Quoting: Hurricanes73
They probably aren’t moving Jones tho. Unless it has heavy retention his contract is not worth it. He’s an analytical nightmare and his only positive attributes are his size and the fact he can play 24 minutes a night. I see no team biting on that at all. If the return on cat was that low why trade him? It’s a desperation move. Most GMs hold onto their 40 goal scorer and wait for a better offer after the draft, maybe hold on till the TDL if they are waiting on their package. Take the duchene trade for example. Avs held out for over a year after a trade request, mind u cat never requested a trade, waiting for their package and when they got it it resulted in two key components to a cup victory in byram and girard. Not to mention all of the other assets they received. If the hawks waited on selling on cat they would have 100% gotten something better waiting for other GMs desperation to kick in rather than acting on their own
Well the reason they are going for a full blown rebuild is Bedard, Fantilli, and Michkov being in the 2023 draft (all are being called generational talent). Most teams trading their pick next year are probably going to have some sort of protection on it, so their best chance at top 3 is their own pick. Retaining DeBrincat would have cost them a lot in cap and he would be up there in age by the time they are competing again.
Why would they trade DeBrincat now? DeBrincat's value is probably not going to go up next off-season or later in the season since his lower value now isn't due to his performance. Chi also knows where they would be selecting now, a top 10 pick next year might not be interested in moving it for DeBrincat.
The return:
The best offer is the best offer at the end of the day, but I am surprised though that they didn't get any prospect. Chances of a 3rd rounder not making into the NHL isn't low, that's why I said they are probably betting on their scouting.
So, I think they thought of this as a a more calculated since they wanted to have a high pick. Dach probably wasn't going to get them a high pick this year, so now they can just wait and hold out on getting a
Now that they have a first, they can be patient with Dach and perhaps getting something out of Kane too.