Man that defense is brutal. Great way to guarantee another top 5 pick.

Stecher earns more money than that, thats for sure and NO WAY BENNING BEATS HIM for the top spot. Go watch Stecher play. That Edmonton deal is atrocious, baerschi can produce the same or moe than that cap dump named RNH and half the price or less. And we dont need benning or Russell. And your giving away tanev too. What a bad deal.

Baertschi could hit 50 points on a full season, and Benning is a 7th defenseman. AND you're making us retain on Tanev. The only good piece you're getting back is RNH. I would say Tanev and a 2nd for RNH.

Benning on the 1st d pair is really depressing.

Of course our GM would try to acquire Benning...connect the dots for yourselves

As for @FryesLeapMaine original idea, my only question is would Russell waive his NMC? I highly doubt it. More importantly, I'm sure he's banged Chiarelli once or twice so I mean, I don't see Pete moving bae anytime soon.

Now to this roster. @alwaysnextyear, I'm curious to know why Stecher is being so underpaid? Aside from Edler, he's been our best defender and has exceeded expectations in an offensive role in season one, and in a defensive role in season two. He's a cornerstone, top 4 guy in my opinion. I'd give around $3M-$3.5M on a two year bridge. I'd also increase the term on Virtanen's and Pouliot's, cap hit is fine.

I'm also curious as to how Baertschi is equal in value to Benning. Baertschi is a top 6 winger and either has, or has been on pace, to set career highs each season in Vancouver. He has a smart hockey IQ and a good overall player. Benning, on the other hand, is more of a 7th defender in Vancouver. He'd barely have any impact in a defensive group that's not any good. We have enough bottom pairing defenders, we don't need another one. On the flip side of the coin, we need more top 6 wingers and can't afford to lose one for almost nothing.

I think an important question is, if we already have Pettersson, Horvat, and Gaudette down the middle, do we need Nudget-Hopkins? Wouldn't something like Bear/Jones + high pick make more sense? I'm just wondering. It seems our center depth for the future looks set, we just need to figure out the winger group and the defensive guys.

Hey mr.booth.

I do indeed think Russell would waive his nmc. I think he would agree to get a fresh start and is best used on an underdog team like van will be. He doesn’t really fit with Edmonton imo and the best way to get him back to playing better is a fresh start on a team with better defenders.

As @alwaysnextyear has shown: he’s basically the #7, so you know he’s going to work really hard and probably shine when he plays. He’s good at that role, but not the role of a 4m foundational defensive building block. Chiarelli was desperate and foolish as usual, but I think my original trade was on the right path. For edm: 2 defenders including a top pair rhd. For van, a second top 6 center and a defenseman who would flourish on this type of team instead of being deadweight.

Rnh can play wing and I wouldn’t count gaudette or Pettersson as being good next season.