OTT declines.

Reilly is worth a 4th. Anisimov will be worth something at the deadline.

Puljujarvi isnt enough to move Neal, and you also have to pay to dump Russell.

This is a tough one because Edm, and their fans, value Puljujarvi more than everyone else, and not by a little. We all value our favorite players more, but Puljujarvi is an extreme between home team & fans and the rest of the league's teams & fans. That makes any trade scenario unbalanced before word one.

Anisimov and Reilly are bottom6/depth, and therefore much easier to replace, but they aren't what this trade is about. This is about how bad Neal's contract is, and to a much lesser degree, Russell's contract, versus how valuable Puljujarvi is. I don't remember what value I may have given these guys in other threads, so excuse me if I'm off a little from previous threads.

Russell is an easy , very standard salary cap dump. $4MM cap, $1.5MM actual salary, final year of contract, plays well enough for $1.5MM salary. So basically, it's a $1.5MM contract with the other $2.5MM going to the cap as irrelevant since Ottawa is no where near the ceiling.

Neal isn't as easy, since his contract is flat, meaning the exact same salary each year remaining. This means Ottawa doesn't get a cash relief like Russell's contract. The contract also costs too much for his production. Neal might get 25 points, and he might get 40, but at $5.75MM he's getting paid to be over 50 points. The contract also has 3 years left on it. A second year needs more compensation, but that third year is huge. Ottawa will want to start competing for a playoff spot this year, and to go deep in the playoffs next year, so having to deal with Neal for yet another year after that starts to bite into their cap when they need to use it to complete. Also, in that third year, when Neal is 35, how much production will he give for $5.75MM? Neal is in decline, and isn't likely to do better than last year, and he's rarely played a full season, having more than 77 games only 4 times in his 12 year career, the last time 5 years ago.

Neal should be traded to a team that isn't going to compete for a playoff spot for at least 3 years.