On the contrary. With a competent GM/management group (which, granted Ottawa hasn’t had for a decade+), it’s really not that difficult or expensive to find an average/fringe top 6 winger.
In fact, out of all major positions (top 6 C, #1G, top 4 D, etc.), top 6 winger is probably the most dime a dozen and least valuable one. It just doesn’t feel like it because the culture in Ottawa is to be taken advantage of in trades rather than taking advantage of the market (see most recently: Joseph, Mathieu; Chychrun, Jakob; etc.). Since last year’s trade deadline alone:
Juuso Parssinen + 7th to COL for Ondrej Pavel + 3rd
Kaapo Kakko to SEA for Will Borgen + 3rd + 6th
Philip Tomasino to PIT for a 4th
Patrik Laine + 2nd for Jordan Harris
Ryan McLeod + Tyler Tullio for Matthew Savoie
Robby Fabbri + 4th to ANA for Alexander Gage
Mathieu Joseph + 3rd to STL for future considerations
Reilly Smith to NYR for a 2nd + 5th
Paul Cotter + 3rd to NJD for Alex Holtz + Akira Schmid
Kevin Hayes + 2nd to PIT for future considerations
Alex Texier to STL for a 4th
Andrew Mangiapane to WSH for a 2nd
Ilya Mikheyev + Sam Lafferty + 22nd to CHI for a 4th
Jason Zucker to NSH for a 6th
Evgeny Kuznetsov to CAR for a 3rd
Jack Roslovic to NYR for a 4th
Anthony Duclair + 7th to TBL for Jack Thompson + 3rd
Anthony Beauvillier to NSH for a 5th
Alex Wennberg to NYR for a 2nd + 4th
Vladimir Tarasenko to FLA for a 3rd + 4th
Anthony Mantha to Vegas for a 2nd + 4th
Tomas Tatar to COL for a 5th