Oilers need an affordable scoring winger to deploy in the middle six, and Gurianov should provide that. Barrie is an excess at this point for the Oilers due to the emergence of Evan Bouchard. Shedding 1.5 million in salary also doesn't hurt when you're this cap strapped.

Stars need to replace Klingberg, and with Gurianov rumoured to be on the trade block I can see a trade like this happening. Especially when you consider that outside of Heiskanen the stars don't really have any transitional defensemen, Barrie should be a solid fit.

Cap dump

Another move to create some more cap space for Edmonton. Asplund is a decent two-way bottom 6 forward and will replace Foegele in the depth chart. Edmonton may be overpaying here and this trade might be a bit of a reach in general, but it does make enough sense for both sides in my opinion.

Buffalo gets a decent prospect in Lavoie and Foegele who, worst case is about as good as Asplung. Lots of GMs were interested in Foegele at the 2022 deadline too, so Buffalo could easily flip him for at least a 3rd round pick.