Can't they just wait to sign him in FA? New York has been attractive for free agents in the past.

They could. But 24 other teams have also called on McBain so they might miss out if they just wait. McBain wants to make a deal before the deadline so he can burn the first year of his ELC this season.

I think Beckman could raise some interest, but I can't see the Wild getting Chytil without giving up at least a 1st rounder.

Chytil is excellent at zone entries but struggles to convert those entries into scoring chances. That's a problem guys like Hughes, Burakovsky, and Fiala had early on in their careers and it's one that usually foreshadows an offensive outburst. Speaking of Fiala, he plays exactly the type of rush offense style that would suit Chytil's game. I'd be ready to pay a hefty price for Chytil since he could really blossom into a difference-maker with Fiala.

I've wanted Chytil for a long time so I'd be really happy with a deal like this. Think we'd have to add a bit though and also I this definitely further complicates our cap situation

$2.3M for a C that could be *very very* good, or at the bare minimum is better than what is currently there isnt terrible, but yes, all depends on what the further moves are, do they trade dumba/talbot/fiala, do they make a move for LTIR $ (shea weber), will be interesting to see where things go.

Absolutely not arguing that Chytil isn't worth his contract. My point is just that using futures to acquire him makes our cap issues a lot more difficult to overcome.

Never understood the Weber thing, acquiring him does not give us more cap flexibility. If anyone trades for him, it will be a team looking to hit the cap floor and pay less real $ to get there (like Arizona).

If you aquire him, the upper cap limit increases by his cap hit, I believe, Russo wrote an article related to it less than a month ago, dont remember exactly when, might have been the fiala article. I do not fully understand it, and it might not be $ for $ that you get back, maybe the difference between cap hit and actual cash you get back on the upper limit?

This article does a good job explaining how it works, https://couchguysports.com/the-nhl-ltir-explained/

This was all debunked. The cap does not rise by his cap hit. Give this a read: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/32-thoughts-taking-a-look-around-the-nhl-trade-market/

So basically what that says is if someone gets hurt, and you put them on IR you dont get the relief of it accruing forward, however you do get the ability to have a cap hit increase. So its a gamble, and they do have the space to activate him THIS year, I don't think they would next. With the allowable 10% over the cap in the off-season, they would be able to hold him. Its all just a risk, especially with dumba, who makes $6M and is hurt all the time.

I understand how LTIR works. It's not a cap increase, its just that you're able to spend up to the player's contract for a replacement which may put you over the cap. Capfriendly has a great FAQ on this, here's an excerpt:

"When a player is placed on LTIR, their cap hit remains on the teams cap payroll and it continues to count as it always did. It also does not provide the club with additional cap-space savings that can be banked for future use while the team operates above the salary cap. Instead, LTIR provides relief if the club's averaged club salary, or payroll, begins to exceed the upper limit. "

The way you "go over the cap" is because you can spend up to, in this case, Weber's contract but since his contract still is counted towards the team's payroll (and thus your cap) it's not adding any additional cap space. You'd have to activate Weber first which kills this whole thing. We don't have the space to activate him considering the fact we have to sign Fiala, Kahkonen, and fill out the other 4 roster spots to ice a full team. In other words, our total cap space plus Weber's cap hit has to be under the $82.5M cap ceiling when the season starts. At that point, Weber could be moved to LTIR and we could spend up to his contract on additional roster players, but because Weber's cap hit technically still counts towards you cap you are over the cap. You still only have $82.5M in cap space to ice your team, there's nothing magical going on here that changes that.

I'm honestly shocked that both Friedman and Russo mentioned this idea before they did any investigating into whether or not adding Weber would "raise your cap". It doesn't work like that, there's zero chance we're trading for him.