I got offered MacKinnon, a 4 in 2018 and a 4 + 6 or 7 in 2019 for my Monahan and Barrie.

I already have Hamilton and Big Buff starting at D, and Klefbom on my bench, so don't need to carry 4 d with only 2 starter slots. The other gm was offering a 5 in 2019 vs a 4, so I said if I include Barrie, will you move me a 4 instead and he said yeah.

MacK is a 1 yr contract, Monahan a 2. I owned MacK previously, and since he hasn't been off of my team for a calendar year, his contract will stay at 1 since it defaults to what he would have been if I never moved him. I won't be able to sign him again after the year, but i'll have an open slot to sign a 4th contract (i.e.: Aho) or someone else if I do a trade to upgrade my 4th keeper (my others are Wheeler, Kuzy, Hall). As of right now, if I held onto Monahan, I wouldn't have any open space to sign a guy like Aho going into next year. I think the picks are nice too since it'll give me more trade chips. If I am competitive this year, I'll be able to trade for a rental or 2, and won't deplete my picks, while if I need to focus more on the future, I'll save my picks. I finished 3rd last year, and i'm in 11th right now but mostly due to my goaltending struggles (Rask/Price). For reference in terms of rental costs, Holtby and Schultz got traded for 5th rounders last year (by other teams), and I acquired Wheeler for a 3rd, and Simmonds for a 4th.

Here are guys who went in rounds 4-7 for reference:

4: Turris, Bishop, Crawford, Silfverberg, O'Reilly, Reinhart, Allen, Shipachyov, Spezza, Trocheck, Kadri, Carlson, Krug, Quick
5: Bjork, Palat, Pearson, Landeskog, Darling, Teravainen, Shattenkirk, Pietrangelo, Grubauer, Rask, Kreider, Zuccarello, Weber, E Kane
6: Doughty, Boeser, Lindblom, Giordano, Marleau, Mantha, Ristolainen, Krejci, Anderson, Johansson, S Jones, Klefbom, R Strome, Gibson
7: Lucic, Zibanejad, Smith, Palmieri, Vrana, Coyle, Gostisbehere, McAvoy, Fowler, Connor, Gneiss, Stepan

Any feedback would be great!