Canes can’t afford Mantha and have a version in Necas with 2 more years of ELC.

Non flat cap years, sure we should be all over it.

Dumping JJ still not worth a first to Pittsburgh

I'm guessing that caps trade is a joke right? A top 25 prospect in the world right now in McMichael for a bottom pairing, aging defenseman who's struggled with injuries. Yeah I don't think that happens.

So
Many
Things...

Despite Dekeyser not being enough to get you McMichael, I can’t see Washington trading him honestly, he’s fantastic and him and Vrana are the future there as Ovie and Backstrom start to age out (they’ve mostly built up a solid defensive core of prospects so they can’t really afford to part with their high-end young forwards is my perspective as an outsider)

you're not getting demko for taking on a cap dump

The caps trade - so DD is not a bottom pairing defenseman and looking at Radko Gudas, Dillon and Jonas whats his nuts, DD is certainly an upgrade, your window is closing, so your team needs to do something and take advantage of the few years you have left...as far as McMichael goes, he may be good or he may not be, we wont know for a few years, by then the Caps will be drafting in the top 10 again...

If you sign Markstrom, your going to lose Demko one way or another...if not, then roll the dice with him, if it goes bad....

No way are the caps trading McMichael for Dekeyser lol. The Capitals can just go to free agency and sign someone to fill that role for much cheaper than dekeyser and not trade anything. You're closing window argument is pretty weak. Dekeyser is the answer? No, no he's not

I could see Carolina liking Mantha but I think they would have to shed a contract in that trade as well. Maybe dzingel, bean and the 1st. Bean is a good get imo

We can take Dzingel and Geekie (played with Rasmussen on the same line) instead of Bokk... Washington has no hope after the next couple of years, they gotta win now or suffer the wings fate...maybe DD isnt the answer but they have to give up what little they have to try and win one more time....

I don't think you know enough about the Caps situation to even attempt to reason why this trade makes sense for them. Gudas is gone and likely so is Dillon to free agency, and even if we don't pick up another defenseman we have Carlson, Kempny, Orlov, Jensen, Siegenthaler and Fehervary who are all NHL players. McMichael was with the team through the playoffs this year as a 19 year old. He will be an NHL player, I'd guess he plays games for the Caps this season. Why would we trade away by far our best prospect for Dekeyser. It makes zero sense, even if you ignore how lopsided the trade is value wise, the Caps can't even take on that much salary cap for two years. We need to re-sign Ovi, Vrana and Samsonov next offseason.

it's a garbage trade don't double down

How about this then, you can keep McMichael and we will take your 2023 1st round pick, its going to be pretty much first overall....

Or... what if... we don’t want to trade for Dekeyser because he’s not better than any of our current d-men lol

How did you clone Jamie Drysdale. That’s a draft win