Edited Jun. 7, 2021 at 3:08 a.m.
Quoting: islanders15
Lol ok, if it's anything more than a 4th, they'd probably just buy him out for an 833k cap hit. Hickey is an NHL defenseman, only reason he's not a regular is because he got hurt and Devon Toews stepped in. and 2.5 isn't the same as 3.2 if youre gonna nickel and dime it.
Hickey has played a total of 19 games in the NHL and the AHL combined over the last two years.
In a trade the value a player has for
both the teams have to be considered. Hickey is not an NHL player to Detroit.
Detroit has DeKeyser, who has a bad back, and Cholowski, who is questionable defensively, under contract for next year. What Detroit needs is one or two
reliable veterans to tie them over until their prospects mature. Hickey is even more of a risk than DeKeyser is health-wise. That makes Hickey unsuitable for Detroit, that is why Detroit considers him a liability and not an asset.
With the Staal trade Detroit got a player they could actually use, with Hickey they get a player they have to send to Grand Rapids. That determines how much value Detroit places on him and how much they want for taking on his contract.
You may think he has value but Detroit doesn't think he has any value to them at all as a player, that makes him cost you more to dump than Staal did who had value to Detroit.
The Staal deal netted Detroit a useful player and a 2nd round pick.
What you're proposing is a useless player and a 4th round pick.
If you had to make one of those two deals for your team which one of them would you choose? The 2nd + useful or the 4th + useless?