Would rather keep Olivier; he's done well by us and his contract is a lot more tolerable.

Hawks decline. Takes more than a 5th to move an almost $6m cap hit. And not sure the Hawks would even want Schmidt. They probably want a bigger, more physical type RD for their 3rd pair.

MTL aren't trading Guhle and that offer isn't close to changing their mind.

none of this matters anyway.
This teams real problem is it lacks a franchise player and it's just hard to out work someone who is vastly more talented than you are.
They are getting eaten alive by Makar and MacKinnon they don't have an answer for that.

Flyers decline

Hellebuyck isn’t a franchise player? And if Connor hadn’t been injured he would’ve been in the top 5 in goals this year

correct Hellebuyck is not a franchise player.
Connor is also not a franchise player. Hell he's 27, he's peaked as a player by all general stat theories on age and player peek performance. He's not even a ppg player.
Lets not pretend he's on the level of the McDavid, MacKinnon, Panarin, Kucherovs of the league.
He's just not. He's not taking a game over and carrying a team.
7 of the last 10 cup champs had a legit Franchise player forward, some would say vegas and Eichel played at a franchise level last year, which would make it 8. I don't lean that way, but I do lean that vegas is incredibly deep with really talented players, enough so that it makes up for it. WPG is not. They are like DAL, they are kind of deep but no real star power. Because of that they can't win. Hard work just doesn't beat talent and hard work. Statistically you are just at a real disadvantage and the facts of history show this.
If WPG doesn't get a franchise player their odds of winning a cup are very diminished. As is every other team without one.

Hellebuyck isn't a franchise player, he's a good goalie but if he was as good as the hype he gets he'd actually steal a game once in awhile, the dude is wildly overrated.

Signing Toffoli would be such a bad move, the guy is cooked.

That Bauer kid is tough, definitely would add to the physicality level if he ever makes it.

Winnipeg had the best defensive numbers in the league this year with a middling d-core, all that was hellebuyck

Meh, was overall team defense, the dude doesn't steal games, if he was as good as his hype he'd steal a game but he doesn't.