The Hockey PDOcast - Trades We'd Like to See at the 2024 Deadline Part 1

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance and Jack Fraser for this year's edition of the 'trades we'd like to see' extravaganza ahead of the 2024 deadline. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dimitri Filipovich. Joining me is my good buddy, Thomas Drans. Tom, what's going on on this lovely Christmas morning for us here on the PEDAOCast? Oh, man, I'm very, very excited. I feel like I'll be honest with you every time we do this show now. First of all, I'm thrilled to do it.

It's my favorite show of the year. But secondly, I feel this, like, pressure. to come up with complete insanity. And I feel like I'm a little worried. I'm going to manage expectations. I'm going to do the classic like hockey executive thing, fake hockey executive in this case, manage expectations and just be like,

you know, if everything goes my way, I'll bring about 60% of the same level of zaniness that I've brought to my fake trades on previous, in previous years. I get the feeling that you're being too hard on yourself. You're being a self-critic here because knowing you, you're going to deliver it. And I think maybe your baseline for what you think is zany

might be different for the common listener at home. So we're going to test that. I don't have any, I don't have any like Maxim Bammon blockbusters. This is all I'm saying. Well, that was a Haley's comment situation as well. I don't think we should expect that to be replicated every year. Also joining us here today is my good pal, Jack Fraser, bringing my worlds together here, Tom, my colleague at the Sports Night Radio Network.

Jack, my colleague at EPIRN's Eye, Jack, what's going on, man? Oh, not a lot. just enjoying the fact that a trade, literally the second we started recording as this tradition. What was the trade? Chris Tannib is a Dallas star. Oh,

look at that. Well, that's interesting because that'll certainly, as the trade call is pending, Breyer LeBron says second round pick, Young Prospect, and conditional pick corner of the flames. We'll loop in. I've got various trades on Chris Tative as well,

but I think they're still going to be holding true to form because we're going to tie in other factors as well. But this is exciting. As I was saying, Christmas morning for us, we get to finally open all our presents. As excited as we are, though, Tom, let me tell you, the listeners are right there with us. I've had a number of people the past couple weeks impatiently messaging me about how they're just jonesing for this year's edition of the trades. We like to see extravaganza. And so if you haven't listened to past versions, you probably should go and listen to because I think they still probably hold up from an entertainment factor perspective. But the plan is, and I think this is our third year doing this together.

with the three of us. The refresher for the rules is it's going to be a two-parter. We're going to turns going around and pitching the group on trades we've cooked up. And there aren't necessarily trades we think will happen, although we've had some hits in the past like Brendan Hagle to Tampa Bay. I think we had Yassie Pulley Arby to the Keynes last year. Jack, you had Patrick Kane to the Rangers a year too early, but still true. And we're going to try to cook up some fun trades. And I think the only rule we try to abide by is they have to involve players we have reason to believe would be available and they have to be logistically possible under the cap and actually make sense. Other than that, don't hold us too much to the details of returns because I think like picks

and prospects are pretty fungible and we can arrange that accordingly, but it's going to be a fun one. And so hopefully this can serve as a bit of a primer for people getting ready for the March 8th trade deadline. And away we go, Tom, I'll give you the floor because you've been the standout performer of past editions of the show. And so you burned that. What's the first trade you've done? So I'm going to start with a trade that in some ways pays tribute to an annual tradition here,

which is one team goes out and acquires an intact defensive pair from another team to help stabilize their blue line group. And in this case, you know, my idea here is that the Oilers upgrade their blue line. And in the process, the Chicago Blackhawks get an adult, right? we've seen what sort of happened with the Blackhawks this year. Injuries have hollowed out a team that really wasn't supposed to be in the San Jose Sharks tier over the course of the season. They've been there. And obviously they just want bodies.

Like to some extent, they just want like responsible adult NHL players, men in the league to help fill out their roster and at least be a little bit respectable. And this sort of accomplishes both. So here's my, here's my concept. The Philadelphia Flyers trade both Sean Walker. and Nick Seeler to the Edmonton Oilers. Okay, so the Oilers get the right-handed second pair upgrade in Walker, and they add another like physical, versatile sort of third pair guy who, you know,

you can play them with Kulak. Both those guys can play right and left. You can play them with DeHarnay. You've got options. Edmonton comes out of this with a, with a deeper, better, more mobile defense corps overall. In order to accomplish this, I'm going to have them pay at 2024 first and a 2025 third to the Philadelphia Flyers, but assuming that if the flyers who already have a log jam on the blue line and have been sort of almost arbitrarily or in a cycle rotating their

blue liners in and out of the lineup, assuming they don't have a ton of time for Cody Sisi, I figured that, you know, maybe this is an opportunity where Chicago would be interested in just acquiring a free cap it. Like a free guy, they take his full cap it. There's literally no acquisition cost in this deal. on Chicago's end, maybe in reality they'd pay like a fifth to the flyers or something to further juice their return for the privilege of having CC for the balance of the season end next year. But more than anything, I figured this trade would help illustrate a concept that's kind of been running in my mind, which is, you know, what happens when a team like the Blackhawks

almost go too far in terms of the theory of like the perfect futures oriented rebuild and decide that in fact, one thing they value is like your Anthony Bovillow. Cody C.C. class men in the league type player, is there an opportunity for Chicago to act as a middleman at this trade deadline in a way we haven't seen before? Not to simply be like a laundromat for cap hits with retention and picks coming their way. But instead, instead in those money and money out deals, could Chicago be like a clearinghouse for live NHL level bodies? And that's sort of the concept that I've been thinking about as the deadline approaches. Um, you know, an opportunity perhaps for creativity

that exists around the league and I figured this was a good way to illustrate it. Edmonton gets Seeler and Walker. They pay some futures to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers duck taking money back in the deal by instead shipping Cici through Chicago. I've heard that Netflix is currently in the works developing a show that's going to be falling around

