Edmonton declines. If they trade Campbell it's for cap space, not to take on a worse contract.

They could keep Campbell ($3.8M) and re-sign Pickard ($1M) for less money than Merzlikins, and they would have better goaltending and a 3rd round pick.

Hawks would probably take a chance on Laine at that price.

Texier isn't someone to dump for culture reasons; you actually keep him if that's your objective. And that Laine return is one we'd likely regret in very short order.

Edmonton has zero reason to take Elvis. Even getting him half-retained ($2.7M) would be more expensive than just buying out Campbell ($1.1M next year) and letting someone like Rodrigue or Pickard back up Skinner at ~$900K ($2M total cost). The math kills that deal very quickly, I'm happy to let the idea go. We should be buying out Elvis as soon as the price to move him gets more expensive than a mid-round pick.

I don't hate the other trades, but moving Texier feels like a mistake (he's a great fit on the 3rd line IMO) and moving Laine for that little is a recipe to get burned. I'd get over it just to be done with the saga and move on, but I'm positive we'd get burned.

I'd be very happy with Darche and all those RFA/UFA signings, but I'm not even going to let myself pretend we're going to win the lottery. I just hope we can stick at 4OA and get one of Levshunov/Lindstrom/Catton.

If we did win the lottery, I'd run the lines like:

JG - Fantilli - Marchenko
Johnson - Celebrini - Chinakhov
Jenner - Sillinger - Nylander
Voronkov - Kuraly - Danforth

Montreal doesn't have a spot for Texier

also the guy isn't even from Quebec, he's French. I'm assuming there was some "send French guy to Montreal" thinking involved in this post.

EDM would just buyout Campbell, the only way we don't is if someone takes a first for him.
Why are you moving Texier? If you are I'd assume EDM would be interested.

Hawks do that deal all day, but Colombus should be able to get more.

I echo many of the statements of other commentators, but I'll add one thing: Columbus are not getting Celebrini. I dare say that I promise to change my profile picture permanently to one of Jeff Carter hoisting the Stanley Cup if they do.

Not sure what you mean by "more", but spending more than this would be a big risk for almost every team in the league. This already is risky, IMHO. Maybe an early 2nd would be more reasonable, given his pedigree and all that. But, if he continues to miss time, continues to massively underperform on his contract, becomes un-tradable, and just walks in two years, we will have just paid CBJ to give them $8.7M x 2 years in cap relief and $18.2M in total salary relief and received nothing in return. We already overpaid them in another transaction, no need to do it again.