That much is obvious

your trade values aren't bad actually, although Toronto would have to make multiple moves to be able to fit Miller and Eakin but it's doable.. but there's no reason for Ottawa to be the team to offersheet Karlsson. That's a lottery pick waiting to happen and with them rebuilding the pick is far more valuable to them

You think that those a good trades? Zaitsev is a buyout waiting to happen why would a cap pressed team take him on? Especially by giving away 2 useful players.. Ottawa has no business offersheeting Karlsson, hes not the answer to their rebuild... Reilly Smith is worth much more than a 2nd and a 5th.. unless vgk just wants his salary gone

I don't disagree with that at all. I just saw how loaded they were with the picks and it wouldn't surprise me if they offer sheet someone. We are talking about Melnyk here. If E. Karlsson ends up going back to the Sens and Eug ends up smelling like roses from that whole debacle, who says they aren't in the playoff picture if they add someone like Wild Bill in?

The more I think about the Toronto trade the more I find it unlikely. The best situation for me (in my fantasy land anyway) would be if they shipped out Kadri. IMO, Eakin is an upgrade.

Maybe Zaitsev ends up turning it around in Vegas. Look what happened for Wild Bill, Schmidt and Haula. And with that Vegas is getting rid of Millers contract which is going to be a problem with the way he played last year.

The answer for Ottawa's rebuild is in Houston.

I wasn't sure where the second pick would land in the Smith trade. I know he wouldn't go for a first, but maybe a 2nd and 3rd would go. I just knew it would be a 2nd and something else.

What you're forgetting about is Vegas' cap situation. They're currently over the cap with no room to sign any players and they need to still. They won't get full value for players when they have to move them to shed cap. Zaitsev is not a buyout waiting to happen. People that actually watch him know he can still play. The casual fan that only pays attention to their own team calls him a buyout option. He's slightly overpaid, yes. But only by about $750K, it's the term that hurts. But he's still a NHL d-man so he's not a likely buyout candidate because he can still play and a buyout counts against the cap for 10 years.. I also said that Ottawa shouldn't offersheet Karlsson. Don't know why you reiterate that. Smith is worth more than a 2nd and a 5th, but to free up $5M in cap space and to be able to bring in Tyler Myers after that, he's not worth much more than that.



You're right. It is Melnyk. The cheapest owner in the league and he'd much rather spend $925K on a pick than to go offersheet someone and pay them $6M+. They're far from the playoffs, at least 2 seasons away.

The Toronto trade is unlikely, but the value is there. Vegas sheds over $2M in cap and gets a similar d-man to Miller back in Zaitsev. But Toronto is also in a cap crunch so it's unlikely they're willing to take on more cap unless they flip Eakin after acquiring him. But the actual value of the deal isn't far off

Ottawa would only move to Quebec City. Keeps the conferences and divisions balanced. Arizona would be the team moving to Houston

As to that, Vegas gets 5.5 mill back when clarkson goes on the IR, so if they move Karlsson or another forward they will be flush to sign all the bottom 6 guys then have on the team and they're fine... but they wont be able to do that will someone like Karlsson on the payroll... also the answer to Vegas' problem is not to sign Myers as a UFA.. just screws them up more

You need to read more into LTIR to understand it all. It's not that simple that the cap hit just disappears if a player is put on it, so no its actually not that simple.

What am I not understanding? Hes been on it for the last few years, trend will continue I assume then Vegas will have 5.125 mill in space

Clarkson has actually been on IR, and not LTIR (not much difference, but LTIR provides a sort of "relief" if needed). When he's on IR, he's still counting towards the cap. On LTIR the team is allowed to exceed the upper limit by that amount of the players contract, as long as they follow the guidelines laid out in the CBA. So if Vegas were to place Clarkson on LTIR with the intent of spending near the cap upper limit, they'll be allowed to exceed the upper limit by Clarkson's salary. However, once the cap resets at the end of the season and also during any roster freeze, Clarkson's cap hit then makes Vegas over the cap. Clarkson's cap hit is only allowed to be exceeded during normal times, although he would be on LTIR and deemed unfit to play during the season, during a roster freeze and when the cap resets at the end of the season, he is technically then considered a fit player and counts towards the cap, and Vegas isn't allowed to be over by his cap hit. So at the end of the season when Vegas must be cap compliant again or pay the overages on the following seasons cap, they'd technically be over the cap and be forced to either trade someone else and get under the cap, over pay an additional cap penalty on the following years cap of an amount equal to Clarkson's contract AAV.

It's a tough thing to understand but if you wanna read it all (it gets a little complicated), the LTIR section of the CBA is section 50.10 subsection D and goes into further subsections depending on the situation. Season opening LTIR is under there as well