Robby-D:

(Winner of the author’s daily award for eloquence)

I was hoping for some playoffs to see how JV18 performed when it matters. I’m anticipating he’ll be a beast and we’ll want to keep him! But if he plays just as lazy and lackadaisical as a regular season game, package him with Eriksson and move him out. Otherwise JB should see what else we can offer as a sweetener to have someone else take LE’s contract.

Shame that Sutter and Myers are both overpaid and thus also have negative trade value, but a good performance in the playoffs from either could boost their short-term value for a summer 2020 trade.

Outside of a gift from the league (extra buyout!) or LE himself (voluntarily on IR to collect salary), I just don’t see any non-painful way out of this. If he can’t be traded, then send him to Utica. It’s only a minor cap savings, but it sends a message to UFAs – we expect you to perform to your contract – and honestly he’s below replacement level at this point, so it’s addition by subtraction. Try to move a slightly-less-painful contract like Sutter’s instead.