I dont think ottawa does this.

Giving up some darn useful pieces to help Tampa out of a jam. At this point they will have to pay someone to take johnson due to their cap situation.

Ottawa also gets Cirelli and Segachev out of this. Those 2 would help compliment their young roster very well. Plus Johnson would be a super valuable piece as well. He isn't worth 5m a year but he would be crucial in building a winning culture in Ottawa and cab help shelter some of the younger guys. In this trade I took into account that Johnson has negative value.

You don’t think OTT would rather have Sergachev (better than Brannstrom) and Cirelli (better than Batherson) plus 3 extra 2nd round picks to rent Tyler Johnson???

OTT does this deal all day every single day. Sergachev and Cirelli are exactly the type of players and age group the Senators should try to add.

Now do you think TB considers this also?

Solves their cap issues. They get 2 young, prospects with a lot of promise and 3x 2nds.

OTT would not do this if Batherson is involved, i think they would let Branny go but not batherson, + tampa would want a C to go back to eventually replace Cireli so i think Pinto or Chlapic or maybe Tierny would be involved, no one wanted Johnson when he was on waivers so Tampa will have to take less in this trade to move him.

No, I don't think TB is going to lose both Sergachev and Cirelli this year. They are both key pieces to their Stanley Cup in 2020, and now is the time to take advantage of Hedman, Vasilevskiy, Point, and Kucherov. They are likely better off paying a premium to move Johnson / Gourde / Killorn, or even trading Stamkos below fair market value to keep the core together.

The only way that I see TB potentially losing both players is if a team offer sheets Sergachev above $7.5M and another team offer sheets Cirelli above $6M. In that case, I think they match Sergachev, let Cirelli walk, and then start the process of selling off cap hits for a premium that hurts a lot.