Cody Cici and Anthony Bavillier called Men in the League. but I think it's still in production, so we'll see if that comes to fruition. That's an interesting one. Jack, what do you think about that? Because I think at first blush, it certainly makes sense. And credit to Tom for keeping the trend going of trying to basically transplant a full pair for one team to another. As we've noted, he initially was the innovator of the Carson Sousie, Mark Giordano trade,

from the Seattle Cracken at the time to the Boston Bruins. Many people called him a madman. turns out he was a visionary and just ahead of his time because we've heard this idea of sealer and Walker being packaged as a pair to whatever destination they go to. I just think that from Philadelphia's perspective, they would probably actually want to take on the last year of Cody C.C's deal just to kind of get minutes and rather than letting someone else get futures along the way for taking on that money because Philadelphia certainly, you know, has deep pockets and is willing to soak up costs if it means getting draft capital. But what do you think about

that? What do you think about it from, I guess, the Oilers perspective? Most importantly, not necessarily hitting two birds of one stone there, but addressing the defense position and clearly upgrading at that right side in particular. Yeah, well, I love that we hit full defense pairing and three-way trade right off the bat. Also, I've always gotten Carson Suissee and Nick Steeler mixed up, so it's only fitting. I mean, I like this trade for Philadelphia certainly. I think I agree with Dim that them getting back or them laundering CC through Chicago, you know, I could see

them actually wanting to hold on to him. But on the other hand, from the Edmonton perspective, the only question that I have with that is Darnal Nurse because they love playing Cody Cici with Darnal Nurse. So I wonder how long Seeler and Walker would actually remain a pair there and whether they'd be willing to play another right-handed defenseman in those big darn-all nurse minutes because nurse has got to get his big minutes because they're paying him $60 billion a year. But other than that, I mean, I like

the fit for both players. I think Walker would be a great ad for Edmonton. And Seeler, I think loki has been a very effective bottom-pairing defensive defenseman lately. So I like it. I be curious to see how it would end up getting deployed on the ice. Yeah, I guess what's interesting for me, I mean, they've certainly thrived as a pair together this season and Walker in particular would obviously add a dynamic to this Oilers blue line that they could certainly use. The Oilers are in this spot where they've got about $2.375 million in a room if they wait until March 8th and shout out to Buckpedia who put together like a full comprehensive list of what team's cap situations would be like if they waited until March 8th, so thank you for that,

without sending any money back, right? And basically this postseason and next postseason is all that really matters for the Oilers, right, Tom? Like, I think every single decision that they make as an organization needs to just answer the one simple question of, does this push us closer to winning a Stanley Cup in that time frame? Because in the summer of 2025, dry-sitle will be a 34, 30-year-old UFA. McDavid will be entering the final year of his deal. And so I guess my question then, if you're doing this is do you leave yourself room to go out and make another edition, which in my opinion, I do think they still need to add a top six wing potentially with finishing talent to kind of capitalize on what McDavid-Drey side will create because they're

finishing the season has been relatively poor in that regard. So I guess that's kind of my one question there, because obviously I love the idea of adding Walker and bringing sealer. I certainly don't mind that either. Yeah, and I do think that's one of the sort of drawbacks of this trade is that it doesn't really leave the oilers with, like you're effectively spending much of, if not all of, the space that you'd create by shipping CC out on a defensive upgrade. Now, my personal view is upgrading that right side beside nurse is a bigger issue than their, sort of need for an additional winger. And I struggle to figure out how they address both, you know,

short of the like Novak Carrier package that I'm sure someone has. And then we'll get into at some point in this fake trade episode. But I really find it difficult to find out how or to figure out ways for the Oilers to address both, you know, given their, given their all around cap situation and given the problem with the Campbell deal. You know, short of paying to get off. Campbell, which, I mean, that contract's not super unattractive to buy out. Maybe there's a, you know, like a version of LA retaining on Proverov that they could find out there, but that feels like

more of an offseason move. And their, and their need to upgrade, you know, two areas sorely, in my view, with defense sort of being the standout need, I think is, is obviously too pressing to wait on clarity with Campbell. Yeah. Jack, I mean, clearly, Tom, hit the nail on the head here. I think that the priority number one is turning Cody C's 3.25 million that he's owed next year. And obviously for the remainder of this year is a cap hit into a legitimate second pair right defenseman that could hopefully in the process not only be a better player, but can also service getting more out of darn owners by just making his list of responsibilities on a nightly basis a bit's more simplified and kind of hopefully get more out of him than they've

been able to get with that pair in the past couple years. They've struggled together. I guess the concern is you look at the bottom six scoring in the last 20 games, they've played 450, 5-15 minutes without McDavid and Dre Seidel on the ice, and their bottom six as a group has generated nine goals in that time, which comes out to about 1.2 goals per hour at 5-1-5, which is obviously unacceptable. They're doing fine from like a possession and territorial perspective and they don't give up much defensively themselves, so it's not like they're killing them. But I just think finding a way to creatively manufacture some bottom six offense is key just to help lighten that bread and it's certainly not a new concept for the oilers.

