this is a very bad trade. eberle is better than Hamonic and anyone with a brain would stay the **** away from cizikas

Not sure how you're evaluating that - Hamonic is D & Eberle is RW. Eberle is floundering a bit in McLellan's system and if he can be used to fill a need (i.e. 2nd pairing RD) then I think you make that deal. Opens the door to signing Oshie, who is a very McLellan-type player and allows them to develop Puljujarvi at his own pace. Regardless, I disagree with you that Eberle is "better" than Hamonic, and many league analysts agree with me. The Isles GM would never do that trade straight up, Chia would liekly have to take on some salary to get it to go through, hence Cizikas. This also gives them the option to play Drai on McD's wing for this year. Strome would be more ideal, I would agree with that, but that'll cost a lot more and it's not exactly a salary dump for the Isles so we're back to square one.