That Murphy trade is atrocious.

That's an overpay by Columbus IMO. I don't think Gaudreau is worth that. A big reason being he walks in Free Agency in two seasons.

I'd hate the agree. If you were able to trade Gaudreau for Bjorkstrand, Texier, and a 1st (or 2nd, for that matter), I'd make the deal and keep Bjorkstrand instead of trading him for something else.

I'd probably rather do Gaudreau, Kylington, and Ryan for Bjorkstrand and Savard, if you're looking for a RD.

Yeah, that doesn't make sense for Columbus. We'd be trading away our 1LW, our 1RW, a first and a second for a new (admittedly better) 1LW. Too high a price to pay.

Atkinson is still the 1RW by a mile in CLB...

Though the rest of the comment stands. I know it's a high price, but I could see Treliving starting around this package and sliding it down. Like CLB fans, I'm really impressed with Texier's game and development. I don't see him getting to the 90+ points level (ie. elite), but who knows. If the package was Texier + Bjorkstrand + 2nd, I think Jarmo would really have to think about that deal for Gaudreau, even with the risk of walking to UFA in 2 years. Part of the thinking is that Gaudreau still holds big value at two trade deadlines before his contract expires, so if the fit isn't there with Dubois OR if Gaudreau told management he didn't intend to extend, they could flip him for picks/prospects and recoup a decent chunk of the price paid to get him.

Remove the 3rd or Kylington and it's not atrocious. I think Treliving is still looking for scoring help up front and potentially a bonafide solid RD -- and the latter player isn't likely to bump either Andersson or Tanev out of the top 4 (especially based on what those two guys are getting paid). Murphy is a very decent 3RD target on a reasonable contract.

Not sure I'm following...are you saying you would trade Gaudreau + Kylington + Ryan for Bjorkstrand (1 year remaining) + Savard (1 year remaining)? Because that is a little bit below value...

As mentioned in my description at the top of the page, I think CGY (and specifically Treliving) would probably prefer to keep Bjorkstrand to add a right shot 20G scorer to the middle six, and then let Kylington, Petrovic, Mackey, (and Stone?) battle it out for the 3rd pairing spot with Valimaki.

And I'll add -- in spite of this not being popular with CGY fans -- that I would still do Texier + Bjorkstrand + 1st (ie. remove the 2nd rounder). Texier is a very solid player who is developing quickly.

Torts has already said his top line as the roster stands is Texier - Dubois - Bjorkstrand. And Bjorkstrand easily outproduced Atkinson this year, playing at a 35-goal pace over a full 82 games. I've heard from people who would know that the front office is utterly in love with Texier, too, so I just have a hard time seeing them going for this deal.

I'm pretty sure Texier won't be playing in a Flames jersey soon...unfortunately. Just spitballing trade ideas based on my value of certain players.

I thought Atkinson still deserves the 1RW spot based on this year's playoffs: 22:47 ATOI + 3G + 5A = 8 points in 8 games. Bjorkstrand only had 19:34 ATOI + 3G + 0A = 3 points.

(Note: both CLB players are showing very high ATOI because of how many friggin minutes CLB played in OT during the playoffs, but the 3 minute difference between the two suggests to me that Torts still prefers to roll Atkinson out on the 1st line with Dubois.)