Oilers respectfully decline

MIN should accept. Simmonds could be useful to them if they're in the playoff race.

Not sure about EDM tho. I don't think they're ready to give him up for a UFA 4th liner and a 7th d-man... They might want an established NHL player in trade involving Puljujärvi.

At least you were respectful

Actually I have to disagree for a couple reasons. First, Sokolov is Kaprizov's former teammate. If Kaprizov weren't Russian and didn't have the possibility of never playing in the NHL (I think he does want to come here, but there's always that risk) I would be fine trading him, but having a guy that Kaprizov has played with makes the slight chance he never comes here that much smaller. Sokolov has so much skill, but he eats very unhealthy and looks like a slug on skates. If he can figure out his diet, he could be a top 6 player someday. Second reason is that we've traded away 3 first round draft picks in the past 6 years (including Tuch to Vegas) which is why we are the oldest team in the league. Our new GM has said publicly that he doesn't like trading picks, so I imagine it would take a very enticing young player for us to do that (which Simmonds is not). I've wanted Simmonds on the Wild for a very long time, but now that he's 30 we need to stay as far away from him as we can. We have a history of making trades exactly like this (1st round picks/prospects for aging goal scorers) that have ALWAYS come back to bite us in the ass. If Fletcher were still our GM, I think he'd see a trade like this and call Hextall up immediately. This screams Hanzal all over to me again. Simmonds is good, but I'm not a fan of rentals at the deadline and any price involving our 1st for him is a non-starter.

Huh. Good reasoning. Didn't think it like that.

If Fletcher hadn't made a bunch of trades similar to this, I would probably feel differently. Unfortunately for him, that was a big reason for his firing. Again, I really do like Simmonds but his age concerns me. I think it could be a potential Lucic type situation...