Thoughts on this trade?

[Darkwing Puck]

I've got the following offer on the table:

Give
Reinhart, Chychrun, Husso

Get
Batherson, Hague, Swayman

Batherson > Reinhart and Swayman > Husso, so I feel like I should be smashing accept, but I'm hung up on moving Chychrun.

Hague is a nice replacement, but he's years from getting a sniff of PP time unless he's traded or something happens to Theodore/Pietrangelo. That said, Chychrun isn't even on Arizona's PP1 right now, so his value is about as low as can be. But if he does get traded (which I think is unlikely, if Arizona's asking price is as high as it's been reported to be), then his value immediately goes way up.

I could offer him someone like Dobson instead, but we use a salary cap for keepers and Batherson would fit nicely into the hole opened up by moving Chychrun.

[Nylander2.0]

How big is the league? The only way this is a decent deal if there is a crazy thin goalie market.

[Darkwing Puck]

It's the league in my sig, so 12 teams. Goaltending is very thin. Available on the wire right now are Dan Vladar, Matt Murray, Antti Raanta, and Craig Anderson. To provide extra context, I'm rebuilding and my team is currently in 11th place, so there's not much chance of making the playoffs.

Why do you think it's not a good trade? Because of the cap for keepers, I can't afford to keep Reinhart, so I'm basically swapping Husso and Chychrun for Batherson and Swayman. As I've said, I don't like giving up Chychrun, but Batherson is a stud and I much prefer Swayman to Husso, even with Swayman being partly blocked by Ullmark.

[mdratch]

Hmm, I'm not sure I understand how Reinhart isn't a keeper for you. I'd be more than happy to pay a ppg forward 6.5 million for 3 seasons. He's on one of the best offensive teams in the NHL. I think you be selling too low on Chychrun personally, he has a great contract and might even get moved to a stronger team before the deadline. I'm also not a fan of Binnington at all and I've been waiting for Husso to pop for years. 19 games and .936 save percentage on a strong team. I like Swayman but Ullmark is no slouch either and should steal a lot of the starts. Overall, I wouldn't have made that trade myself, and I would have kept Reinhart. Batherson is great but Reinhart has shown over a lot longer of a span, and is very durable!

But hey, if you're happy and believe in the players you got, then more power to you!

[Darkwing Puck]

Like I said in my original post, we use a salary cap for keepers. The cap is set at 70% of the NHL cap, which I believe will work out to $57 million for the 2022-23 season. In order to keep Reinhart, I'd have to give up Chychrun or Jack Hughes or some combination of Zegras, Caufield, Rossi, Newhook, Drysdale, and Bouchard. Since I'm out of the running this season, I'm trying to make moves to get the most value of my cap space.

As for Husso, I agree, he's been playing great, but I don't think it's a hot take to say that he won't be the starting goalie in St. Louis next season. He'll either resign with the Blues as Binnington's backup (and there are 30 million reasons why the Blues will give Binnington every possible chance to be their number 1 goalie) or he'll sign elsewhere and there aren't a lot of teams that will need a number 1 goalie. Husso kind of strikes me as the second coming of Chris Driedger. He's too good to be a backup and is maybe even better than the guy he's ostensibly backing up, but for contract reasons he'll never take over as the top guy. At least in Swayman's case, you know what you're getting. Who knows where Husso will land next season and in what sort of situation he'll find himself.

To be clear, I haven't made the trade yet. I'm still negotiating with the other manager, trying to get him to throw in a draft pick.

[mdratch]

Yeah cap and all, not sure I'd drop one of my best players who has such a good contract. I'd get it if he was 32, but he's 26 and a former 2nd overall draft pick. I guess my point was I'd find a way to make it work. I'd trade some other guys for draft picks to fit Reinhart in. I wouldn't trade him with the thought 'I can't keep him', that rarely turns out well.