Seems like every Timo Meier proposal I've seen has him going to the Devils but I don't really think there's a great fit there beyond the Hischier connection.
On the other hand, Timo would fit the Hurricanes like a glove. When he's at his best he's playing a fast, direct, north-south game and generating shots from everywhere (on pace for 400+ shots and 700+ shot attempts this season). He already plays Rod Brind'Amour hockey to a tee.
He also fits within the age range of their other core forwards like Aho, Teravainen, Necas, etc. and the Hurricanes will have something like $30 million in cap space this summer if they want to extend him. The fact they were interested in Matthew Tkachuk suggests to me they would also value Meier.
In terms of a return I would want Carolina's 2023 1st and Alexander Nikishin but I'm guessing they don't want to give him up. Who's the best prospect the Sharks could realistically land (in addition to the 23 1st) for Meier? Is Scott Morrow in play for a trade like this?
Potential healthy playoff forward lines for the Canes after this deal:
Meier - Aho - Teravainen
Svech - Kotkaniemi - Necas
Pacioretty - Staal - Jarvis
Martinook - Stastny - Fast
Easily the deepest forward group in the conference, if not the league. The fourth line would be a decent third line and the third line is better than most second lines.
I really doubt that highlighted roster will work cap wise for this season, and we aren't moving our top 4 defensemen, or deHaan from the third pairing. At least, not for Meier. So, some forward and or Rantaa/Andersen, if Kochetkov continues to show he is 1G material, would be traded for salary reasons, and possibly we'd still need San Jose to have some retention for Meier depending on how much salary we dump. Also, Carolina won't make such a big trade for such a big player as just a rental; they'd only do it if they knew they'd extend him or if there was already an extension from San Jose.
IF we get Meier (which is a big if), I can see us not resigning Pacioretty after this season and especially if he doesn't take a discount. This would make future extensions with other players much more possible.
Personally, I wouldn't trade Morrow for Meier since he's pretty much a top tier prospect (or at least, certainly in our system currently), and once Burns retires or possibly plays for another team (I doubt it since he seems to like us and is steadily getting used to our system and developing chemistry and I think he'll only get better), we will need a top 4 RHD. Plus, there's the question/concern of whether Pesce, another RHD, resigns with us.
Admittedly, I'm less familiar with Nikishin than Morrow, and while I know some Canes fans that keep up with our prospects (more than myself) like him, I personally wouldn't be against trading him if we get Meier on an extension.
Finally, on a slightly different note, I agree with some of the talks in this topic about upgrading our 2C. However, I think Carolina will keep Koko as our 2C for at least the rest of this season to give him time to mature/develop with that higher responsibility (unless he really takes a nose dive in performance which I doubt will happen). So, it seems more likely we upgrade our top 6 wingers than upgrading our 2C while the Koko experiment continues.
