Quoting: Poehling
Drouin, Dadonov & Hoffman showed they can help a team to tank, not the other way around. They are really bad right now, they have to turn their game around big time for a team to consider them helping
by your logic Kane and Toews showed they can help a team to tank too, therefore they're really bad right now.
losing your best goalie and your best defenseman, then getting the most man games lost in the NHL made for a perfect storm of garbage last season, so gauging a players capability based on that is ridiculous, and even at that, Dadonov wasn't with Montreal.... and Drouin still put up 20 points in 34 games, a 50 point pace on said dumpster fire team.
Dadonov up until last season, was still a 45 point depth forward, with playmaking ability, and at $2.5M with salary retention is likely a better contract or option than most teams have at that same salary.
Same applies to Drouin (though risk with mental issues are present).
I never mentioned Hoffman, he was a disaster before being signed, demonstrated in Florida that he was one dimensional and needed a team to carry him.
The question isn't "are they first line players" or "are they worth $5M"... the question is "can they make a team better respective to fitting them under a tight cap".... and with salary retention, on Dadonov and Drouin, the answer is most likely a yes, you're almost acting like they're 12 point guys through a regular season, and again, at $2.5M what would you expect, Foegele? Namestnikov? Engvall? Dickinson? arguably all worse at similar cap hits.
Edit: Jfresh war% for Dadonov last season was 77%, with his defence being at a career high.