1. Keep Hakanpaa. In this circumstance it would actually give Dallas the 3 RD & 3 LD on our blue line.
2. Johnston & Stankoven aren't eligible for the AHL next season. It's either NHL or CHL for them.
3. Don't sign Mikheyev. Save that $3M, move Peterson to the 2LW spot, and use one of Kiviranta/Tufte/Karlstrom/Olofsson for that bottom-6 winger spot. Saves $3M you don't need to spend on Mikheyev

Rangers decline. Not sure which fans are saying they’re ok with that (there’s a lot of less than bright ones out there). But Nils gets Bourque or Harley in return if we’re talking prospects.

Why not Dellandrea? It seems to be a fair trade.

Age and draft position
Dellandrea : 21 years old and 13th in 2018
Lundkvist : 21 years old and 28th in 2018

AHL production
Dellandrea: 87 games with 27-32 for 59 points
Lundkvist: 34 games with 3-12 for 15 points

NHL production
Dellandrea: 27 games with 3-2 for 5 points (this playing very limited minutes on the 4th line)
Lundkvist: 25 games with 1-3 for 4 points

Lundkvist is stuck behind Fox, Trouba and Schneider.

Both teams fill a need and takes a chance on unproven NHL prospect.

I honestly don’t see a giant gap here. If there was one, Lundkvist would have played before Schneider.

Yeah speaking nothing of using raw point production comparing F and D while using small samples and using draft position when we’re 4 years out from draft. Using Ranger coach deployment as a basis for player value is a pretty big fool’s errand. Too many examples to count but if you’re saying “the coaching staff that thought Nemeth was better than Zac Jones and before that thought Hagg was better than Sanheim and before that thought Engelland was better than McNabb knows how to evaluate defensemen” I can assure you that’s an invalid argument.

Nils lines up much better with Harley/Bourque anyway.

Still don't read any material information on the presence of any gap between those two prospects. And, of course the sample is small, these are NHL PROSPECTS.

Where does he fits next year behind Fox, Trouba, Schneider, Miller, Lindgren, Robertson?

I mean you don't have to take my word for it. Scott Wheeler put Lundkvist as the 2nd best prospect in the Rangers system a couple months ago. Dellandrea was 7th for Dallas (behind Damiani). They're just different tiers. Right now I'd say value wise I have Lundkvist right after Fox, Miller, and Trouba. On a similar tier to Lindgren/Schneider/Jones, All ahead of Robertson. You'd be laughed at if you offered Dellandrea for either Schneider/Lindgren. No different here.

Though if you want a good comp for Dellandrea. Top 15 pick as a C with .53 AHL points/gm through D+3 and .77 NHL points/60 through D+3 (Dellandrea has .44) that would be Lias Andersson. Similar ceiling, traded around the same time in their careers. That guy got a late 2nd.

Thanks for the info on Johnston and Stankoven. So, would you just focus on the defense with the cap we have remaining and not look at other forward options? Save cap for a potential mid-season trade?

Offense would be nice, but filling out our defense is currently the bigger need. If the season started right now, this would be the Stars defense:

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Hakanpaa
Suter-Hanley

IMO, Dallas needs to upgrade AT LEAST Hanley's spot. Whether that means filling a top-4 spot and having one of the current players slide into his role or simply replacing him as a 3rd pair defenseman is still up in the air, but there are options out there for Dallas that aren't going to cost an arm and a leg. Montour & Lundkvist are two solid options.