Quoting: Nhl_oilers
We don’t need Kulak, nor would we pay a second for him. We need a top 4 RHD, and a starting goalie.. those are our biggest needs in my opinion. Also, don’t see San Jose moving Reimer. They need him for next year too.
I dunno about the need for a top-4 RD. Ceci's sneakily been really solid over the last few years, and Nurse-Bouchard's been the tam's best pairing. Swapping out Barrie isn't a bad plan, but I don't think his contract is bad enough to justify paying to dump AND replace, and I dunno what the cost is to move Barrie or when Russell'll be back to slide in. Russell's ability to play RD is another factor, if they end up with 4 good LHDs and 2 good RHDs, they can just bump Russell over.
Kulak's just probably the best value on a dman available at the deadline this year, if not the best value period. And he can fit with any RD on the team, either acting as a security blanket for Bouchard/Barrie or as a puck-mover for Ceci/Russell.
And Kulak is good. He's 67th in GAR among dmen over the last 3 seasons, and was a pretty substantial piece of the Habs success under Julien.
I kinda figure that if a team isn't in the playoff race in THIS pacific division, they probably aren't contending for a few years yet.