I'm still far more interested in what they do with Nichushkin.
He's obviously a really good player, quite frankly elite, when he's playing. But at this point that trust has to be broken between he and the Avs.
There's a few contracts around the league that are probably bad contracts but at least give you decent players that you can at least rely upon to be around when things matter.
For example, Jarry could probably be had for "free" right now. Skinner and Kotkaniemi are buyout candidates and/or trade candidates. Laine.
Would the Avs consider trading Nuke in some sort of deal for one of these guys? Obviously on a Skinner or Laine you'd want retention. But for the other teams, they'd get to move a contract they want to move, and get a guy in return that has a chance to have a real impact for them if he can clean it up off the ice. Could be a risk worth taking for another team, and if he doesn't clean himself up, his next strike could be his last one and then his contract is terminated and you're off the hook.
But like... Nichushkin for Laine @50% retention, would either team do it? Or Buffalo with Skinner @50% retention for Nuke. Or something like Nuke + Georgiev for Jarry + Smith(@50%).
Does either team make those type of moves. The PLD trade earlier and with supposedly other teams interested in PLD suggests to me there's an appetite for teams to take on these high risk/high reward players right now.