I guess the shame of it here is like, speaking of Walker, I think the Kineckney Walker package and just godfathering Philly for that as recently as a couple weeks ago, you almost couldn't have created a more logical package to fit all of Edmonton's needs in one, but they've sort of played themselves out of that because it seems that Kineckney is going to be staying long-term in Philly and they're going to get a long-term extension with him done. Maybe you could tempt Danny Breyer with the true godfather of her. He seems like he's just waiting for someone to entice him in that regard. But maybe that ship has passed.

Did you have any, Jack, either kind of variations of this or other Oilers trades that you had in your mix that you think would be interesting for them? Yeah, it's funny that you mentioned that because literally the one that I have was specifically designed to address that, which I went a different direction. I went with Alex Carrier out in Nashville. And I have down at Kulak, but I mean, if we're talking about Cody Cici as movable, then let's swap them out for Cody Cici because that makes things a lot tighter. Let's say Cody Cici. And then I had the classic Xavier Borgo plus second round pick in there too, which I feel like is the Halak, Halak rider in a second of the current Edmonton Oilers. but I really like Kerry as a player. I like that he's, you know, right now he's playing kind of bottom pair of minutes,

but he was obviously partnered with Roman Yosi during that Nora season for big chunks of it. Gorsionator had a great point in one of his kind of mailbag substack pieces about how Carier is a guy who doesn't necessarily jump off a statistical page all the time, but what he does do when it comes to retrieving the pucks and helping to facilitate zone exits, I feel like that would make darnelner's job a whole lot easier. That seems to me like a really good stylistic fit and a big upgrade on CC. And, you know, again, even if Carrier isn't jumping off, you know, the hockey card stats or anything like that, he can generally be relied upon to put up pretty solid underlying results.

And I think the fit works there. The question, obviously, is whether Nashville is going to make a priority out of moving him or whether they see him as a piece. that they want to extend. But I like the fit there, and I certainly think that he does a lot for Darnel nurse that Cody Cici doesn't do. Yeah, one of the complicating factors for this entire exercise is I guess we just saw Tadav go off the board. So maybe that answers it from Calgary's perspective, but whether it's them or the predators or even the flyers, these teams just keep winning games. And so they're like the most logical theoretical suppliers for a lot of these moves, but they're just hanging around. And so we get to a point where you don't know how they're going to prioritize

that as an organization and whether you're going to need to really go above and beyond to entice them to do something if it's going to be kind of a seller move. It's funny you had that though, Jack, and you can tell, I guess, that we sort of think along the same way, but I think maybe spend too much time talking about hockey because I had Alexander Carrier with 60K of his deal retained. So I don't know what that would be in terms of a compick for a third party broker. I think you could probably pull off like a six-round pick or something because it's just for the one a year, so it's a very cheap pick to buy. But Alex, Alex Carrier and Gus Nyquist, who is 3.185 million next year as well for Cody Cece, who's 3.25, so him and Conachrist and

Cici essentially cancel each other out next season in terms of salary with prospects and picks, and I would obviously increase that package from the Sporgo in second to maybe even talk about Broberg, include another pick as well. I really, I don't know if it would warrant it for that type of a trade, but I can't see any logical reason why the Oilers would still have their 2024 first and even 2025 first in their possession by March 9th, like just go all out with this team. As we said, the window is these next two seasons. And, you know, Nyquist is obviously a Kenny Holland guy. I think he's been fantastic this year for Nashville playing on that top line with Ryan O'Reilly

and Philip Orsberg. And also look great last postseason when Minnesota acquired him in that Rama matchup against Dallas and is an efficient scorer. would answer a lot of those concerns in terms of whether you want to use them on the second line as a finisher or potentially put them on the third line and move guys like McLeod and R&H around as well. So it gives you flexibility and options. And I think that's as close as you can, I guess, without going that sort of filly route with Keneckney and Walker to addressing those two in a very tidy matter.

It would be something like Nyquist and Kerry. Although Tom, you mentioned Tommy Novak as well. And I'm just personally trying to restrict myself from doing every single trade involved in Tommy know back here, so I wanted to shout out Gus Nyquist instead. I like the Nyquist fit. We know that there's a level of familiarity, trust between Holland and him based off of him being an old school Red Wings player. And, you know, I think I don't have this specific fake trade like mapped out, but I do sort

of in the back of my head think that in the event that Nashville decided to sell more aggressively. Like, is there a cost, whether it's, you know, Holloway, Broberg, Borgow, all of the window dressing Oilers futures you can imagine, 2024 first, 2025 first, like, is there a level at which you wouldn't pay the predators to, if you were, if you were Holland and the Edmonton Oilers, to try and get like, Harry A, one of Nyquist or Novak and one of Soros or Lovac and one of Soros or Lankinen, depending on how high end you want to go. I think Lankanin is pretty good.

