That's a severe overpayment for Virtanen. Bura alone could probably do it. Fehervary has Schmidt type potential and Caps desperately need their 2nd.

As for Niskanen, I also have him going to NJD. They have the space and need for 2RHD. But if we aren't going to use Coleman in top 9 I'd rather just get more picks from NJD. I have him going for two seconds.

Youd need to overpay to get him imo. And Coleman adds depth and gives us 4 dangerous lines.

No reason to overpay for Virtanten. He hasn't done anything to be worth an overpay. I'd like to have him but I'm not overpaying for a possible bust of a player.

He’s a physical player that easily could turn into a mini Tom Wilson. As much as people hate to admit it Tom Wilson type players are in high demand.

Which is why I would love to have him but you don't have to overpay for him. If he was killing it then yeah. Bura+4th or B prospect probably does it.

I’d do that trade all day. I’d really want to get Tuch but that’d be impossible

Agree overpay for Virtanen. Bura alone may be enough with one of our D prospects. Good with Niskanen trade. Salaries make sense on resigns.

Guys, let's hold off on the Djoos-Kempny comparisons? Christian Djoos was fantastic playing 12 minutes a night in last year's playoffs. He's decent in regular seasons when he averages 14 minutes a night. 2.5M and moving Niskanen to clear space for him? He would jump at the same contract you're offering Gersich and Stephenson. And that extra 1M almost means you don't have to move Niskanen yet?

For Djoos, I think it’s somewhere in between, based on what they gave Bowey with limited NHL time. They are probably looking at 2 x $1.5mm or very close. Can’t use forward contracts as a comparison, there twice as many of them on a roster and that means something.

True. Defensemen get evaluated against each other.

I get that Reirden seems to play Djoos slightly more than Bowey, but that still isn't much. In fact, with Jensen in town, Bowey and Djoos might play the same number of minutes in a Caps sweater, the rest of this season.

Their minites/game have been about even. Their career points/game is identical, within a hundredth. Both come out looking defensively okay in really easy minutes, next to underrated old man Orpik. Djoos hits a little less, but blocks some more shots maybe?

If Bowey at $1Mx2 wasn't a great deal enough to keep, then paying Djoos more than that is confusing.

I’ll admit that I haven’t compared stats and metrics on the two, I just floated the extra 500K to Djoos because of the smell test, he seems to do more/better than Bowey did, hence the extra playing time this year and in last year’s playoffs. Plus, his name is more fun to say.

Far as not keeping Bowey goes, we both know that didn’t have anything to do with the contract, had to do with being in win-now mode and a deep farm system of young (albeit left-handed) defensemen.