Wings wouldn't pay anyone to take Holl; they'd just buy him out.

That's an easy yes from NYI. I'd like to keep Dufour but Vatrano fills an immediate need at a great contract.

Why not save even more money and have more cap space? A 3rd alone would also do the trick.

Need Kampf... Not paying to dump him

I’d rather keep the assets and sign a free agent center if I’m Boston. They have the cap room to do a lot

Not interested in that package for Zegras and he isn’t a guy who would fit in in Boston anyways

Why are we giving away Frank for nothing??? A reclamation project a 4th liner and a AHLer isn’t even close

No interest in Holl or taking on Kamper’s contract — we can burry Ross for free

Sign Reinhart instead of Guentzel

Strome is not a 2C for us and Killorm isn’t a 4th liner

This is real bad and all over the place

The UFA options for a center are not any good. Lindholm is the best option and I don’t think he’s worth what he will get on the market.

The entire 3rd line is nhl ready and on ELCs. Most of the forwards the Gulls have are not NHL ready. Guentzel is better than Reinhart who’s having a fluke year if you look at his past production. To a lesser extent the same is true for Frank. He’s having a big year and instead of dumping him at the deadline for a pick next year, the smart move is to get young nhl ready scoring options. Wahlstrom has to stay healthy but he is going to be a steal for someone. Trotz wasted that kid’s potential and Lambert was even worse.

I don’t believe Zegras is worth what he will get on his upcoming RFA contract and that’s before we give up every good asset we have to get him.

I’d rather have Lindholm with the expectation of a revivial in between Pasta and Zacha than the hope of Zegras living up to his contract / giving up high shelf talent to get him

Zegras has already shown he is a heck of a playmaker. He was the main catalyst behind Terry scoring 37 goals 2 seasons ago. The kid has maturing to do and when that happens he’s going to be a ppg player but probably as a LW. The Bruins have done just fine with Zacha, Charlie, and Geekie as a the first 3 centers. Beecher and Boqvist round out the center options nicely. Too much has been made of not having a 1C. Lindholm is more of a solid 2C anyway and he’s probably going to get over 7x7 the weak UFA class. It’s going to be another Kadri contract .

People can debate whether that's a fair price for Trevor Zegras (why do we need to trade for Georgi Merkulov when we have Cutter Gauthier coming?) but I think that the point is moot because I don't think that Anaheim will put him on the market. But I wouldn't pay more than a third for any one of those Islanders, so I certainly wouldn't trade Frankie Vatrano for the entire package.

We've got a high-scoring forward to play LW -- Trevor Zegras -- so as my esteemed friend @GeneralLandro says, signing Sam Reinhart at the $10 or $11 million mark (which is probably what Jake Guentzel will command, anyway) makes more sense than Guentzel.

Detroit isn't paying anyone to take Justin Holl off their hands and the Kampf buy-and-bury transaction just to get an over-the-horizon third makes no sense whatsoever, never mind the fact that Toronto probably finds him useful, as @LeafsFan98 says.

That’s your opinion on Zegras. I don’t pay the cost to acquire him AND extend him.

Instead of begging GM's to take Holl Red Wings should just buy him out.

And Petry too! 😁

Leafs pass. Kampf isn't a negative value asset. At worst he is neutral. Would rather keep him. He is a very serviceable defensive C.

Holl buyout is only 1.133 mil AAV.

GM's know Detroit is screwed trying to move Holl.

Yzerman will cut bait before he eats a warm sandwich.

So, let's start at the top.

You traded out a top line forward that is the right age for our core, which are exceedingly hard to come by, for a third line that could be filled out internally, or via FA, or via minor trades with other cap strapped teams (such as Colton form Colorado, etc)

With those cap savings, and a gaping hole at 1LW, you sign Guentzel, a player who's age doesn't match our competitin window, until his age 36 season, which we will have to drag through our competition window for the last few years at a huge cap hit when regression hits him.

You pushed out 2C to the wing, to accommodate moving Strome to the center, because you brought in a player who doesn't score to play 2RW.

You traded our leading scorer for three shots at scoring RW, none of which have proven they can score at the NHL level, two of whom have proven they in fact, can't score at the NHL level.

You made two rather meaningless trades with Detroit and Toronto, those could be excused as shuffling the deck if the rest was worthy of praise.

You overpaid a defenseman who had one blip of a career year, who's not particularly good defensively, to play with another guy who isn't particularly good defensively, furthermore as a pairing we already know doesn't work because we used to have Montour on the team.

And finally, probably the funniest part of all, you traded for Julien Gauthier and then didn't bother to sign Cutter Gauthier.

and the bruins still aren't going to have any interest in zegras...obviously.

islanders accept and block your number

Yeah I think the nutshell is really just that you tried to do too much here. Zegras provides something ANA needs badly, which is offense and creativity. With Zegras, Terry, Leo, McT, and Gauthier, our top 6 is missing only a RW that fits our compete window. Thats where these guys are all recommending Reinhart, and I’d second that or trying to get Killorn to recruit Stammer to join on a 2 year deal where we overpay him to incentivize him (we could use the vet leadership and have no cap concerns until year 3). Our only needs beyond that might be 3C (which can be found in the open market) and then definitely RD, where one big acquisition (like Pesce, Roy) in FA would be huge (plus Levshunov 🤞)