Making an Offer for Rantanen

[Referee3083]

Looking for some advice from you all on if the trade below is good, a starting point, or terrible for an offer to the GM of Rantanen.

Quick back story is that he's in 1st place and clearly the favorite to win it all this year. He's wants to go all in to make a run for the title and expressed interest in Talbot. I'm looking to compete next season and to take some of my aging / injury prone core and bring in guys who I can keep for a while. I also have too many keeper quality players, so I'm ok moving a couple keepers if I can get back the best player in the deal.

I want to start negotiations with something that's at least a starting point, if not a good deal. I don't want to insult and turn him off out of the gate. Here's what I was thinking:

My:
Zibanejad (> his Dubious)
Connor (> his Fiala)
Bennett (not a keeper for me, offers another RW for his team)
Dobson (not a keeper for me, > than almost all D on his team)
Talbot (not a keeper for me, would be 2nd best goalie on his team)

His:
Rantanen
2nd round 2022 draft pick
Hart
Fiala

For reference, here's his roster:

C - McDavid, Draisaitl(LW), Rantanen(RW), Eichel, Petterson, Reinhart(RW), Dubois, Jarvis(RW)
LW - Huberdeau, Kaprizov, Boldy, Fiala
RW - Marner
D - DeAngelo, Dahlin, Klingberg, Seider
G - Shesterkin, Sorokin, Hart, Peterson
Prospect Keeper - Stutzle

[This Guy]

Well as you said you're not competing this year I'm just looking at it from a keeper perspective.

First I wouldn't put Dobson ahead of any of his D. His D are great. Your deal isn't bad but IMO it's light. Bennet, Dobson and Talbot are all depth options for him at best and like you said, you'd be getting the best player in the deal. So you're presenting a depth option in goal plus marginal upgrades at best while he loses the best player. So if it were me I wouldn't accept it. It doesn't sound like he wants a major move if he's just looking for Talbot so you'd have to entice him if you really want Rantanen.

I'd make the offer but be willing to drop the Fiala part of it or the pick if they say no. As you wouldn't keep Fiala and don't care about this season I'm not sure why you're asking for him unless it's that you don't want to be seen to be overpaying. You could then keep Laine instead of Connor (who is your current keeper). So if all goes well it would be Rantanen, Ovechkin, Laine, Kucherov, Stone, Makar, Hedman, Hamilton, Vasilevskiy, Kahkonen.
Still, it's a good opening for a deal.

[CraigyB]

I wouldn’t take this deal if I was the other team. You are sending him a lot of spare parts for his superstar

[Referee3083]

Well as you said you're not competing this year I'm just looking at it from a keeper perspective.

First I wouldn't put Dobson ahead of any of his D. His D are great. Your deal isn't bad but IMO it's light. Bennet, Dobson and Talbot are all depth options for him at best and like you said, you'd be getting the best player in the deal. So you're presenting a depth option in goal plus marginal upgrades at best while he loses the best player. So if it were me I wouldn't accept it. It doesn't sound like he wants a major move if he's just looking for Talbot so you'd have to entice him if you really want Rantanen.

I'd make the offer but be willing to drop the Fiala part of it or the pick if they say no. As you wouldn't keep Fiala and don't care about this season I'm not sure why you're asking for him unless it's that you don't want to be seen to be overpaying. You could then keep Laine instead of Connor (who is your current keeper). So if all goes well it would be Rantanen, Ovechkin, Laine, Kucherov, Stone, Makar, Hedman, Hamilton, Vasilevskiy, Kahkonen.
Still, it's a good opening for a deal.

Thanks this is great advice. I’ve been looking at it from a keeper perspective too. Essentially I’d be taking Zibby and Connor out, and replacing with Rantanen and Laine (while also not losing Laine for nothing as he’s currently keeper level but I don’t have room to keep him). I think the latter 2 are the better pair.

Goalies and D are really valuable in our league and where he’s the weakest. Talbot for example is scoring higher than Vasi. We also start 4 D and Dobson is out scoring all but DeAngelo on his roster. I figured I’d have to also move keeper level players, hence Zibby and Connor being included. So on the whole I thought of this more than spare parts he’d be getting. Yes there’s the “best player in the deal factor” but it’s also giving him the 2nd best (points wise) goalie, and D compared to his current team, 2 keeper level players to fill the Rantanen void, and Bennett if having another RW option was appealing to him.

You’re right, there’s no reason I included Fiala in the deal, other than that he’d have to drop some players to make room for the deal. But maybe I start with less of an ask on his side (pull out Fiala, maybe lower the pick) and also take Bennett out from my side, so the initial offer doesn’t seem desperate.

[Marz]

As a Ranty owner, I’d pass on this offer. I’d be targeting a guy like kuch or a couple of guys like Connor, and Makar minimum