To be totally honest with you, I know he's a Kevin Woodley favorite, so I'm just going to appeal to authority and move on. I mean, to me, something like that, especially given the urgency that the Oilers should be feeling this season, makes a ton of sense. I don't even know if there's an amount that wouldn't be worth doing. Like, I don't know that the Oilers could overpay in a deal, especially on obviously the return Soros, given where, given how good they are and yet how flawed they are in certain limited areas on their roster. Yeah. I mean, it's not like you get to the West final this year and you lose just barely and

then you're like, oh, well, at least we still have our 20, 25 first in our back pocket. That'll make us feel better right now, right? Like, it really in the grand scheme, but it doesn't matter. Not that any of these moves would guarantee winning, but I think. it would push you closer to that. I can tell Tom that you're an efficient one-stop shopper. You're just kind of walking down the aisle in Nashville. And you're just like, ooh, I'll take a little ask Carrier here.

I'll take a goalie over here. Give me a forward as well. Let's get everything here in the shopping bag. I also just want to note before we move on away from Carrier, like that's my favorite deadline target. I think that guy is going to make a huge difference in the event that he moves to a team with a realistic shot at making a deep run. I think the Predators could easily make the playoffs, given their positioning and given the caliber of the competition in the West.

But I don't see that team going anywhere, even if they do get into the first round. In the event that Carrier changes addresses, I think he's going to be a major X factor on the right team. Okay. Can I pitch you two guys? While we're on the Oilers, and this is going to be the last Oilers trade I have, and then we'll move on. We're 20 minutes in here. So I think anyone's still listening is clearly interested and wants the good stuff. So can I pitch you guys on a three-team trade that I had that I was still trying to flesh out. I don't have the full details of it, but maybe you guys can help me work through it.

You go? Yeah, okay. The Oilers get. Vladimir Tarasenko, with 45% of his contract retained down to $2.25 million. And Sean Walker, who has the $2.65 million expiring. Ottawa gets Scott Rotten who has 3 million left

for two more seasons Philadelphia gets Cody Sisi and Josh Norris who has 7.95 million for six more years now

he's owed as a base salary 9.5 million in each of the next three seasons which would be a poison pill for a lot of tea that would be interested. I think the Flyers can certainly afford that. He's a 25-year-old legitimate goal scorer, particularly in the power play, which is, I think, something the Flyers are looking for long-term and moving forward. It's been their one real sort of sore spot this season. The issue is he's hurt again as we speak. He got hurt last night. He's constantly hurt. It's a big commitment. It's 50 million in future obligations, certainly. I think that would

be from Ottawa's perspective. We've heard a lot about how they fundamentally want to shake their team up. All right, well, how are you going to change that? You have to actually move one of these core players making a lot of money. He seems like the most logical one. Now, obviously, there will be picks involved here, right? Both, mostly going from Edmonton, certainly, and splitting them up between Ottawa and Philly to make it worth their while from a future perspective. But it kind of buys Ottawa some flexibility this summer when all of a sudden they buy out Corpus Hollow as well. They have some money to actually improve their team and make changes. Down the middle, they're going Stutzla, Pinto, Greg, Lawton, and Philadelphia gets some high upside scoring, takes on the rest of Cici's deal.

Edmonton gets two birds with one stone here. Obviously, a lot of picks going in both directions as well, but what do you guys think about that? I mean, you go, Jack. Josh Norris is such a wild of the current. Like, I was skeptical about that deal when they signed it. I love the finishing touch from. from outside. I was a little anxious about what else was under the hood for this player. And obviously this season has been kind of struggled back. I just, I, and I, and I get the logic of the new senators group wanting to shake things up. I just wonder, you know, and obviously picks would make a big difference, whether you give up on Norris this, this early, or if you're selling this low on Norris, especially if what you're getting is CC, Lawton, and then, you know,

maybe a couple draft picks. I could definitely see Lotton as a guy who would appeal to the senators. But man, that would be selling low on Norris. And I mean, I see the logic. Who knows maybe a year from now, he's going to be an absolutely unmovable player. But, hey, I mean, it's definitely interesting. And it's just exactly the kind of deal that I love when we bring up on here. It just throws a complete wrench into everything.

To be clear, to clarify, C.C.'s going to Philly, although it would be hilarious with the prodigal son returning to Ottawa. But basically... Okay. Saying I miss heard that. The Sends here are basically just downsizing Norris to Lodd and right, getting out of whatever long term they have in that 50 million dollar commitment to him. Getting a player that I think is valuable and I think would help them certainly. And I think they would value because of like the particular skill city has, especially in combination with the other young centers they have. And then obviously I think maybe you get a Broberg from Edmund. in their picks as well. It would just give them flexibility, I guess, to actually make changes because one of the issues right now is that they actually, even with the team they have, and it's clearly not a successful one and they're unhappy with it, they don't have very many avenues for like significantly improving unless they make some sort of a step back like this financially to move forward in the future, right? They have a lot of money committed on very few guys

right now, so I just don't know what the path would be to accomplishing that. And obviously from with the Lee's perspective, I mean, it's certainly risky, right? And it would be a pretty aggressive move that maybe would be falling in line more with like previous eras of Flyers hockey than this one. But I think if we're talking about how they creatively take a home run swing on like a goal scorer, if they're not going to pick high in the draft this season, this is one way to sort of do so. So I don't know. That's kind of why I was thinking about this. But certainly, I think way too many moving parts, but at least makes you think a little bit. So I found that one interesting. Tom, what What do you think about that?

I mean, for me, the reason to do this deal if you're the senators is that you truly believe you need to shake it up, right? Like, this would be just a, we believe that this group has done too much losing and we need a guy like Watton to come in, you know, have some standards. Just be a breath of fresh air for our organization. I just, I love it for Philly. I think this is exactly the sort of, put it this way. There are teams that as built can't possibly win the Stanley Cup but could do something that builds a Stanley Cup team elsewhere. Right?

