Ottawa isn't the right destination for Bailey.

Buyout period has passed, so....

For that price we probably take him regardless though, worst case we swap him at the deadline for way more assets.

Who are you going to flip a 31 year old winger with three seasons left on his contract after this season with a $5MM cap hit?

Any contender looking for a solid top six playmaking winger who performs well in the playoffs?

Bailey is 31 now, and has four seasons left on his contract, @ $5MM cap hit a season? Ottawa doesn't trade for future buyout candidates, or pay for players they might need to eventually pay others to take off their books, especially in a year when they want to bring more prospects into the lineup.

Trading for Bailey leaves room for 2 forward prospects, probably Batherson and Brown.

Bailey takes a roster spot from one of these guys

Balcers
Norris
Chlapik
Abramov
Formenton

Bailey is not getting traded, and certainly not for two late picks.

Isles are going to have to pay a 1st and B-Prospect to move Boychuck and maybe Hickey. They then will bury Ladd, and possibly Komarov to open up the cap room they need.

I honestly don’t think any of those guys make the team anyway, but bumping Balcers or Chlapik to the minors would be unfortunate. I think Bailey is better than Zucker though, and look at how much he got at the deadline. A team like Boston or Washington might be willing to give up a pretty package at the deadline to land a piece like that and not mind the potential for 1-2 years at the end where he’s overpaid if they can win now before their stars age out. He’s coming off 20 pts in 22 games this playoffs and a few 50+ point seasons in a row so he’s still a pretty solid offensive contributor.

Neither Balcers or Chlapik are waivers exempt, not really a main point in this though.

Zucker is more than two years younger, and has a one year shorter contract, so to compare ages during contract

Zucker 28-29-30 years old @ $5.5MM
Bailey 31-32-33-34 years old @ $5MM

The production is similar, but I keep coming back to age and length of contract

Dont know why we're buying those guys out. We could save more cap space by burying them and we dont have extra years of dead cap. Not sure what his plan is here lol.
Also no way we're making rhat terrible bailey trade.