The Oilers are in Desperate need of Depth and with only 10M and 6 Forwards and 2 Defense needed, they need to shed who they dont plan to have in 2 yrs. With the Emergence of Broberg and Bouchard likely not going anywhere that leave CeCi as the odd man out and MN is desperate for a RD with size and has depth pieces they can look to move. Gaudreau gives them a cheap option at Bottom 6, Merrill will backfill the D position at a cheaper cost and if they like him they can resign. Mojo gives them a temp solution at 50% retained to backfill the Forward base

This is a no brainer for MIN. They get cap space and open roster spots for rising prospects. Not sure it’s much of a positive for EDM though.

My thoughts as to why this is good for EDM is because:
1) Currently need to resign or move up 8 players and only have 10M in cap to do so without dumping a core piece.
2) Broberg is likely to get a good next contract of 2M-3M AAV for a decent term. that puts them down to 8M or less to resign or bring up players where the average cap hit coming from each is about 900K.
3) This trade takes care of 2 of those positions on Forward and they get good term for one of those players which they need. Additionally it keeps their D-core at 6 as well.

So with that said, in a world where it takes place they are now sitting at 7M (assuming Brobergs Contract is closer to 2M AAV) and now they only need to resign or bring up 5 players. Now granted they may need to make other moves as that is still a very small amount of cap, this gives them 2 less contracts to worry about and provides the depth they need to more comfortably bring players up to fill positions.