I think about the Florida Panthers when they rebuilt and traded like Nathan Horton, right, and Dennis Seidenberg and Gregory Campbell to Boston and sort of helped them win in 2011. Like I do think Ottawa's in a volatile spot where there's a ton of pieces that are like really high end on the roster, it's just not working. They could absolutely be a team that, you know, builds a juggernaut elsewhere. Some teams should be sniffing around on this. And Philadelphia, especially in the wake of the cutter gocha loss, you know,

I think Norris is a perfect bet for them to try and place in the event that the senators decide that they need to change things up. Yeah. All right. Well. Yeah. And I also feel like the senators are going to have to blow things up so much on their blue line. in the next little bit.

I mean with chikrin, you know, that may or may not be foreshadow, and then obviously in goal with Corpus Allen, depending on what they can do with that. So I feel like they might end up shaking things up and creating some flexibility even if Norris stays on the roster. Well, who knows? I mean, he's such a wild card.

Yeah. I didn't know really how to value them either because I think there's some people that would view it as like, wow, that's just $50 million in commitments over the next six years. That's like just to stay away, Whereas obviously you can, the upside is tantalizing. So that's what makes it interesting. Tom, you pose the question of, well, if Ottawa was interested in shaking it up,

they just played a full third period in a one goal game last night where they had zero shots on goal and a two shot attempt. So I think they're pretty clearly one to shake things up. I don't think that's an issue here, but obviously this would be a pretty massive step to take. But if they're going to significantly change something, they probably need to take a massive step. I don't know if working on the margins is necessarily going to accomplish what they're striving

for. All right, let's take our break here. And then when we come back, the three of us will jump right back into it and keep pitching each other on trades. We'd like to see you're listening to the Hockey P.D.O.cast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockey P.D.O.cast doing our trades we'd like to see did a part of one. We've had a few minutes here to all regroup after my big Josh Norris three teamer. Jack, let's, before we keep going, let's talk a little bit about Chris Tanef to the stars. because as you noted off the top, right as we in typical fashion started recording,

the trade came through and I had a big spiel about one of my big trades being Tanev and his partner, Noah Hannafin, going to the stars and a whole explanation for why that could happen. Now obviously just Tanev is going there involving New Jersey, retaining part of the salary as well and getting a fourth further effort. Let's talk a little bit about Tanev and the fit for Dallas and kind of Dallas's motivation to win out on those sweepstakes because obviously there were a bunch of teams very interested and I think he's going to make a big difference for exactly for what they need. Yeah, I mean, he's just such a easy player to slot in. Like, you really have a tough time finding

any team that wouldn't be made better by having Chris Dennis. I mean, what he brings defensively, his puck moving ability, just the sheer stability, how well he plays with kind of young, more adventurous offensive defensemen as well. It really is all there. You know, for Dallas, I think this is a move that they pretty much had to make. The right side of their defense was not looking very strong. My old nemesis, Yanni Hock and Paw was holding down. I think that second pair, you know, not what you want to see on a team that I think has legitimate cup aspirations this year.

And I think he just gives him so much flexibility. I mean, right now, obviously, Harley and Heismann is such an excellent pairing. but, you know, a Harley-Kristana pairing, I mean, you couldn't really ask for anything better than that if ultimately that that's what ends up showing up at some point in the postseason. Love the move, love the price, and I think that there's a bunch of teams right now who should be kicking themselves that they didn't prioritize that again. Tom, the stars are in a very interesting spot, right, because they made it to the West final last year, and I would argue, I know you and I have had many arguments about this, but right now with the way things are headed,

They're in a much better position than they were last year with Thomas Harley's emergence into a top caliber or top paracaliber defensemen and getting the usage to reflect that. Matt DeShane is kind of a souped up version of what Max Dolme gave them after the trade island last year and has helped unlock Sagan and Marchman as a scoring line. And we've only seen a couple games so far of Logan Stankovin, but him and Wyatt Johnston certainly seem to be a handful down low and just give them a whole different sort of dynamic for other teams to try to defend and another scoring line in that. So there's been a lot of buzz about them being linked to Tanna and Hannafin as well. And that's kind of why I wanted to tie those two in because in watching their game against the abs last night, they were using this Ryan Suter S. Lundell pair out there against the McKinnon, Miko-Rampantan line. And not that any pair is going to give you a chance to hold your own against them, but you could just tell they were almost playing different sports in terms of the pace they're able to play at.

And so with those two guys and Yanni Huckampas, Jack mentioned, the footspeed just wasn't there, right? And so now TANF certainly gives them a nice compliment if you want to play them with Harley. You could potentially move Haskinin to his strong side as well. It gives you all sorts of options, and I think there's still work to be done here. But they're in this virtual sort of tie right now with the Jets and Avs for first and the central, right? And whichever team doesn't win that is going to have to play the other team in round one. And even if the stars somehow win the Central, they're going to eventually have to either go through Colorado or Vegas or Edmonton or a dominant rush team. And so I think adding a guy like Tanev just gives them such a better chance of competing in that type environment.

