I'd cry but yea I would do it

I think this benefits New York slightly more.. bring in an upgrade to Barzal at centre and they can get out of Pulock’s bad aging contract. Plus Dobson will start needing more minutes and can take Pulock’s spot and Mayfield can slide in behind, then you bring in either a young guy and develop him at 3RD or sign a veteran for the spot

Barzal is my favorite player of all time so it would hurt in that sense. But everything you said was spot on. Pulock is starting to decline so trade him while some team still think he is an elite/great top 4 dman. So really is it just Barzal + Pulock + 1st for a top 10 player obviously you do that

This would make it very hard to resign Bouchard

This trade is fascinating.

The off-season after the Oilers would have almost $19M in cap space. Let’s say hypothetically Bouchard gets a $8M aav new contract, that’s really only adding $4.1M on this current cap. So I don’t think re-signing him would be an issue

Here's my mildly tortured take on this: during the time they've both been in the league, Leon Draisaitl's Oilers have won the same number of playoff series as Mat Barzal's Islanders (4). The difference is Drai has been skating alongside Connor McDavid when he was doing that and Barzal was dragging Leo Komarov up and down the ice in his series wins.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd rather spend the $15.3M on Barzal & Pulock and keep the 1st instead of giving about the same cap hit to Draisaitl & Broberg. This move would definitely make the Islanders a better regular season team, sure, but I don't know if it actually makes them any better of a playoff team than they currently are.

You can’t base a teams playoff success on 1 player. Say all you want, but Draisaitl is even better in the post season than he is in the regular season.

You get the better player that teams focus on more during the post season and it opens up every other player more. & it benefits the Islanders by getting them out from under Pulock’s contract and allows Dobson more ice time to become even better

Can't see Ceci waiving for SJ.

Waiving what? He has no trade protection so he has no say where he goes.

Ah my bad; must have gotten him confused with someone else.

What are you using for the cap? I used the average 3%/y increase for $91m. This roster + Bouch @ 8M would leave $9,348,000 and theyd still need 4 FWD, 1D, & 1G to fill... Thats with Holloway taking less money than his ELC too. Its def possible but half the team would have to be on leauge min contracts

I wouldn't take that as EDM. The package is both too old and doesn't return the kind of piece I'd need it to (a young top-6 C or young top-4 RD)- and no I'm not really viewing Barzal as a C anymore. Given the assumption that he'd agree to re-sign with the new team, there would likely be at least a couple better packages out there .

Barzal is 2 years younger than Draisaitl. He’s in the middle of his prime and can 100% play centre. He fits the style of game that Edmonton plays which is a skilled, speedy player. It also gives Edmonton an actual shutdown right handed defender.

I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better offer than what’s listed.