Pass from Detroit, would rather use the cap space we have to acquire a guy for free. Leddy also is on a backloaded contract is owed 6.5M and 7M in base salary which never gets brought up.

Leddy may be worth a 2nd rounder (and even a higher 2nd rounder), but not from DET. He'd be valuable to a contender.

Unfortunately the red wings are rebuilding and not in a position to trade top rounds for veterans at this time

Why would the Kings want 5.5m AHLer Ladd?

build draft picks and give Carter the opportunity to be on a contending team. I think LAK will be in the mindset to take on salary dumps for picks

A third and fifth are rather meaningless picks. Kings would much better just spending money on NHLer maybe via free agency with that money they would be wasting on Ladd.
In effect with retention, you have the Kings spending 7.5 on nothing.....money that could be spend on NHLers.

they've been pretty clear that they're going to do a rebuild. they've spent the last 2 years shedding salary and amassing picks.

You might be able to get a 2nd Leddy but it won't be from Detroit since we're rebuilding and need to keep as many picks as possible. I think his value is more realistically a 3rd.

I know Komarov is good defensively but I still think you'd need to add a small sweetener to dump him even with retained salary.

That looks like a pretty bad trade for LA to me. Carter has two years left on his deal and is still playing at an NHL level. Ladd has 3 years left on his deal and is at an AHL level. You're also asking LA to retain on Carter. In compensation, you're giving them a 3rd and 5th which are relatively meaningless picks. If this base of a trade were to work, I think the Islanders would need to throw in a 1st.

I adjusted the Carter trade to include more pieces going back to LAK. at the end of the day, I think Blake will deal Carter to a contender and is willing to take on salary dumps. I think this is as far as I would go to get him though.

I changed Leddy to a trade to Calgary. he is def worth a second and if they retained salary probably an additional third. they don't have strong skaters on the back end besides Gio. and if I was the CGY GM, I would rather have leddy for 2 years than Gustafsson for the long term commitment he will probably want.