The, I mean, there's no question. And, you know, Tanniv's so smart. I think you can play him all over their lineup. Like, I think he could, I don't know if you have enough speed if you play him with Souter. But I definitely think you could play him with Lendell on almost a three. throwback shutdown pair. I definitely think he could help elevate Mero Haskinen. He was a great fit in previous seasons with Quinn Hughes. You know, he definitely looked good on occasion with Schillington with Uyger. So, you know, he knows how to support hook movers. He's got enough skill

to, you know, he still takes a little bit off the table offensively, but he's got enough skill that I don't think he hurts you too badly if you play him with a Haskinen type. There's just an awful lot that he brings. The Stankovin thing that you brought up does modify, I think, the star ceiling, especially given that Stankovin looks like a day one difference maker at the NHL level. If that's true, if that continues, if that's not just, you know, new call-up adrenaline, and I don't think we have any reason to think it is based off of Stankovin's dominance of every level he's been at for the last five years. you know, that team becomes a lot more interesting than they were, I mean, even two hours ago,

even before we started recording this, and they pulled the trigger on a TANF deal. Look, it's great value, getting the double retention. Now, I'm sure we all had fake Christanav trades. I'm sure we all had fake Christanav trades to Dallas. I certainly did. Do you want to see who got closest to what it actually looked like? Well, I'll tell you mine. And then Jack can go and then and then you can tell us what yours was because I had

Niels Lundquist tied to Landria. 24 first, 2026 second and Christian Cairo for Noah Hannes and Chris Tanna. Oh, right. And that was under the, that was under the impression that Tyler Say again would be LTIR eligible. He's kind of week to week right now. I'm not sure. And so maybe that just wasn't an option. And so they had to go this retention route and couldn't embrace getting both guys.

But I would have been so fascinated by that because I had this whole bit about, I was like, Tom, I finally beat you to it with a full pair trade, going to a team. And I was so proud of myself with it. And I thought this would have been the ultimate kind of push all your chips into the middle of table trade for them. And then obviously you play the season out. You can retain Hanafan. You let Tana have gone. Thank him for service. But here's the thing. Jim Nell now has just never traded first. Like he was hired in 2013 and last year's draft. was the first one since he's been running the Stars where they didn't have a first round pick. And that was because they used that to acquire Nealz-Lenquist, who was a 22-year-old defender still at his ELC. And so I don't blame him for it. Like everyone knows by now that the Stars clearly have some sort of special sauce in terms of drafting and developing. And they're so well set up for the future by getting all this legit young talent to just constantly keep coming in into their lineup. So I don't blame them for it. But I was really fascinated by the idea of kind of taking that home run approach.

in going with the double defenseman edition. Jack, what did you have? Do you have any sort of parallel to this or trade involved in kind of their stars? No, I stayed away from the stars because I figured that it would, one of you guys at least was going to cover it. So I had one pretty boring trade to the Leafs, just like first round pick. That was the nice. I thought he'd be a good start with Riley.

And then I had one more bonkers one where I pretended that Justin Hull would waive his no trade clause to go to Calgary. and he would end TANF to the Dallas star or to the Detroit Red Wing story so that Moritz cider wouldn't have to spend 120% of his shifts

stuck in the defensive zone against Nathan McKinnons and Sidney Crosby than them but oh well yeah it's fine Dallas will be a fun spot for them the the Riley Tanniv pair is something we could still see

just not until next season after free agency now I feel like we've been talking about it for 10 years yeah we probably have And, you know, I think Toronto, Vancouver are definitely going to be two teams to watch on the TANF front come this summer, even if both were bridesmaids and the in the bidding for him ahead of the deadline. I actually got pretty close, gentlemen.

I'm pretty happy with my, with my, with how close I got. I had, I'm not kidding here, Chris Tenev to Dallas with double retention. I didn't know who it was going to be. I sort of made it a bit over the course. of prepping my fake trades where everyone who got washed on a double retention trade went through Minnesota. That was kind of everyone, every three-way trade that I have goes through Minnesota. So I had Minnesota getting a fourth round pick for the privilege of washing half of Chris Tannav's deal. And I had Calgary getting back a 2024 second round pick.

And Tristan Bertucci, another left-handed defenseman. They got a different left-handed defenseman, a slightly older one in the flame system. I didn't have the conditional third, but I'd say I got pretty close there to what actually happened. Oh, well, I actually had Cole Brady going back to the stars as well in Arta and Grusnikov and flame. So I think I was a little bit closer than you, but, you know, fair. A little bit closer than me, yeah.

We were both pretty close. No, I mean, you hinted at this with sort of the Hughes comment there. Obviously, you got to watch that up close, Tom, but Tanev just had a track record of making life easier for all of his partners. And I noted this on the show last week. if you go and look at the numbers for Noah Hanofin, who I'm sure we're going to talk about at some point, with Taneb versus someone like Rasmus Anderson, there's a massive difference. And I think a big part of it is, like, beyond all the defensive stuff,

Tanav is just so subtly good at going back, playing the puck, taking a massive hit from a four-checker, but passing it off to his partner and allowing a guy like Han-F to Tannepin to just skate it out of the zone, whereas previously he wasn't afforded that luxury. And so thinking about that with potentially either Harley or Haskin, those guys are going to love that. It's just going to take so much wear and tear off of them as well down the stretch here. So I love that fit. Okay, Tom, I think you're up next here with your next fake trade because me and Jack did ours most recently. All right. I've got a strange one. I've got a strange one and I'm curious to get your thoughts on it. So my theory here, my operating theory here is that the New York Rangers need to avoid the marquee name.

at the trade deadline. What they need are guys forward depth in particular, guys who could help them meaningfully drive play, right? This power play is so good. Panarin and company are going to handle the shooting efficiency. What you need is just like sturdy two-way guys, right? There's a reason that Petrono and Mott fit the bill, and Kane and Teresenko didn't.

