be between 27 and 31 Winnipeg is an outstanding team. I think they would do it to have a guy that can carry those minutes but doesnt have to.
I'll say it again if Dallas will take Polak at 1.8 I would take Keith at 2.7 every day of the week.

there is no way a team swallows a 2.75 mil cap hit for 5 years or whatever it is. Just forget about that.

LOL except Eugene Melnick. You get to only pay half of half money for 5 years. We get to the floor and I dont pay for it. Sign me up.
That last year 750k
For a 2.75 cap hit. I might get signed by the sens for scoming up with such a good way. Eugene saves 2 against the cap. If he upped the staff from 5 to 6 I'd come aboard, but we know the max is 5 employees

he is cheap as hell, but i doubt he purposefully hamstrings the team like that. It would decrease the value when he tries to sell it

True but I think an argument can be made that if you are a person or business buying the senators, you want scorched earth, kill it all, their longest contract is 4 years and that is for Beodker, from the Hoffman deal, yikes.

You get as many picks and prospects as you can, use the cap to your advantage. Get rid off all long term money, hope to win the Lottery and start with the building blocks Chibot and tkchuck. I actually think if Brady plays in London that is good. Let it die this year and then he start the new regime in 19-20.

Some of my own watercooler, friends of mine and I have joked that with the shambles in Ottawa, I wonder if Gary had an investor like he does i Winnipeg to swallow initial losses, it worked with the Jets, maybe this is Quebec City's team.
Expansion isnt going there because the east have more teams, I've gone to the arena for 20 years, in the mid 2000s ot was so fun as a Leafs tsn, back and forth and we would often lose.
They are awful, the arena sucks, and these poor fans do not want to be tortured by this owner.
Move to Quebec, the kids come up together, maybe they win a draft Lottery and a Quebec Toronto Rivalry builds.

JUST MY FRIENDS AND I THINKING, NOT SAYING IT WILL HAPPEN.
But they just need to kill it all, steal through heart like the leafs. Bye Kessel, bye Dion
Bye Hoffman, bye Karlsson, bye Duchene (hurts the most if Hughes is Colorado's 2nd line center) bye Stone.
Ceci is an RFA, he will Arb again unless he is traded and suddenly the best player on this roster is....... probably Pague or Bobby Ryan, but Pague is a center you get a second round pick.

Bobby Ryan will be the best player on this team potentially in the 19-20 season, that is bleak, you tank.
Nylander 8th
Marner 4th
Matthews 1st
The Leafs have done many things right, #1 was not picking between 14th-10th.
Lose. Lose badly, draft well, start from scratch.

There are serious logical problems with all of that.
1st, is the fact that draft picks aren't worth a whole lot outside the first half of the 1st round.
by the time you get to the 3rd round you are looking at a 12% chance of being a career player. 1st round picks are 53% chance I believe. But you consider most of those players on the top make it, then you are looking more likely at a 20% or less chance when looking at late round 1st round picks.
So you trade a whole lot of players for a pipe dream of picks that probably aren't the greatest and most likely won't net you a whole lot.
This is why teams trade their picks out for quality players fairly often in the NHL. Most of that has to do with the draft rules but that's not what this is about.

This team isn't the only team in serious tank mode right now. There are a lot of dumpster fires in the league. Look no further than NY and I can show you two others that are most likely going to win the 1st selection this year. This is why teams don't do mass sale more often. It's best to keep what you have and keep building up, unless you are going to get a top 15 pick for it.

Okay but my pushback would be who are you keeping in Ottawa, so I'll just ask and let you respond.
Karlsson, Duchene, Stone all UFA and objectively the 3 best players.
Who is going to choose to stay in Ottawa for years to come?

Well we really don't know what is going on behind the scene on that. We do know Karlsson wants out and they should trade him. But the other players we don't.
I does make sense to send them out if you can't resign them. There is no argument on that. But that isn't the same as taking on other teams cap issues and killing your own cap space.
But ideally anyone would rather keep those three players if they can. Actually doing so is a different story.

Yes and that is what I mean. If Duchene said I'm staying here to rebuild this team, different story,
You got Matt Duchene Logan Brown and win some games,
But Duchene for 2 straight years has been on a team that was god awful, Mark Stone is gone, he is too good and 30 teams would sign him. Unless Ottawa gave my 9 or 10 a year, shoot no bonus money, he is gone.

Without your 3 best players do you put hope in Bobby Ryan and JG Pageau, or do you pony up like the rangers, say look at how Buffalo feels getting Dahlin, Toronto with Matthew's.
We need hope and that comes from being in the bottom of the league and picking in the top 5 for 2 or 3 more years.

Ottawa doesn't get this years pick so there is no hurry to tank.
It's honestly better to hold the player if you aren't getting something of value. You don't need a skinner trade. That doesn't help Ottawa.

See there I disagree, dont you have to disassociate the pick, I would have given the 2018 draft pick and then lose for hughes, but does it really make sense to let a guy leave for nothing.
Honestly if Carolina had to choose okay this is all we have, we are not a playoff team, let's get 4 assists, stats say probably 1 of those 2 second round picks, the pick ot prospect will play in the league. I take that every day of the week. Alex Debricat went in the second round. I take taht chnace if Duchene leaves for nothing you get nothing, he isnt goint to pull them to the playoffs, figure out the most you can get for him, retain like Brassard to open the market more, Duchene for 3 is worth more than Duchene at 6, use those assets can play in 2024-24.
The leafs are as good as they are because when JVR left, no one blinked. Johnsson, Brown and Hyman are all drafted in the 5th round and later you take that chance at a player that could become something.
#allaboutassets

You most likely aren't going to get the return you expect. It's one of the reasons EK hasn't been traded already.
I does negatively effect you when you give a player up for nothing. Because then that is all you will ever get on the rest of them. People will know you will settle for whatever garbage they dump on you.
On top of it, there are a lot of players on the market right now in trade talks so it kills the value.
Which is why it's better to keep the player if you don't get a fair return, which is slim.