I wouldn't rule out the possibility of trading Letang prior to the expansion draft and protecting Dumoulin, Pettersson and Montour in this situation.
I'm also perfectly content with leaving Pettersson exposed and being prepared to have POJ take his spot if he gets taken. I don't think it's a guarantee that Pettersson is an expansion draft casualty. You can also pay Seattle to not touch MP if you're concerned with losing him.
You're killing Letang's trade value in such a situation and if last ED is anything to go by, Seattle would kill us if we paid them to keep away - and unless Pettersson has a dogcrap season, why wouldn't they? Top 4 dman vs whoever performed worse out of Tanev, Hornqvist, ZAR or Simon? Not sure POJ would be ready for that either but even if he is, giving away a top 4 D sucks.
Asset value ain't the most important thing in the world but I'd want a real killer season to justify throwing that much away.
and maybe someone like ERod
ERod has a 2m QO that only a maniac would do. He's basically a UFA at this point.
I do agree that Letang is better than Ristolainen. Don't they actually have the same amount of years left on their contracts? Anyway, I assume that the Pens have a better chance of re-signing Risto than the Sabres have of re-signing Letang.
Once again, I don't think Letang accepts a trade to Buffalo.
Would you want to resign Risto at UFA prices though?
In any case, maybe Letang doesn't, maybe he does... but if I'm thinking teams that want to win now and need a 1D and can take on a pricy contract... not sure where else I'm thinking tbh.
I don't know because I don't have a really firm grasp on the value of draft picks or how deep this draft is. I was just browsing through recent drafts and seeing the caliber of players drafted in the 3 through 10ish range and comparing them to the 1st OA. I kind of cherry picked the 2017 draft, bc I have heard a lot of people mention that the 2020 draft was deep.
Analysis seems to suggest the 3OA and 5OA add up to the same impact of 1OA, so I think it'd be a fair trade (Ottawa mightn't though) - does put a real onus on the scouts though. There's very few drafts where I wouldn't prefer to have the 3rd best and 5th best player in the draft over the 1st, but identifying them correctly is clearly bloody difficult.