Why would Philly take Rattie and Spooner from us?
Well, admittedly the 2nd round pick this year – which chances are going to be a top 15, top 20 at worst – is the centerpiece of the trade, and a rebuilding team always needs more draft picks, right? If JVR were producing as he is expected to it would probably take our 1st rounder to get him, but since he’s struggling that would move it down to a 2nd rounder.
Anyway, Rattie at this point it seems obvious to me isn’t in the team’s long term plans so we might as well give him an 18-20 game audition with another team to see if a change of scenery can help him as well. Rebuilding teams will have all kinds of opportunity for players like Rattie, opportunities not available for him in Edmonton.
If he doesn’t take advantage of said opportunities, all Philly has to do is not offer him a QO, then he walks for nothing at the end of the season.
Spooner is included for the same reason Manning is in the Hurricanes trade – we’re taking a player that doesn’t fit into Philly off their hands for them, so we’re asking them to do the same for us.
And again, the beauty part of this is the same as with Manning for Philly, just with different numbers.
Predictably they’ll put him on waivers once they get him – and because we’re retaining $1 million of his cap hit, his hit for Philly is now down to $2.1 million. If he gets claimed on waivers, then no problem, if he clears waivers, he goes down to their farm team, and they save another 950K on his cap hit.
That means his cap hit is now down to $1.15 million for next season plus a small chunk of change for this season. If rebuilding teams have one thing going for them, it’s cap space.
Could Philly handle $1.15 million in cap space for Spooner if they get a very valuable 2nd round pick back from the Oilers plus a potential RWer for next year? I’d say yes.
Meanwhile, for the Oilers, they only have to have $1 million of Spooner’s cap hit against their cap for 1 season as opposed to the $3.1 million when no one takes him in a trade or the $2.15 million if he plays in Bakersfield next year.
At his full cap hit, no one will even take him for free on waivers. Forget it.
But, if we keep $1 million of his cap as a throw-in in the trade, and then his new team saves another 950K by assigning him to their farm team, then the impact to both the Oilers and his new team is minimal.