Kuzy = 1st then add on picks / prospects if you need retained salary

Market is kind of limited to legit contenders with cap issues, so return is a little bit limited also with the cap hit of kuzy. A lot depending on cap in cap out, and how competitive Washington wants to remain.

Probably a 1st+more depending if a bidding war happens and money is eaten. Can see a fit with COL, MIN, CBJ, MTL, but the money would have to work. COL and MIN would have a hard time fitting him but not a problem for MTL and CBJ. WPG also makes sense if they have end up moving Dubois to MTL, but hard to see WPG not on Kuz no trade list.

the byfield one was insane lmao.

I think they need to get at least one with hopefully some aspect of another out of these 3 things:
good futures -- a first round pick or equivalent plus a second round pick or equivalent
enough cap space to sign or trade for another impact forward to take his spot (think of someone like Schmaltz, Konecny)
actual good roster players, almost certainly forwards

One that has been going around a lot that I think makes a lot of sense is Kuzy for Miller straight up, which solidly hits #3. The one here of a 24 1st and 25 3rd with no money coming back I think would almost certainly be accepted as well, although I'm not sure how many teams would be able to do something like that. Another one that's gone around a lot that seems reasonable is 23 1st to WSH, 23 2nd + B+ prospect to AZ to retain ~2.5m, Kuzy to CAR although I think Kuzy is maybe the least compatible player with Brind Amour's system. I could see something like Kuzy to SEA for 23 1st + Wennberg, where WSH is clearly downgrading at center and not getting the full 7.8m to work with but gets a pretty good roster player and a 1st in return. Another one that I would be fascinated by is some variation of Kuzy for PLD with picks probably going to WPG as well.

What they absolutely will not do is retain a ton of money or take on bad money in return or attach assets just to ship him out like DET with Vrana or even CGY with Monahan. The initial reporting on his trade request is still unconfirmed by the Caps' top beat writers and I don't think the relationship has soured so much that they would do anything necessary to get him out of town. He's frustrating at times (basically all the time this year) to fans and management but I've never read anything about him being a bad guy / locker room cancer and is still an extremely talented player.

It's so difficult to trade a 7.8m cap hit without taking cap back, especially to team that would be on Kuch's trade list.