STL has no need for that trade because it would thin out their RHD situation and would still leave them short on cap space to bring back petro[/quote


You can still re sign Petro as you will probably get a CBO. My guess is Steen would probably get the axe thus clearing $5.75M off the books and trading a Gunnarson would eliminate another $1.75M off the books leaving you $7.5M in extra cap space. Assuming this deal doesn't happen and he signs for $9M that would mean the right side is making $21M alone. By adding Ehlers you'd easily have the one of if not the best top 6 in the league in Tarasenko - O'Reilly - Ehlers and Schwartz - Schenn - Thomas. Your D remains solid with Petro, Faulk, Dunn, Bortuzzo, and Scandella.

IMO i see this as a way to improve while keeping their best D.

STL has no need for that trade because it would thin out their RHD situation and would still leave them short on cap space to bring back petro

You can still re sign Petro as you will probably get a CBO. My guess is Steen would probably get the axe thus clearing $5.75M off the books and trading a Gunnarson would eliminate another $1.75M off the books leaving you $7.5M in extra cap space. Assuming this deal doesn't happen and he signs for $9M that would mean the right side is making $21M alone. By adding Ehlers you'd easily have the one of if not the best top 6 in the league in Tarasenko - O'Reilly - Ehlers and Schwartz - Schenn - Thomas. Your D remains solid with Petro, Faulk, Dunn, Bortuzzo, and Scandella.

IMO i see this as a way to improve while keeping their best D.

I hate playing against Ehlers, but I hate the idea of trading Parayko in the division because he is one of the guys in the league who can skate with and effectively neutralize guys like Ehlers. Sanford, while definitely not on Ehlers level, has looked really good in the top 6 with ROR and Perron too, not to mention we may end up with a Ehlers-like player in Kyrou. I'm not too worried about the cap either, moving Bozak and Allen with a possible CBO gives us a lot of space to resign Petro.