Why get Samsonov when he’s gonna be behind Vasi untill Vasi is out, makes 0 sense
McMichael and Alexeyev are Definitely gonna be in the trade if Kucherov is going to WSH, but Samsonov makes 0 sense For Tampa, or a 3 way trade happens

Thanks. Yeah. Could leave out the goalies. But then the cap didn't work, with my salary guesses, so the title didn't work... Or the Caps could send Vanecek instead of Samsonov. Vanecek had better stats than Samsonov last time they played together in the AHL, and has an even lower cap hit. Vanecek probably doesn't expect a starter's job to be handed to him, since most fans are penciling in Samsonov, so he'd probably be happy at backup for a couple years, and then he could be traded again to a team that needs a starter, once people see what he's capable of.

I think the Caps, if they could solve the resulting salary cap cannonball, might be a contender for two or three years and then rebuild, while Tampa could just stay competitive for the next decade, with all the above young talent, even without Kucherov.

That’s not even a quarter of the return tampa would want for kuch alone

I agree. It's not what they'd want. But it's three times what they're getting in all the realistic builds that get them under the cap by giving Cernak, Johnson, Killorn, and Gourde away for a handful of 2nds and small cap dumps.

So the choice is whether Thampa would rather have a future #1C in McMichael, a future #2D in Alexeyev, a current #1G at a 1M cap hit they can flip for whatever in Samsonov, and keep Killorn, Gourde, Cernak, and Johnson, or have a 27 year old, $9.5M Kucherov and bunch of junk.

Tamap would get much better offers from literally every other team in the league

Okay, okay. Since you're such a nice guy, throw in T.J. Oshie.

Deal