2 things.
1. I would probably heavily consider that from a Flames POV. Could you retain on Sundqvist?
2. If you are acquiring Monahan it isn't to play 4C. You would be banking on his surgery fixing his other hip and looking for a bounce back and then probably flip at the deadline for more value

Flames will save around 3.75 MIL from this deal and sundqvist is a capable nhl player. DET could RS but the price would increase as the savings increase. I expect monahan to be available next season and he prob would play 3c for 4c, det is doing this for a LD prospect that can maybe play next yr and a 2nd rd draft pick. if he is decent a 50 percent RS (recently, we've seen third teams to come in to retain additional cap) to get another draft pick

Flames need to save a fair bit more than 3.75M this offseason regardless of if Sundqvist is a capable NHLer. Monahan played the entirely of the last 2 seasons (except for the first 6 games of 20/21) with a completely messed up hip (whether it was his left last year or right this year). If he comes back healthy do not expect him to be a 4th line caliber center by any means. I understand the idea of mainly wanting Valimaki here, all I'm saying you are basing Monahan's results off his time playing through major injuries

The trade market is not going to be friendly to teams clearing cap unless it is for very good players than the issue almost goes away. Monahan played the bottom 6 the whole team in CGY this season and this is a pretty serious surgery. Definitely has to be caution with monahan and while I am expecting him to be available, it is unreasonable to think he will be a quality player considering he was about in the mid 20's percentile for WAR and regressed even lower this season to about a flat 20th percentile. Gaudreau led the league in even strength points (no one has had as many as him in a single season in a long time) and matt tkachuk was great this yr too. They will both get 10M + and they both deserve it. that leaves cgy with about 6M for everything else so I think clearing monahan is a priority for them to keep Kylington and mangiapane. Det definitely has leverage

This is not entirely true. Monahan started in the top 6 and as his hip got worse he got demoted to down the lineup (mind you they had no idea his hip was so serious until he spoke up and got x-rays at the beginning of April). On the other hand though, as stated by him, his left hip feels excellent. His availability depends entirely on if he can play next season as we don't know anything more about the surgery besides that he was place on LTIR to get it done on the right hip. Any team interested would certainly get full access to his medical records though. I don't really understand bringing up his WAR from last year since he was also playing injured the entire season

Gaudreau and Tkachuk definitely haven't earned 10M deals yet. That heavily depends on these playoffs. The last team to hand out multiple 10M+ deals without any playoff results has been spinning their tires for 3 years now. Even then I would expect around 9.5M with the Flames with term being the main factor. They also have the option of moving Lucic and it has already been reported there is a lot of interest in Monahan so the "leverage" is not specifically with Detroit at all, It's simply highest bidder (not that I am expecting much).

Yzerman isn't offer sheeting a surf. With this much turnover you've turned the Wings into an expansion team.

With the amount of cap space the wings have there is absolutely no reason to pay to move Erne he has 1yr with a cap hit of $2M.

The Wings are targeting several stop gap dmen and won't spend more than a 3rd to acquire him. He is 34 with 2yrs left on his current contract no one is giving up a 2nd for him.

Way too much for 1yr Strome. Chicago doesn't even consider that and how much of his success is attributed to one of the best winger to play the game on his line?

Philly isn't giving up a 1st for Veleno and Detroit isn't taking on van Riemsdyk and his $7M cap hit. Now van Riemsdyk did have a good year but at 33 and in the final season of his contract the chances of him playing in Detroit for the 2023-24 season are slim to none. He either goes to a contender or retires so from Detroit pov he doesn't have much value.

That's too much to get Monahan for a single season. Considering his situation I'd maybe a 3rd form him and at this point Välimäki is still an AHL player.

