Quoting: Janasazi
So do you think Dubas is stuck keeping Muzzin this year and just move him next year when his NTC becomes a Modified NTC?
No, I'm saying that you've got two problems with any Muzzin trade. (This one has a third -- Larsson's NTC -- but that's not important to this discussion.)
(1) Muzzin's NTC.
(2) Muzzin's value to the other team and its cap space.
The general impression is that Muzzin is an Ontario guy and he probably doesn't want to uproot his family unless he's going to go to a contender for the Stanley Cup. Therefore, although this is speculative, the generally-accepted "wisdom" is that Muzzin isn't likely to waive for a bottom-feeder like Anaheim or Arizona or Chicago or Seattle or similar no-hopers. How he would feel about nearby Buffalo or Detroit or Ottawa is unpredictable.
A player can have different value to different teams, and that difference can vary widely. To Toronto, and to a similar contender needing a solid defender (especially one soft at LD), Muzzin is still quite valuable. (My personal opinion is that it would be a serious mistake for Toronto to trade him away because I don't see how you're going to replace him -- in particular, the LD UFAs left are a pretty sorry lot.) But to a team which isn't getting near the playoffs this year and unlikely to make them in 2024, what's the future benefit of having him on the team? Going from 27 wins to 31? So his value to non-contenders is pretty minor compared to his appeal to the contenders.
To me, the most likely scenario is something like the Mrazek transaction, whereby Toronto moves back in the 2023 draft in return for moving Muzzin. But that presupposes Muzzin proves us all wrong and accepts a trade to a team willing to do that and able to afford his cap hit.