Centres are the last thing the Canucks need, especially ones who need a deal soon

So the isles are going trade their franchise center for a 3rd line vet on a bloated contract, an underperforming top 6 winger, a B prospect and a 1st. Makes sense!

What’s the incentive for the isles to do this?

I would say the incentive would be if they cant sign him, but if that's the case...this package does not get it done.
Isles would get a butt load for Barzal, but they need to get him signed long term

how about you take Josh Bailey instead

This is for the 22-23 season, there’s no reason to trade him right now regardless.

It would be mostly a futures package if they can’t get him signed or a player of similar age/talent who plays center.

This is an awful valuation of Mat Barzal. He's a 25 year old 1C who's scored at a 69 pts/82 GP pace over the last 3 seasons despite Leo Komarov & Zach Parise being some of his most frequent line mates at even strength. Boeser is a winger who's basically settled in as a 60ish point guy who always seems to miss some time during the regular season. Tanner Pearson is another winger who's basically a 40 point player at this point in his career. Rathbone is an undersized LD, and while I know that Canucks fans are high on him, it's hard to ignore the fact that he's already 23 and hasn't done much as a pro beyond half a good year in the AHL. Not saying he can't be a good player, but he's not exactly a player I'm going to put a huge value on when I already have a few guys around the same age with more NHL experience on my LD depth chart.

The fact that the Isles also throw back a somewhat valuable pick in this also doesn't make sense - so not only are they giving up Barzal for $9.9M worth of middle-6 wingers plus a B-prospect and a 1st, they also have to give Vancouver an advantageous pick swap to "even it out"? Nah, easy pass from New York. -IF- he doesn't want to re-sign, Barzal either goes for the Eichel-lite package (high picks, younger roster player, A-prospect) or gets traded in one of those fabled "hockey trades" for another top-line player.

If the Islanders could get a 2nd for Josh Bailey with $2,500,000 retained he'd be long gone by now.

Talk about a pathetic off for Matthew Barzal, If Detroit wanted Barzal it would cost us Bertuzzi+Edvinsson+Zadina and a 1st and a 2nd rather easily. Which blows away this poor excuse of an offer.

These trades about "sending a player home" are just pointless. Barzal makes no sense for the Canucks, trading Barzal makes no sense for the Isles

I assume you're referring to Pearson?

OK, let's take a moment and do a comparable.

If both players had played a full 82 games last year, Palat projected to finish 52 points, Pearson with 41. Palat is 31, Pearson is 30. Palat has two Stanley Cups, Pearson has one. Palat makes 6 million in New Jersey, Pearson makes 3.25 in Vancouver.

Bloated. Really? 3rd liner?

Now take some time on your own to really look at what second line production typically looks like in the NHL.

Pearson's deal is a value contract.