i keep thinking about a comment
@MS made about how hard it is to shelter two rookie defensemen on a contending roster. it's less about the rhd willander pushing out the lhd d-petey, but moreso that with the way hronek, pettersson, and post-soucy myers have looked, we have a very strong top-4 without needing to bank on a rookie to play one of those roles.
add that forbort has basically been a perfect bottom pairing vet, and that the forward group needs more than a prayer that ehlers will sign here, it feels like the natural starting point to move a young defenseman. doubly so, as you've noted, with guys like mancini, kudryatsev and mynio all fairly close too, and no one aside from lekk comparable up front (if bains and raty are part of the solution... lol)
disagree that d-pete would be at a low in value, i think the "next edler" narrative goes a long way, and there is an absolute shortage of players with this skillset league wide. a team like buffalo, even though they are loaded with young defenseman, should be all over an actual tough 21 year old that wins his minutes. or a team like chicago, where they don't really care what he does in his sophomore year... could someone like nazar be put on the table? two of our three options to get a player of that calibre are named elias pettersson (the other is willander), and if we're talking about selling low, there's one i'd certainly look to trade over the other...