Kings aren't moving Matt Roy, and Girard has not played well enough this season to command this type of return.

Say what you will about plus/minus but no one else has a lower plus/minus than Girard right now on the Avs.

I mean he's playing pretty normal. He moves the puck out of the zone easily, but then the ahl forwards have a tough time getting anything going in the o-zone. Plus he is stuck playing with johnson who is playing top 4 minutes and he can't do that anymore.
His point totals are lower because he doesn't see ice time with our only scoring line and barely sees powerplay time anymore from being overshadowed by makar, we would keep him but in a cap crunch casualties have to happen.
but if roy isn't for sell i donno who else they'd be looking for, they'd need a top6 dman coming back who is cheaper mostly

I think you have the right type of player for sale here, it's just the Kings also can't afford Girard with Vilardi, Anderson, and Durzi needing raises soon. The Kings likely won't bite on Chychrun unless the price goes down, so I see them going after a rental or someone they could extend cheaper with like Gavrikov or Forsling. Not sure I see the right trade between the Avs and Kings as they are both on similar compete windows.

I don't know if CHI will burn a retention slot on Dickinson for a 2025 2nd, but I don't mind it since we already got a 2nd in the first place just take to take him from VAN.

I could see your point if it was this year but i assume the majority of your valuable UFA's will be gone this year leaving 3 open spots for next year

Yeah. That's the way I see it too. I just don't know if Kyle Davidson will. He might want to save those slots to facilitate other trades and be a third party retainer, or maybe flip some other contracts with retention. Probably depends on what kind of dumps he thinks he can get and what he thinks he might get flipping them. I think that is a perfect example of turning a cap dump into a flippable asset. So, we'll see.

Matt Roy is not available.

The Kings trade is awful for LA.

I’ve been linking Schmaltz and Colorado together for a while, generally thinking with Girard as a return. I think you can make the cap fit easier that way. Keep Newhook as cheap middle 6 scoring.

That said: I don’t think Arizona would want to retain that long on Schmaltz AND I don’t think he plays much C anymore. So might not be as natural of a fit.

Yeah, i've seen schmaltz on the wing as well. I don't really see arizona wanting girard if they're looking to move chychrun. I understand they are not similar styles of play but if they're looking to move a cost controlled d man like chych i doubt they want another, who is older in girard.