The only issue I see with an Ekholm trade down the line is the cap room. Assuming he signs 5 million AAV for 3 years, (where the first year, he could earn 6 mil, 2nd year 5 mil, and 3rd year 4 mil) we still have a lot of young players (Perfetti, Heinola, Stanley, Samberg, Gustafsson, Berdin) that will need raises. We could offer them bridge deals, as Perrault, Armia, and hopefully Demelo (by trade) could leave, freeing up about 7 million in cap room, plus the additional 1 million in cap left here. So, I would sign the following bridge deals for our younger players:
Perfetti: 5 million for 3 years.
Heinola: 4.5 million for 3 years.
Stanley: 1.5 million for 3 years.
Gustafsson: 1 million for 2 years.
Berdin: 1 million for 2 years.
Stanley: 950,000 for 2 years.
But this is far away and who knows what the team will actually look like by then. Thought I'd have some fun and think about what an Ekholm trade could do for the Jets, and I feel like they could be competitive for quite some time with an Ekholm trade and all of our team-friendly contracts.