IMO Vrana makes Burakovsky redundant. We already have a young up-and-coming offensive threat, who plays with more energy and speed and skill than Bura. And this is only his 2nd "full" season (first season he played like 20 games). Sorry Bura, but you had your chance and you haven't earned your keep.
This is Bura's 5th season, and Vrana has already pretty much matched Bura's career high in points and surpassed his high for goals with 20 games to go. You might argue that Bura hasn't spent as much time as Vrana in the top 6, but honestly you earn those spots, and Bura clearly hasn't while Vrana has. Bura is just a $3 million black hole for this team. His play is soft and uninspired. Can't battle, just loses the puck all the time, and isn't providing the type of punch you'd want from a 1st round draft pick. Bura's first two seasons were more promising, since he was that young guy with potential and put together some decent production in those seasons, with the expectation that he'd only improve. Since then we've seen no growth, and in fact mostly just a decline in play. Why he hasn't been shipped off earlier is beyond me.
With regards to Beagle, I agree he's the better fit for this team. His work ethic, faceoffs, PK, overall defensive acumen, etc are much more beneficial to our team than Bura's charmin soft ineffective play. That said, don't think I'd straight up trade Bura for Beagle (Bura has "change of scenery upside" and is younger, and I think another team would pay extra for that over a 33 year old that's pretty much reached his ceiling). Beagle + some other pieces for Bura? Yeah maybe, but I'd still be wary of taking on a $3 million a year cap hit through Beagle's age-37 season. Again, not saying I wouldn't prefer Beagle over Bura, just want to be conscious of salary/contract and trade return.
