Thanks for realistic "explanation". Wondering if teams would say to cash cap strapped teams (and there are many). No draft picks coming your way, maybe just a seventh and the deal is done.

I mean for some players maybe, like Ericsson or brendan smith, but howard at 4m how is 3rd and a 5th unrealistic?

I'm not saying what he suggested wasn't a fair hockey deal. But so many teams want to offload contracts. In Detroit's case maybe it's Howard because of the rise of young, better and now more expensive Mrazek.
Let's say Calgary agreed to take Howard and his 4m a year for 3 years. Detroit might be somewhat "desperate" to trade him because of cap implications. Detroit may not have too many options to unload Howard, so I'm saying Calgary might be able to hold out and send Detroit virtually nothing.
Not picking on your trade at all, just saying this summer we might see contract trades of reasonable good players going to cap available teams for virtually no return. As you suggested Howard to Calgary makes sense for the Flames, and if Howard wants more playing time, for him too.