$5M? Really? Looks like I shoulda researched that one a bit more...

How about we throw in Cheechoo?

If we really want to win the Stanley Cup, we should trade Cheechoo, Kelly and Campoli to Minnesota for Andrew Brunette and Kyle Brodziak. Then we send Leclaire, Picard, and Lee to Edmonton for Sheldon Souray.

Brunette - Spezza - Alfredsson
Michalek - Fisher - Kovalev
Foligno - Regin - Shannon
Ruutu - Brodziak - Neil

Souray - Karlsson
Kuba - Zidlicky
Phillips - Volchenkov

Elliott
Brodeur

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Some nice lines. But say for example the trade with St.Louis does work.

Kariya-Spezza-Alfredsson
Michalek-Fisher-Kovalev
Perron-Regin-Shannon
Ruutu-Kelly-Neil

Karlsson-Campoli
Phillips-Volchenkov
Picard-Carkner

Elliot
Leclaire

Which lineup would you choose, hmm they're both tempting...

Also i don't wanna put Leclaire up for grabs YET. When we loose our first game i want to see Leclaire in net for the next 5, i want to see how good he is, or if he has gotten any better, if no than do that trade and our D will look the same as yours.

Souray-Karlsson
Phllips-Volchenkov
Campoli-Carkner

P.S Where did Zidlicky come from on your trade list

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Oh, yeah. Cheechoo, Kelly, Campoli, SJ 2nd to MIN for Brunette, Brodziak, Zidlicky

Kuba + Campoli + Lee FOR "Any defencemen that can play better defence and stay in better position than a hockey pylon"

I posted this in the Senschirp section after a rumor about Ottawa being interested in Kariya and Perron, figured I should put it here:

So I've spent the last half hour on NHLnumbers staring at and mulling over Ottawa and St Louis' cap situations, and I've finally figured it out.

To St Louis: Alex Kovalev, Nick Foligno, Alex Picard
To Ottawa: David Perron and Paul Kariya, Jonas Junland

Ottawa standpoint: We desperately need cap relief this summer, and I don't buy any of the ideas people here have had (mostly trade Kuba and Cheechoo, nobody will take Cheechoo and nobody will take Kuba unless we practically give him away, we can't afford to do that as he is the closest thing we have to a powerplay quarterback and we already have the worst powerplay in the league). And I REALLY wanna keep Volchenkov. So this is brilliant.

We dump Kovalev's salary and get Kariya's expiring one. We swap one RFA in Foligno for another in Perron. Picard is thrown in to keep the cap hits even for this year, and prospect Junland is thrown in to counterbalance the loss of Picard. So the cap exchange is even for this year. Now for the summer, we re-sign Volchy for 4.25, then Perron for 3.3, after re-signing Regin, Campolli, Donovan and Winchester, we now have about 2 million left to work with over the summer.

We can afford to move Foligno, as much as I love him, because we have a very similar left wing with more scoring talent in Michalek. Also, I have talked many times - and everyone has agreed with me - about our need for elite young forwards to replace Alf and Kovalev in the near future. Perron is just that. I had more reasons this trade would work for us, but now I can't think of them, but check out our forward lines for this years run:

Kariya-Spezza-Perron
Michalek-Fisher-Alfredsson
Regin-Kelly-Cheechoo
Ruutu-Winchester-Neil
Shannon/Donovan

St Louis standpoint: Of all their excellent young forwards and forward prospects, the one thing they're short on is the grit, Foligno could give them that. Kovalev has a year left on his contract after this, so he will continue to play for them next year, where Kariya might not.

St Louis' cap situation is looking good this summer, with a ton of space and their only major signings will have to be Erik Johnson and Chris Mason. Next summer is where they could find themselves in trouble. TJ Oshie, Patrik Berglund and Roman Polak will be RFA and David Backes will be UFA. I am fully expecting Oshie and Berglnd to have big breakout years next year so as it stands now, they could be in an almost "Chicago of this summer" level of trouble. Kovalev's contract expiring at the end of the year could be a huge relief for them. Plus Foligno is going to sign for quite a bit less than Perron.

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While I like your proposal InnocentBystander, I've come up with one I think might be even better. It was the Kovalchuk to New Jersey trade that got me thinking, the Devils have amazing depth at LW. For a while now, I've felt that what we lacked most was a first line left winger. I like Michalek, but I think he is more suited to play a 2nd line speed and grit role. Look at New Jersey's left wingers:

Kovalchuk 7.5
Parise 5.0
Elias 5.0
Rolston 5.0
Pandolfo 2.5

It makes a lot of sense to figure they would deal one, and the pretty obvious pick is Elias. The Devils this season have been lacking a bit from the right wing and the blueline - and that was before trading Bergfors and Oduya. A brilliant trade for both clubs would be:

To Ottawa: Patrick Elias, Dean McAmmond
To New Jersey: Jonathan Cheechoo, Filip Kuba, Joshua Hennessy

Dean McAmmond is in the deal because Chris Kelly will be traded in Part 2 of this proposal. Regin is competent enough for the third line, and McAmmond has chemistry with Neil already for the fourth line. We actually have one right wing too many, so trading Cheech doesn't even leave us with a hole. The object of trading Kuba is to find a true number one defenceman to play with and mentor Erik Karlsson, preferably a left shot... I think the guy is Sheldon Souray. His value has never been lower, and we would have him in time for the Playoffs.

