Quoting: wabit
Weal is an upgrade to Rask for this year, it's the only reason I'm mildly interested.
Greenway and Hartman (RFA) are expansion draft eligible now for games and Strum needs 27 games (Rask needs 11 games). So MN can meet that requirement without too much issue. Rask just gives MN more options for who can be traded away at the TDL.
Kuluk doesn't interest me at all, but I think he'd get claimed off of waivers by someone. Worst case is he sits on the taxi squad until injuries happen.
Rossi belongs nowhere near the NHL this season, let him stay on the 2nd/3rd line in the Swiss league. It's too bad his World's team is just awful, he can't showcase anything with that group.
I don't think Weal is better than Rask, at all. If anything, it's a wash, with Rask having the higher ceiling, and the size to play a more effective bottom six role. Once you consider the flexibility we get with the expansion draft, it's a no brainer that Rask is the better option for us. His 4M cap hit is inconsequential, because we don't need the cap space, and it's not going to hinder us at all. And again, once you consider that part of this deal is us retaining half of his contract, resulting in us having even less cap space after this deal, it becomes even more of a no brainer to keep what we have.
Kulak is worthless to us. AHL/Taxi squad/waiver fodder, whatever he ends up as, the fact that he's going to be under contract for money turns out to be a net negative for the Wild.
So once you add up that we lose cap space, we lose roster spots, we lose flexibility, we get the worse players, Poehling and a late 2nd might be a bit much in terms of value, but there's really no reason to do it for less. I mean, I'm not signing the checks, I'm not building the team, so if Guerin did it for a 2nd alone, I'm not going to lose sleep. We still ultimately get a, more or less, free 2nd out of the deal, but it's not like it's a no brainer.