I think the Toronto trade is pretty fair without the picks.

Sorry to contradict, but there's zero chance CBJ goes for that. We need true top-6 scoring talent, preferably a 2C. Andreas Johnsson is not a 2C on a contending team. And why on earth would we trade Korpi for Andersen?

Nylander and 15oa for Parayko and Blais would be cool with me, so value isn't far off IMO.

Agreed... this trade makes no sense for cbj.

If there was a Parayko trade it would have to be salary cutting, the Nylander trade would just make it harder to sign Petro. And there is no way in hell the blues are trading Parayko and letting Petro walk. The blues are in a tough spot after the Faulk trade, since anyone in the market for Parayko knows the move helps the Blues get Petro signed so either the Blues take a package of futures for Parayko or that team waits and takes a run at Petro in FA.

Parayko and Blais for Nylander (and add a league min contract to the Blues roster) is basically neutral on cap. Blues could move Allen and Bozak any time before Tarasenko comes off of LTIR to stay below with Petro in the fold. The Faulk trade clearly ruined what would've been a pretty chill couple of offseasons lol but here we are.

Yea it's close to neutral and I agree the value doesn't seem too far off, I don't see them moving Parayko if it doesn't solve the Petro situation. Maybe something built around Parayko + Bozak for Kerfoot + Dermott + 1st rounder. Parayko is obviously worth a lot but most GM's aren't gonna help your cap situation (especially with the Petro clock ticking) AND give you a full value. There is only one JR in the league.

True, wish there were more JR's . I see you're point, but I'm of the opinion that a GM shouldn't care about much context other than "is what I'm getting helping my team". If your trade target is the missing piece that you get to add to your roster, who cares if you helped the other team out of a jam. Obviously you don't want to overpay, but trying to force one's hand can lead to missing out on the target altogether. I don't think all 30 GMs team up to decrease value. Every GM knows the Blues need to shed the cap, but some team out there will pay the price if it checks their boxes.

It's not that I think the GM's are trying to decrease the value of him, It's just that this is the most unique situation I have seen I think where the Blues have 2 elite RD so the teams that need one AND have the space to fit one of them know that trading for Parayko directly affects the chances of Petro hitting the market so it might be a "too much for him I'll wait for Petro to go to FA". With a flat cap this year lots of teams are gonna be trying to move money around so if you have to go make a separate cap dump elsewhere to get the full value package for Parayko it's still technically deminishing the return just not all in the same deal.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

You're right, opening up cap space will cost value one way or the other, but the teams willing to take bad cap and the teams willing to make hockey trades are different entities. Def gonna be interesting. Maybe Petro will take one for the team and sign for $900k .

Its not "basically neutral on cap" at all. Nylander is signed at about $7M per for three more seasons. Add that to all the cap we have to wrangle, because our issues will not be all solved this offseason. This will be an ongoing battle with casualties. It's a bad deal for the Blues, plain and simple.