Quoting: Pensfan89
They’ve been trying to trade Kessel 50% retained for a 3rd and no one is biting. I don’t think they get more than maybe a 4th for him.
None of those players will be as good as Zucker. The benefit of Zucker over those guys is that they could easily flip him for at least a 2nd next deadline by retaining 50%, if not more. The guy is a great locker room guy and always gives 110%. If he isn’t scoring he is doing everything else at least. He’d be a great leader for a young team. I’m not sure many vets would sign with Arizona.
Matheson again has positive value and someone they can eventually flip. He may not fit their timeline but again, they will need big contracts with term to get to the cap floor. It’s better to take value pieces as opposed to cap dumps.
They're still going to get better value shopping them separately than doing this deal.
Chychurn gets a 1st, 2nd, and strong prospect.
Let's say Crouse would swap for a guy like Kapanen(last years of RFA, $3ishM AAV, change of scenery kind of guy) & a 3rd.
We'll make up a cap dump named Andrew Eriksson that has one year left at $5.5M and gets traded to Arizona with a 2nd rounder attached.
And we'll give them a 4th for Kessel.
So in this scenario, they've moved out Kessel, Crouse, & Chychurn and received back a 1st, 2 2nds, a 3rd, a 4th, a good prospect, a Kapanen-type, and some sort of veteran cap dump.
OP has a 1st, a 2nd, a 3rd, a good prospect (Poulin), a Kapanen-type(the original, in fact!), Mike Matheson, and Jason Zucker.
Zucker might be better than our made up guy, but you're saying that they could easily flip him for a 2nd next year. Our made up cap dump already came with a 2nd, so what's the difference to the Coyotes? His intangibles are nice, sure, but at the end of the day Arizona is looking for picks and the outcome is the same, except they run the risk of Zucker getting hurt and having to hang on to him through the end of his contract and getting nothing of value back(a small chance, but still possible!)
Matheson does have positive value! But with 4 years @ $4.875M, he's not a guy you can flip that easily in a flat-cap (or even in a $1M extra/year cap) league. Arizona could easily grab a UFA like PK Subban and give them 1 year at $5.5M to help get to the cap floor and flip him at the deadline for a pick, then do the same thing each offseason until they're ready to contend. It's cynical as hell, sure, but we all know a pending UFA is going to be easier to move at the deadline than a guy with multiple years left with at nearly $5M.
It's not like this is an objectively terrible proposal, I just think that if Pittsburgh wants all 3 of Arizona's big trade chips, they'll have to offer more, because the Coyotes will get more by trading them off individually. It's not Costco, you don't get a discount for shopping in bulk at the deadline.