Calling Valimaki "still an AHL player" is a pretty bad way of looking at it. Calgary's d-core this year is stacked and Valimaki simply lost his spot to a guy that trained for and wanted it more. He would probably make most NHL lineups around the league though. It's exactly the same with how Sandin was a healthy scratch in the playoffs for Toronto, or Lundkvist with the Rangers. Hell Sean Durzi probably doesn't sniff the NHL this year if Walker and Doughty never got hurt

I meant no disrespect and I'm quite aware that some players take longer to develop but the truth is he's still an AHL player. I'm not saying he won't be an NHL player but to a team trading form him isn't going to assume he is an NHL player until he earns a NHL roster spot. If that offended I apologize but I was simply looking at it pragmatically.

But that's not exactly true. He played almost the entirely of the season last year in the NHL (all but 7 games). He was sent down this year for cap reasons as it was cheaper and better for him to be buried in the minors then swap out ever ~10 games with Zadorov on the 3rd pair. He missed a lot of development time between his D+1 and D+3 due to injuries but looked really promising when he was playing.

Last year he looked pretty solid and like a potential replacement for Giordano. He needs to work on gap control but definitely has all the tools to be a very good top 4 guy.

Im not insulted or anything, Im trying to clarify what I consider a misconception

The broad goal is to move on from the early rd Holland administration picks and recoup value for them before they completely bust. Detroit’s issue is thinking these players are going to work out but many of them from the late Holland era drafts just haven’t shown much. Yes, this team needs to look very different next season or they’ll be out of the playoffs for the 7th consecutive series and not advance out of rd one for a decade. JVR and Monahan are cap dumps done a little unconventional so that the opposing team can get something a little interesting at least.

NO.

No to all trades except the Erne one.

Ok I get that but you're giving them away and there are a few that Detroit has no plans to trade. Zadina has had a rough year in terms of production but defensively he has improved and he back checks as hard as anyone on the team. With a new coach his production could improve. I doubt he gets traded before the TDL. Rasmussen is being groomed to be a shut down center and as he is getting used to his production has increased. Veleno is progressing just fine and if Detroit signs a legitimate #2C Suter gets traded before Veleno. Those 3 are worth more to Detroit than their current trade value. I don't see Sundqvist and Erne both being traded maybe one gets traded since they style of play is similar and would play the same roll in Detroits bottom 6. Both were brought to Detroit by Yzerman.

Ok then we just see things differently. Your reasoning for Välimäki being an NHL player even though he is currently in the AHL is completely subjective. While I choose to look at it objectively. Since we aren't going to change each others views on this matter it's probably best to agree to disagree.

The highest Zadina has ever been in even strength defensive impact over the last 3 yrs is the 27th percentile (that’s back in 19-20). He’s been a bottom ten finisher and defensive impact player at even strength the last 2 seasons. His actual offensive impacts (not finishing) have gotten better and he draws a lot of penalties which are his only two positives, for a 22 yo t10 pick a few yrs ago now these are not good numbers at all. Veleno was a bottom 3 fwd in the whole nhl in even strength offense this yr, he showed some defensive ability in the big league but it could very well be small sample bc he’s never come off as an excellent shutdown pre nhl even tho it’s not an issue of his. Veleno WAR in the 9th percentile of fwds, very concerning for a 22yo. Rasmussen has been a wreck at pretty much everything, I can’t even find a strong suit of his. At 23 now he’s the most concerning of the 3 and still bottom of the barrel in most value stats. These 3 players are a big part of why Detroit doesn’t finish higher in the standings (others are to blame ofc as well) and how long can Detroit really be patient. This is a scenario where “patience kills”, these players have some value now. TAKE Advantage of it in Detroit. This team would be a hell of a lot better than the one that skated last season, it’s cap compliant, it won’t cause any issues for the actual good young players to be resigned, and they barely lose any draft picks in terms of net value.

This feels like the team where the organization and the fans alike would rather see the prospects they drafted develop vs. actually having a team that contend. I do give this fanbase a ton of credit for being so patient but Detroit desperately needs an external or internal push bc the lack of success recently. This will be Yzerman's 4th offseason and 4th regular season next year. It is great they have drafted some nice players and have made a few great decisions (some of the decisions I don’t agree with but that is with most GMs) but it is time to move forward and that will likely mean trading substandard young players that had a ton of optimism at one time that simply have nothing to back up that they’ll develop into quality nhl players.