[Trade] Wild trade Eric Staal to Buffalo for Marcus Johansson

[TheScorpion]

Underrated component of this trade: Eric Staal and Jeff Skinner played with each other for quite a while in Carolina.

[CliffFletcher]

Scratch one potential landing spot for Monahan.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Curious to know if any insiders or rumour websites had this as a possibility? What about the individual players - were they rumoured to be on the block?

[Icon]

So...

- Great move for Buffalo
- Likely means the propositions of Monahan to Buffalo can go out the window
- I guess opens up a Monahan to Minny for a package involving Dumba, but it better be Dumba++ as far as I'm concerned.
- Why in the holy hell would the wild do this trade?... "You know what we should do?, trade a better player for a worse player that costs more!"

[Harry Lime]

Kind of fascinating. After the playoffs, Buffalo was pretty clear that they did not like that Staal was their defacto #1 centre. They needed an upgrade there.

MJ can play all three forward positions. A lot of versatility added.

One reason why the Wild tried to sell Parise to the Islanders was because Parise's game doesn't translate well to the bottom six, and Ladd's would. They see a lot of promise in Greenway, and have Boldy, Kaprizov and Beckman all on their way into the LW position, all projected as top six players.

This screams top six centre coming in, and already completed in essence by the movement of Staal. Likely a nice LW piece going out, Dumba, or both.

[GirlySports]

Eric Staal probably strategically left Buffalo off. Lol

[Crown Royal]

I do not understand this move for the Wild. Staal is a better player with a better cap hit. The only advantage to the Wild is age and when they are both UFAs after the season it's really not that big of a deal.

[Harry Lime]

Two notable scratches during the playoffs for the wild.

Victor Rask (two years left at 4M, traded for Nino Neidereitter)
Ryan Donato (talented centre, given the Sam Bennett treatment last year, and suffered)

The only other two centres on the roster are Eriksson Ek, and newly acquired Bjugstad.

[Erick Estrada]

Wild must be certain they have a trade in place bringing a center back in return to make this deal.

[TheScorpion]

potential wrinkle:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1306356018176315392

this combined with the revelation that Staal was reportedly "stunned" by the move gives me a bit of pause

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

potential wrinkle:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1306356018176315392

this combined with the revelation that Staal was reportedly "stunned" by the move gives me a bit of pause

My gut is that Buffalo hopes a couple of things can convince Staal to not retire and play there.

1) Friendship with Skinner
2) Opportunity to play with Eichel
3) Proximity to Toronto / Family

[agulati]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

potential wrinkle:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1306356018176315392

this combined with the revelation that Staal was reportedly "stunned" by the move gives me a bit of pause

If this indeed was a known rumour, surprised that Sabres did not request to have a conversation with Staal prior to trading for him.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

My gut is that Buffalo hopes a couple of things can convince Staal to not retire and play there.

1) Friendship with Skinner
2) Opportunity to play with Eichel
3) Proximity to Toronto / Family

Also, Buffalo's GM is Kevyn Adams, who won a cup with Staal in 2006.

[Crown Royal]

Perhaps Buffalo knew about the rumor and thought that this would be an easy way to save $4 million in actual dollars?

But, in the end, I still see no benefit to this from a Minnesota POV.

[HighLifeMan]

It's pretty shocking that Guerin would come in and move Staal a day after he submitted his 10 team list. Staal has been a great player for that organization and even went out of his way to take less money to stay there. To blindside a guy like that is not a great look for Billy Guerin here, and I am sure his players don't appreciate it.. especially for that return.

[ComixZone]

If Staal straight up retires, then Buffalo just whacked $4.5M from Johansson off their books for nothing.

That’s solid work.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Edit: Nevermind I miss-read

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I saw something about the Wild maybe looking at Duchene now - but I can't find where I saw it.

huh, that's really interesting.

[Harry Lime]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I saw something about the Wild maybe looking at Duchene now - but I can't find where I saw it.

Dumba for Ducshene would be a very solid move for Poile, just from a long term asset standpoint.

[Jacks]

Staal reports = BUF win
Vet who has won, better player, leadership, cap savings.

Stall retires = BUF win
Cash and cap savings, will be lots of bargains in UFA from the looks of it. Cap space also opens up trade possibilities.