[Harry Lime]

My useless two cents. Keep in mind I might be way off. I haven't made the playoffs, yet!

I think that you are underestimating what the value of a regular top nine CPHL player is, when you are paying full salary for the year. I considered sending you an offer (before I backed off of it) and part of that offer was a young CPHL level player to balance salary and give you some certainty of value. Very few ECHL players are a 'sure thing' to see NHL time, as they are (usually) years away.

Example : I traded for Daniil Gushkin from the Isle last year, which is a similar player to the ones you have here. He was a year further in development. The trade consisted of a roster player that the Isle wanted from me, and a roster player that was playable for me, plus Gushkin. It made the cash transaction minimal, and I had the option of flipping or playing the CPHL player, because there was positive value on that contract.

Cap squeeze becomes a real thing later in the season.

There are inventive ways to make this work. Either Edmonton adds/swaps a CPHL player, or sends you future salary next year, or pushes to a better 2023 pick, or a second pick from that year or any combination to make up the value. I agree that those prospects have promise, but they are barely out of magic bean phase. In two years hindsight, you might be fleecing Edmonton here, but right now that's a lot of risk on your part.

Remember too, that you have to field a 20 man roster, so be aware of your own potential cap problems later in the year! Very few teams carry 20-21 players, most are 23-24. A warm body coming back in a trade like this might mean more to you later on than it does now. Clearly going to have less value than Anders Lee, but as long as that value isn't negative, it might solve a future problem for you.

Edmonton's 7th D or 13th forward (Colin White/Tony Deangelo/something of that ilk)
The prospects

for

Lee
balance of salary
4th 2023