Quoting: EccE
Kunin for 2nd (Khusnutdinov), Bonino is not lost (a win, actually), MoJo for Staal was surprisingly close due to Staal being trash and Donato did not have a place in our lineup, so we traded him in order to give him an actual shot in the NHL.
Kaprizov kinda belongs to Guerin. Fletcher did reportedly not even call Kaprizov's camp, which caused him to do an extension in Russia. Guerin showed the effort to actually get him here.
Spurgeon's deal is not awful. He is a top-20 D-man in the league, and would have gotten bigger money in free agency. Foligno's deal was a bit pricey, but he is such a good locker-room guy, fits perfectly into the bottom-6 and is an underrated scorer. I think that justifies it. Brodin's deal is more thal reasonable.
These "junk forwards" were also originally planned to be flipped at the deadline, because this was supposed to be a transition year for us. They do not belong to our long-term plans, anyway.
Donato (and Kunin) is better than Bjugstad, Bonino, and MarJo. There is his place in the lineup there.
Kaprizov's old agent screwed MN over, Fletcher went though him and he didn't relay any of the messages. After that Fletcher and Fenton both made Kaprizov a priority.
Staal just got a 3rd and a 5th via trade. Marjo (higher cap hit) is a cap dump MN would have to pay to get rid of. How is this a close trade?
In Bonino for Kunin MN lost the better, younger, FWD that still has a lot of team control for a pick that might one day turn into a FWD that is as good as Kunin. Bonino is a cap dump winger at this point. How is this a good trade?
If you say planning for the expansion draft that hogwash. Don't make those bad trades and you'll lose one of Kunin, Donato, or Greenway. Now MN could lose all 3 of them for a couple of mystery boxes.
Spurgeon is nowhere near a top-20 d-man. Seriously, has Spurgeon been worth his $7.5m contract this year? This is only year 1 of that 7 year deal.