Wanna try this with Gleason? He’s billed as Carolina 3rd defenseman and Frank ’Velli says the price is on the higher side.

I wouldn’t give up a top 6 guy to help out our D this year. Only way i would be ok with it is if they got someone long term who could replace Carle if they let him go or if Kimmo is going to retire after the year. Forward depth is a pretty good thing to have. I say if you go after somebody go for a solid 3-4 guy.

realistically what would be an acceptable trade for Suter (long term, not rental)? If the Flyers FO were to make it happen for better or worse?

let’s get some names and picks out there. What would you be able to live with?

There are four things that are required for any NHL trade: two teams, and then cap implications for each team. Only one of these four is not a problem in this trade: the Preds have no cap problems whatsoever.

What we are discussing is what the Flyers would be willing to send. In my view, this is the second easiest problem. The Flyers have lots of good young forwards. The Preds need these. In this case, the Preds might be willing to trade for Schenn or Scooter AND a 1st AND Gus. However, would you want to lose these for a rental (more on this below)?

Which brings us to the “tricky two” things in this trade. First, the Preds. You have to understand that the Preds are quite fearful of completely alienating their fan base, and the relationship between Weber and the Preds is not good. Losing both of these would be potentially harmful to the franchise’s marketing in the area. So while Geoff assigns X value to the Suter trade, understand that the Preds would assign a far higher value to him. To get some idea of this, imagine if Pronger or Timmo were 27, had a $3.5 M cap hit, and were one of just 3 Flyers “stars” on the entire team. All rumors are that the Preds and Suter are in very serious negotiations; I believe if Suter is signed Weber will be allowed to walk while the Preds get the draft choices, since Weber is RFA and Suter is UFA. So count on Suter being signed, because without him, they likely don’t make the playoffs and ownership needs playoff $$$$. Failing to get him signed, any trade would have to appear as a “blockbuster” both as talent returned and as something of a mollifier to the fanbase. However, if he is not signed….

The fourth problem rears its head, and it’s really the big one…the Flyers cap. If Suter is not signed, then he’s asking for $7M per year. And since the NHL cap is based on average $$$, even with extra dead years on the end there is no way to fix this to get it much less than $6M a year….and that’s all the Flyers have available for 2012-13, even before anyone else or RFAs are signed. Thus, it is impossible to get him under the cap and signed, unless multiple players are gone. You might be able to do this cap-wise with trading Simmons and/or Voracek for him, but the Preds won’t care about those players in all likelihood. They would want Schenn or Couturier.

So you gots your choices…..either you trade Schenn or Couturier AND draft choice(s) for a rental, or you do some sort of sign and trade (not sure if that’s even possible) and load up a boatload of the youngsters (like Read AND Simmons AND Voracek or draft choices) for him. Which poison would you like? As a Flyers fan, I’m passing.

NSH would want Couter more than JVR I would guess.
Couter and a 1st if I were NSH.
If I were philly JVR, Bourdon, 2nd or 3rd pick