Quoting: arafay
Which ones aren’t exactly fair? Murray for sure now that I think of it, but the rest are decent imo.
Start - with what the rental market was at the trade deadline. In your own description you are calling these guys top 4 rentals. But the ones that stood out.
Hjalmarsson is close but no way is AZ retaining salary in any situation.
Cole is a guy you can play on the top pairing in a **** down role in a pinch and anchor the dcorp pk and adds the intangible of knowing what it takes to win a cup. That’s worth a lot more than a 3rd Rd pick and you are talking about a trade to a division rival the Avs aren’t doing that for a 3rd.
Nemeth - hate his offense and he isn’t great at moving the puck but he is great in the pk and being able to take most matchups. Plus his value to Detroit is way more than a pick that at best has a 50/50 chance of making it to the NHL in 3-4 yrs.
Oleksiak - probably close on value but again you are talking about a division rival trading to another team they are competing against for a playoff spot.
Brodin - see TanSor’s comment
Zadorov - love him or hate him, he has the ability to play against the other teams top players, can skate, and as Schiefle knows be a beast physically. He gets fairly ridiculed for his occasional boneheaded plays, but he has been great the last 2 playoffs, and again you are talking about a trade to division rival.
Ryan Murray - yeah I agree it would have to be conditional on the pick, but Columbus isn’t shipping him for a 3rd that possibly turns into a 2nd.
McCabe - I don’t know about this way, maybe🤷♂️
But that’s my opinion.