Betting that we expose Burns in hopes of getting out from some long-term money and in order to give Merkley an increased role. Burns is still a great to elite player, but there are other roster needs and as we've seen cap space is hard to come by right now.

Based on all analyses of their statistics in junior and draft position and stuff, Merkley is projected to be even better than Quinn Hughes and should already be in the NHL at this point. Going to be hard to keep a guy with that amount of talent in a limited 3rd pairing role with minimal PP time because of Burns and Karlsson. Equally, it's going to be hard to justify paying Burns that kind of money when there are other roster needs like the forward group.

Were you actually thinking about Vince Dunn and the Blues when you typed the above, 'cause I couldn't have typed it any better than this. Just fill in Dunn for Merkley and Petro for the guy "hard to justify paying that kind of money when" we have forward needs as well.

I would bet on a trade before him getting exposed to Seattle.

We’ve seen it all offseason. Moving good players making lots of money is virtually impossible without taking money back (which defeats the purpose in this case). Burns is a perfect pick for Seattle as it gives them a face of the franchise with personality and a few years of good play left in him.