That Florida trade is horrible for the Panthers

Its not perfect. All I know is that they are trying to shed cap and getting rid of one of their bigger contracts helps them do that.

Preds pass. Kapanen would be of interest to NSH, but not as the centrepiece of an Ekholm trade.

Thats why I added Johnsson who is the same player/slightly better, Holl who is a decent shut down guy and a 2nd rounder.

Thats 2 middle 6 forwards, a bottom 4 defenseman and a top 60 pick for a top pair defenseman and a 4th liner

But they wouldn't retain then, plus Rielly is a UFA in a year and he'll be commanding as much as Ekblad if not more. Plus they arent going to move their two best defensemen to a team in their division

Honestly, take out the third that Nash is giving TO and Holl and its pretty fair

I like Kapanen because I think there's still a little more untapped potential with him. It's not a sure thing, but I like the odds.

Johnsson is actually the least desirable piece for NSH. More of a redundant piece on the Preds. A little older, more expensive than Kapanen, and a UFA at the end of his deal, unlike Kapanen where you'd retain his rights.

Holl would be useful for NSH for a year, but he's got a new 3 yr deal. He's a nice player, but I'd like him more if he were 3-4 years younger. NSH's D core is getting a little old. Any new additions with some term would preferably be younger than Holl.

2nds are always nice, but 2022 is so far away Seattle will have announced their team's name by then.

I really can't think of anything from the Leafs that would make sense for Ekholm, from a Preds perspective, that Toronto would consider parting with. I don't think they're the best trading partners, in this case.

Not sure you'd get much better of a center piece, tbh. A 2nd line winger with two more years until an RFA expiry... That's a pretty solid center piece for Ekholm if they decide to move on from him. If you place Ekholm's value around that of Muzzin's when he was traded, this trade is an absolute steal for Nashville (I read your other post about about Johnsson/Holl not meeting needs, I'm just talking pure value).

I think Ekholm would have a little more value than Muzzin did. You'd be getting two full seasons of Ek, and he's got a cheaper contract. With the Muzzin trade LA got a 1st, two recent 2nd rounders, and saved over $3M against the cap, for just Muzzin. In this proposal NSH gets a lot of middle of the lineup depth, but fewer potential homeruns. Plus they have to give up a useful 4th liner, a pick, and take on extra $3M + in cap, for the next few years. LA got a much better deal than NSH is getting here.

Both of these trade proposals are slanted heavily in Toronto's favour. Not hard to fix a weakness in the lineup when you assume the teams you are trading with are going to allow themselves to be fleeced.

An extra few months doesn't provide that much extra value (it's still two playoff runs), nor does the $250k difference in salary. Taking into account that Muzzin is the slightly better player, I think we can call the value even.

The players that NSH get here are worth more than a 1st and two b prospects (Grundstrom and Durzi). Kapanen is easily worth the 1st - he's already developed into what you could reasonably hope for out of a late 1st and you'll have him through his prime. Johnsson + Holl + the the 3rd to 2nd upgrade is worth drastically more than Grundtrom + Durzi. I'm not saying this to bash your team or be rude, but Watson is not worth a roster spot on the Leafs.

If the cap is an issue, that's one thing, but the overall value here far exceeds that of the Muzzin deal.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this, because I reject most of what you've said here (Muzzin being better than Ekholm, the value of the extra 50+ regular season games you'd have Ek for, the values you've put on the Leafs involved in the trade, etc). I'm not saying this to bash your team or be rude, but this deal makes NSH a worse team, and they're stuck with longer, more expensive contracts in the process. As I said earlier in the thread, I don't see a workable deal for Ekholm with the Leafs.

Alllrighty then...