To Ottawa: Sheldon Souray
To Edmonton: Chris Kelly, Brian Lee, SJ 2nd Round Pick

Elias - Spezza - Alfredsson
Michalek - Fisher - Kovalev
Foligno - Regin - Shannon
Ruutu - McAmmond - Neil

Souray - Karlsson
Phillips - Volchenkov
Campoli/Picard - Carkner

Leclaire
Elliott

STANLEY CUP BABY!

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I really like both those trades Josh...as much as I'd hate to lose Kelly, McAmmond is capable of doing his job for now, and we retain Winchester (or Z. Smith) who will eventually replace him.

I do however think that someone will give up a 1st rounder for Souray, and furthermore he has submitted his list of teams to go to and we are not on it. Visnovsky, however...that could be interesting.

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Love the Jersey idea Josh, Elias would be amazing, not so sure they would be up for that though. Muba and Cheechoo are basically our leftovers, nobody really wants them.

I still don't want Souray or Vishnovski, like Matt said, somebody is gonna flip them a first rounder for one of them, and I'm not willing to match that. Though a true powerplay quarterback would be real nice.

I realized the problem with my St Louis trade. Losing Kariya in the summer. I was thinking of it in terms of a rental, but a rental Kariya is not worth losing Kovalev. This trade would only make sense if we could then re-sign Kariya in the summer. He will definately sign for less than the 6 million he is making now, but certainly not less than the 2 million we would have remaining under the cap.

How about this:

To St Louis: Kovalev, Foligno, Kuba
To Ottawa: Kariya, Perron, Colaiacovo

Same basic idea, but we dump Kuba's salary and can now re-sign Kariya in the summer for about 4 million. The only problem being we lose our powerplay quarterback. But Colaiacovo is pretty decent on the powerplay and Kariya and Alfredsson are both excellent quarterbacks. Plus Karlsson is coming along nicely in that regard. But Now St Louis seems to be getting the better value out of the trade. Maybe they throw in a pick or prospect. Junland? Would that be enough?

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Why woul we ever want Kariya...

he is pretty old you know...

Rather get a young winger that can fill the role Alfie has, since he won't be here for long.

Perron says sup.

Also Kariya(if we get him) would be the second best player to help your team on a run after Kovalchuk.

Perron??? You're sure he can fill the role of Alfie in the future?

perron IMO, is going to be one hellova playa in the near future

ok, if people say so

i just heard from a friend that the sens are interested in lecavelier. Dont know where he got it from so i dont know if it has any truth to it.

That doesn't make much sense to me.

If i was Murray, i would make my defence my first and foremost biggest concern.

I bet Murray knows this team is stacked and just needs tweeking, i also do believe that Murray will get us a Hamhuis type player.

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Why would we want Kariya? where do I begin? Firstly, Kariya is the secondary player for us in the trade. David Perron is the primary target.

David Perron > Alex Kovalev

Kovalev is the better player right now, but not by a whole lot. Perron had 50 points last year as a 20 year old and now has 8 points less than Kovalev while playing 2 minutes a game less on a team that is struggling mightily offensively. The point is, if you get a chance to make a slight downgrade for a player who is 15 years younger and is going to sign for 2 thirds of the price, you take it.

Paul Kariya becomes our top line left wing and slots Michalek down to the 2nd line. It doesn't matter how old he is, he is still extremely talented and he would likely only be a rental anyway. If we did re-sign him, it would be for much less than the 6 million he is making this year. The point is, Kovalev has one more year remaining on his contract after this at 5 million. As our organization stands right now, we will be approximately 2.5 million over the cap by next season. This way we free up that 5 million, get a young star player to replace him in Perron, then sign Perron long term for 3.25-3.75 million. And Kariya replaces Kovalev for the remainder of this season, so we're not hurting our team at all for the present.

We're living in a salary cap world now. Things are done much differently. A player with 1 year left on a contract vs a player with 2 or 3 years left on his contract will each be valued much differently by different teams.

Oh, and by the way, if anyone has been wondering why I'm so interested in Jonas Junland, he has 30 points in 50 games for Peoria so far this year, including 7 powerplay goals and leads the team with a +8 on a team where he is one of only 5 players in the plus category.

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doesn't make any sense at all.

Haha Sensarmy, tell your friend I called him a douchebag...

Kidding, only kidding.

Seriously though, I agree with Pascal that defense should be our top priority. The problem is, we don't wanna trade any of our good players cus it will throw off our chemistry, and the few we are willing to trade, Cheechoo, Kuba, aren't worth much.

I was just reading the Senschirp rumor that Murray is looking to package Cheechoo with Lee. How about this one:

To Minnesota: Jonathan Cheechoo, Brian Lee, 4th round pick
To Ottawa: Owen Nolan, Tyler Cuma, 6th round pick

Minnesota standpoint: They get back a local boy in Minnesota high school sensation Brian Lee. Perhaps a return to his home state would rejuvinate his sputtering career. Nolan is a UFA at season's end, with this they at least get something back for him. Despite the good return, there isn't a lot of reason for Minnesota to make this trade. Hence the reason we swap them up draft picks.

Ottawa standpoint: We dump Cheechoo's salary, bring in Owen Nolan, a tough, grimy veteran who still has some goal-scoring ability and would be great for us in the playoffs. Plus he is UFA at season's end so we leave him unsigned and our cap situation is solved. But we're not just gonna give up on Cheechoo and Lee for nothing. We get back Ontario native and Ottawa 67 Tyler Cuma. Cuma, like Lee, has hit some bumps in the road in his development and perhaps a trade would jumpstart him.

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