I excluded any guys who could veto a trade when coming up with it. I don't know why any player with a choice would approve a deal to go to a McDavidless Oilers.
That limits the stud #1D men they might target. Fox, Makar, Heiskanen, Chabot, McAvoy and Hughes are all young enough that they don't have trade protection yet. Hedman, Josi, Ekblad, Petro, Hamilton, and Doughty all have full NMCs.
I don't think that the Rangers could swing it with the other contracts on the books. The Rangers have Zibby, Panarin, Kreider, and Trouba locked in for $34.6M for the life of McDavid's deal and they have full NMCs. Add Connor's $12.5M and their up to $47.1M on 5 guys with a pretty thin D group. Suddenly they are getting into the same depth problems the Oilers have had, don't have an adequate D and the other futures required to get McDavid prevent them from addressing it.
The Avs could probably make it work, but McDavid, Landy, and Rantanen would be a $28.75M trio up front. Add in MacKinnon and Johnson's deals and you're spending $41M on 5 guys. Mac is going to get pretty much every dime of Johnson's expiring deal when he hits UFA in 2023, so then it is $41M on 4 guys. If Makar is gone, can they really build a D group and forward depth around that?
The Bruins could make it work financially, but their core is aging and I don't know that they have the pieces internally to build a good enough D group without McAvoy.
I don't know how the Stars make it work with Benn and Seguin. That D group would be brutal after losing Heiskanen (and Klingberg who they clearly aren't paying what he wants) and I don't think they have a great plan in net. I see them running into the same issue as the Oilers trying to plug half a dozen holes around $30M+ on 3 forwards.
The Sens probably could fit McDavid, but I don't think that they have the pieces internally to build a good enough group around him after they lose Chabot and the boatload of picks/prospects/young guys needed to make that appealing for the Oilers. And unless they are content losing the remaining youngsters when they are do raises, they aren't solving many issues in UFA.
I don't see the Oilers even consider moving him inside the Pacific.
I'm sure they want that stud D, but I think it will be really, really difficult to acquire in a deal that also nets multiple additional quality assets. They just couldn't do another 1 for 1 deal where they lose out on obvious value just to target a position of weakness. I think trading Connor would signal a clear "burn it to the ground and rise from the ashes" rebuild where they would be hoping to get a couple good D futures that could be the stud D of the future.
A result of Army's "death by a thousand cuts" plan is that our money is spread out pretty well. Our top 5 highest paid guys would combine for $39.5M if you swapped ROR+++ for McDavid, but it would be a mix of 2 forwards and 3 D. Our 2nd highest salary would come off the books when some young guys are due raises and then trade protection starts disappearing on the $6-6.5M deals and you can make some cap moves. We have more ability to take on a single big contract than most good teams.