So I was trying to come up with the best, multiple play drivers to deepen the Rangers lineup deal that I could come up with. And here's something a little bit out of left field that occurred to me. So this trade would involve Seattle acquiring from the New York Rangers Capo Caco, who costs about two plus million on an expiring deal and is an RFA after this season. in exchange they would send Alexander Wenberg

and Jordan Eberley to the New York Rangers Eberley would be washed through Minnesota for a 2024 fourth round pick so double retention on Eberley this trade just works under the cap like the Rangers would have to send someone down

but given that you're subtracting CACO from the roster you're going to have to make space anyway so that frees up the 750 to 850K required for the Rangers to have added Wenberg as sort of a heedel replacement and bolstered their forward group even further with a player in Jordan Eberley who I still think has it. Like I still think Eberle is really, really good. I think he'd be a phenomenal fit in a depth role with the Rangers. Yeah. I mean, I'm certainly with you on that concept of substance versus flash and what we've seen from them in the past couple years and kind of trying to avoid some of those

pitfalls that they did last year. That's why I really do not. understand. I know they need a center, but it seems like everyone in the PHWA got a memo to push Adam Henrique as the solution to every team that needs a player down the middle. And beyond him being a center, I don't really see that as a fit. Like when you watch this Rangers team play, they need more footspeed from their forwards. Part of the reason why they've been getting crushed so much off the rush against the season is because they're playing up the ice with their forwards aggressively under Peter Labelette. But that's the reason why they're being getting crushed so much off the rush against the season, but then therefore just simply don't have the speed to backtrack quickly enough.

And so they're kind of leaving their defensemen on an island and they've been getting burned. Now it's been better recently and I think their goaltending in New York's Turk and has helped a lot with that. But I kind of want to see them add players who can provide some defensive foot speed and kind of support the defense and play with pace and obviously provide some skill as well. They need both a top six right winger and a third line center. So those is kind of accomplished two birds with one stone. what do you think about this option for the Rangers Jack? I mean, I love Jordan and Erily. I totally agree with Thomas here that I think he could be the sneaky pickup with the deadline if he gets up.

I had him on my list. I had him going to Edmonton, actually. But so I'm 100% with you on Jordan Eberley. Wendberg, I think, is interesting. I'm not hugely, hugely high on him, but I do see him as potentially a nice discount option, especially that and Henrique goes for seven first-round picks because, you know, he's a center and he's the only center anybody can really think of right now. I think it's an interesting trade.

And I like Capo as a guy that Seattle would be interested in. I think he fits their MO. I think he would honestly fit in quite well there. So I like all the pieces of it. As while Dimitri was talking, I was kind of thinking about a guy who's been showing up on a lot of trade boards recently, which is Warren Fogel from Edmonton, if he has to be a cap casualty there. I wonder whether there might be a fit with Fogel and the Rangers, because, I mean, anybody who has watched an Emerton or other's game knows that he has plenty of foot speed

because when he skates really fast, the 37 looks a lot like a 97, and then you feel really stupid when he misses the net by 10 feet. So I like where everyone's sad out is here, honestly. I think we did a nice job raised on this one, but Transi, I think this is some good work. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. I had Tommy Novak, who's, we're getting paid by the reference for Tommy Novak, not Novak here, by the way, so the more times you can shout him out, the more money coming to you guys.

Tommy Novak and the aforementioned Gustav Nyquist, who have about $4 million combined. And the Rangers could basically fit that. with their cap space right now. And obviously it would be a PICS package going back the other way to Nashville. But I'm not sure what Nashville's appetite right now is just doing purely two key contributors upfront for just futures. But something like that to kind of two words of ones don't similar with Tom did makes a lot of sense to me. And so that's interesting.

I'd be a bit wary. I get what you're trying to accomplish. And Jordan Eberle certainly provides a bigger offensive dynamic. But Jack, I know you've been talking about this as well recently. like when we've seen Kako play on that top line with Kreider and Zabinajad, I know that people get frustrated because the shots don't turn into goals that often and it just might never at this point. But their underlying numbers are so good together.

They're just able to dominate the game in a way that the Rangers just typically aren't. And even when they've struggled in the past more than they have this year, that trio has just been able to hold their own territorially and keep the other team pinned and do stuff that the other players and the Rangers just can't. And so I want to see more of those three guys playing together and seeing if you can unlock more of it. And maybe the answer is you can't and it just is what it is at this point. But we're going on three years now, nearly 700 515 minutes of Kako playing with Zabinajat and Kriy and then just dominating at 515. So you're getting better because you're adding two contributors in this capacity, but also I don't love sacrificing Kako as a result of doing so or as a means of doing so.

Yeah, I'm with you. And I mean, they control goals too. You know, Caco's not getting them. But, like, I think they have, like, a 65% goal share of the past two years with that trio together. So I agree. And honestly, it would make their job a lot easier. But philosophically, though, I think that still fits with Thomas's idea of getting some playdrivers that can slot in on the Rangers. It just makes it even easier if you're talking about guys who are going to be at the bottom six instead of having to come up with the top six option like Jordan Everley.

