Matty Beniers in a Boston Bruins sweater. That's the pitch behind a three-team mock trade making the rounds this morning, and it asks a lot of everybody.
The deal, floated by IceMetrix and BlueLinesHQ, ships Beniers and Minnesota's 2030 second-round pick to Boston. Pavel Zacha, with 50% retained, goes to the Wild alongside defenceman Jonathan Aspirot.
Seattle takes the biggest pile. Danila Yurov, Casey Mittelstadt and Nico Sturm head west, along with Boston's 2027 first and Minnesota's 2028 third.
Start with the centrepiece. The 23-year-old Kraken forward carries a $7,142,857 cap hit, and Boston would be absorbing every dollar of it.
His recent stretch is thin. One point over his last five games, and the Kraken have won three straight anyway.
Last night in Philadelphia, Beniers logged 20:31 in a 3-2 shootout win and stayed off the scoresheet. Lane Lambert clearly still trusts him with big minutes.
So why would Seattle listen? Because Jason Botterill gets bodies, picks and a young scorer, with Boston's first-rounder sitting on top like a bow.
The Wild would sell Danila Yurov for half of Pavel Zacha
This is where it falls apart for me. Minnesota moving Yurov in this framework is a bad idea, and Bill Guerin should hang up before the second ring.
Here's the strange part. Beniers, Zacha, Mittelstadt and Yurov all have exactly 3 points through 7 games.
The Bruins forward and the Wild youngster go even further. Two goals, one assist and one game-winner apiece.
The difference is age and price. Yurov is 22 on a $972,500 cap hit, while Zacha is 29 and still costs more at half retention.
Giving that up is like returning a winning scratch ticket so you can sign a car lease.
To be fair to Zacha, he's producing right now. His game-winner came last night in Boston's 6-3 win in San Jose, in 17:32 of ice time.
Aspirot barely moves the needle. The 27-year-old blueliner has dressed for 3 games without a point.
Then there's Nico Sturm. He's on IR with an upper-body injury and isn't expected back until at least October 20, so Seattle would be taking on a $2,000,000 cap hit that can't play yet.
Boston's side is the real head-scratcher. Marco Sturm's group is 5-2-0, sits first in its division and owns a +10 goal differential without Beniers.
Mittelstadt is the expensive piece going out. He's at $5,750,000, chipped in an assist last night and is producing at the same rate as the guy Boston would pay a first to get.
Meanwhile, Fraser Minten leads the Bruins with 4 goals on a $879,168 cap hit. Does Boston really need to buy what it's already growing?
Minnesota has its own reasons to stay put. The Wild handled Boston 4-1 back on October 3, and they're 4-2-1 even after last night's 5-2 loss in Winnipeg.
The Bruins open a road trip Friday in Anaheim, with Los Angeles waiting Saturday for a back-to-back.
Don Sweeney will have plenty of flight time to think about it. Whether he'd spend a first-round pick to answer a question his team hasn't asked yet is another story.
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Should the Bruins give up their 2027 first-round pick to land Matty Beniers?
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