OT: WWYD - Rasmus Dahlin

[OilerSuperstar17]

Just out of curiosity, say Buffalo doesn't re-sign Dahlin before the end of his ELC and both he and the team go in to a long RFA negotiation, would you offer sheet him and potentially be willing to give up 4 first round picks to build your defense around him, meaning you trade pretty much trade every other defenseman on the NHL roster.

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[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

100%. He's already at top 20 NHL defenseman IMO and easily has Norris potential. He's arguably second after McDavid in a franchise draft.

4 first round picks doesn't actually equal that much for most teams. You'd also hope that with a team like that we'd be competitive and make the picks worse.

The problem is that he'd have to sign the offer sheet, which would likely be at an exorbitant amount.

 

[McShogun99]

I would easily give up 4 1sts for Dahlin. If they wanted to make a trade I would give them JP, Broberg, Bouchard and a 1st, possibly even more then that. Dahlin is a player you build your D around and is going to be a huge factor when Buffalo wins a Cup.

 

[Bangers]

If it were just the four 1st round picks, maybe, but it would actually be the picks AND the massive salary you'd need to pay him to get to the four 1st round picks level of compensation (over 10.5 mil/year for this season).

So, not only would the Oilers be hamstringing their depth due to salary cap space constraints but also killing their youth pipeline to fill spots cheaply over the course of the deal.

 

[SwedishFire]

even as a swede, I wouldnt give up 4 1s rounders for Dahlin, even if he is a god damn skilled defencemen. But there is so much more to learn for a defenseman in NHL. Even if Dahlin isnt fully developed, his floor right now is a leauge top 10 defender, but I dont know if he can be that dominant, workhorse defender. We will see. But I wouldnt give up 1st rounder for four years for him. Oilers can pick up at least one good defender and a forward meanwhile.

 

[Fourier]

Just out of curiosity, say Buffalo doesn't re-sign Dahlin before the end of his ELC and both he and the team go in to a long RFA negotiation, would you offer sheet him and potentially be willing to give up 4 first round picks to build your defense around him, meaning you trade pretty much trade every other defenseman on the NHL roster.

With respect to the hypothetical...Yes I would probably do this. However, I'd guess there is a 1% chance at best that Dahlin is not signed by the end of his ELC. I'd say that there is probably only a 10% chance he is not signed next off season.

At some point Buffalo has to be very good. They have a franchise center in Eichel and three wingers in Reinhart, Olofsson and Skinner who can both score. They have prospects like Mittlestad and Cozens who could be excellent #3 and #2C respectively. Their defense has Dahlin, Risto, Montour and Miller as puck movers as well a Jokiharu. They can move a guy like Risto to get a better defensive defenseman, gain some cap space and never miss a beat.

Plus, their cap structure going forward is very good. It allows then to sign their core players without much difficulty for the next 5 or so years and still have room to improve their goaltending which has been a problem.

 

[Jumptheshark]

How can we afford him?