I went completely away from that philosophy with my Ravanger's trade, by the way. Give us one. It's the exact opposite. We've got about five minutes here before we're going to go to our other break and move on to a part two. So give us whatever that rate is. No, it's going to take a lot more than five minutes to get you to this one.

All right. Why don't I get like a bite-side line if we got five minutes? Okay. Yeah, it gives a question. Yeah. Colorado does not get Adam Henrique, although I think that. probably is the place that makes the most sense for Henrique out of all of the, uh, all the options you'll come up with. Uh, I have the Colorado avalanche taking a flyer on the expiring UFA contractor, Jack Roslavik, uh, and in return to Columbus sending, uh, an old friend, Ryan Johansson,

who makes the exact same amount of money as Rosselik does, uh, he may have it for one more year. Um, and then adding, I, I put on a 20, 25, third round pick. You know, maybe it has to be a little bit more because of that extra year on Johansen. But the logic being here that Johansson, I think really hasn't worked. They're playing him in fourth line minutes. In Columbus, he can eat some minutes while they try to rejig the roster in the summer and figure out what's going on. Plus, he adds that veteran presence and he can teach Adam Fantilli about being a high draft pick playing in Columbus, I guess, or something like that. Plus, Columbus just gets a draft pick to the trouble. And for the

Avalanche perspective, you know, Ross Levick creates primary assists at a very high rate at five on five. He usually plays about third line minutes. He's a creative stick handler. He's limited in a lot of other areas of the game. But if there's something there, I would trust Colorado to find out. And if worse comes to worse, they can just keep playing Ross Colton in that second line center role. Yeah, the original thing is it's been amiss. I kind of got the logic of it at the time of the trade, but you just were watching it on the

and kind of playing out the style they play as a team and kind of the baseline you have to clear from like an activity and pace perspective just doesn't match and that would be one of my concerns about henrique who's like much more differential in that regard now they have the wingers i guess theoretically insulate him and he can play more of a sort of central controlling role but that would be alarming uh tom i know that uh you're you you've got a lot of jack rosslovitch trades maybe not specifically today but in the past you you've you've been pitching me on a lot of rosslovich stuff. Well, Roslovick was always the nightmare scenario of a potential Bo Horvatt and or Conner Garland return, right? Like, my template for a trade, I didn't want to see the Canucks make for Bo Horvap

was Roslovak, peak, and a draft pick, right? That was always the nightmare scenario. So that's sort of why the Roslavic stuff's always come up. You know, in his younger days, I thought Roslovak would at least be a really sick operator on the power play. I don't think he's really delivered on that. So I kind of think you end up with a sort of a one-dimensional guy. To me, for me anyway, I don't know that he's enough of an upgrade on Ryan Johansson. Like, that's just my concern there. I don't know that he changes that way too common dynamic for the avalanche.

I call it the too many guys, not enough dudes problem, where you look up. up at the end of a game and you're like, wow, they had eight shots on goal when Nathan McKinnon wasn't on the ice and, you know, 30 all told. Does Roslavik sort of do enough to address that? I'm not really sure. I'll throw my, do we have time? I'll throw my quick Colorado find some dudes trade at you guys because I obviously went down this path as well. And it was, it was a trade that doesn't actually merit all that much discussion, but it was just my preference for Colorado is to try and find like a volume of dudes who can hang or a volume of guys who can hang, and ideally a dude or two, as opposed to

the way they've had it structured right now with Johansen. So I had two Washington, Ryan Johansson, a 2024 first, a 2025 third, and Jean-Luc foodie, uh, acquiring from Colorado, Obey Kubel, Nick Dowd and Anthony Mantha with double retention, Minnesota getting a 2025 fourth round pick in the deal, as they always do in all my fake trades. That was sort of my thinking was you bring back the guy who dropped the cup, you take a flyer on Mantha and hope he can bring just a little bit of offensive sizzle to your bottom six. And you bring in Nick Dowd so that at least with Colton and Dowd, you've got two pretty robust middle six centers. I still don't think it solves their, well, those guys certainly aren't J.T. Comfer problem, but I think it gets them, you know, hopefully a little closer to at least holding serve when their big five aren't on the ice. I guess my concern about that is, and we'll see how it plays out, but a lot of the reporting has been Washington being quite optimistic that they'll be able to get a nice return for just nicked out in isolation.

And so taking back Johansson's dead money essentially and also adding other pieces that they could theoretically get stuff from in other trades, it's going to require a pretty big return from Colorado here. And I'm not sure if it moves the needle enough to justify that. Like this avalanche team is something else. And a lot of this might just be solved by Nkushkin being back on the ice and Lekinen being healthy after missing a lot of the season. But they've scored the same number of goals at 5-1-5. with Nathan McKinnon on the ice in a thousand minutes, as they have without him in like 1800 plus. And they like,

they just need to find ways to have positive shifts when he's not out there. So some of these guys certainly accomplish that, even if they're not scoring themselves. But I don't know if it moves the needle enough to justify it. So I'm not sure if I like that approach, but here's the thing. I've got a massive wopper of an avalanche trade

that I'm going to pitch you guys on when we come back in part two of the show. So looking forward to that. Guys, we'll take a break here, and then we'll come back and we'll pick things right back up. You're listening to the HockeyPedio cat streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.