Pretty underwhelming, don't see Seattle taking Zaitsev for 1 thing. Doubt Toronto protects Holl. Also there is no chance Piok is exposed either

I don't think they will be doing many teams favors unless the player they receive is a cap casualty and not a cap dump. Seattle paid 600 million to join the league, there is no way they want to be a bottom for their first few years

Don't see Seattle taking Niederreiter instead of Bean/Fleury/Pesce/Slavin. Whichever doesn't get protected.

Why are they trading for Gardner when the can just pick him??

Allen instead of Fleury.
A forward from StL instead of Husso unless Fitzpatrick isn't protected.

Taking Kivlenieks from Columbus is almost worthless for Seattle.... there’s other better goalies who have more potential then he does. Plus you can get a better prospect from them like Carlsson or maybe even end up with a player like Savard who would be the 2nd best defenseman on the team. Why would they skip on players like that to take a guy who is at best a backup?

Ottawa only has Chabot as a consensus protected defenceman. Since the team needs to protect two more, because once you protect one, you get to protect three, Zaitsev is the next best defenceman that’s not exempt. The real issue is that there’s no third defenceman to protect, unless Wolanin has a breakout season. Gudbranson and Reilly don’t need to be protected because they are expiring UFA, and there’s a secondary rule about how many unsigned players they can choose, and most of those will be RFA, because they at least retain the rights for the RFA.

I’m expecting either Nick Paul, Rudolfs Balcers, or one of the goalies being selected, Joey Daccord who is still waivers exempt.

Youre over the cap.

If Ottawa can get out from Zaitsevs deal sooner than later, that's a huge win. There will be so many opportunities to find a capable vet D who not a massive drag on the team to fill that mentor role. There will be plenty of UFA options, as well as options to make a trade with teams who would potentially lose a valued Dman for nothing. Also at this point, with having seen him play a single game I would protect Josh Brown over Zaitsev. I'm actually hoping Ottawa would be willing to pay Seattle to take Zaitsev.

This ain't it. Seattle is gonna collect picks 1st and 2nds. The flat cap is gonna be a huge boost to them.
Ladd from NY, Neal, one from TB, lucic,
Basically any team that views itself in playoff contention is going to move a cap dump out and cough up either a 1st or 2nd depending on the value of the dump. 5 1sts 4 2nds is my guess.

Bruins will protect Kase, WPG will protect Pionk. NJD will probably protect Johnsson and FLA, Connolly. LA should protect Roy.

Unless the bruins add another valuable piece to their defense and go 4/4, then they will protect Kase. The most likely candidates are Bjork, Kuraly, Lauzon, Clifton, Zboril, Frederic, Wagner.

This is better thought out than most of these, but it's just so hard to do at this point, not knowing how people will play and trying to predict trades

A lot of silly, pricey picks here.

Curious as to who you think the Jets are protecting on D ahead of Pionk?

A huge win for the armchair GM's that don't understand Zaitsev's value, but that's okay, because the coach and GM do. The team is fine as long as they are running it. I can see them trading off Zaitsev before his next signing bonus is due though, but that's a financial trade, not a performance or hockey trade.

BTW, stating you would protect Joshua Brown over Zaitsev makes me really question your opinions.

Whatever value he brings to the team for being a 'good pro' or a 'coach's player' easily rounds down to zero when you factor in his on ice play and see that he does basically nothing well.

The fact that the coach and more importantly the GM love him so much is the biggest concern I have with this team going forward (besides Melnyk obviously). I have complete faith in the team's ability to draft and evaluate talent at the amateur level, but when it comes to evaluating talent they consistently target players who either provide minimal value, or are an overall negative on ice, Over the last few years, here's a list of pro additions that I would say have added/will add significant positive value: Dadonov, Ennis, C.Brown, Nilsson, Duchene, Tierney and DeMelo. There have been a few break even players in there too, but the list of players they've added who made them worse is much longer.