His value? Of course it was. He had a career year and was a captain in his prime. He also only had one year left, which left the option for rental or to re-sign. Ras also wasn't dangled at the deadline, nor was he in the news possibly wanting to leave.

And look how that turned out. Dude was having a career year offensively, despite a career of being defensively deployed. Canucks fleeced the Islanders. Yzerman isn't that stupid

The 8 million dollar 1 year cap savings alone is worth a 1st. Rasmussen adds to that value.

If Rasmussen was put in play the market would deem him less valuable than Horvat was at the deadline. Horvat got a protected 1st, so Rasmussen (with added value eating cap) also get's a protected 1st.

I can't help the fact that Vancouver's management and GM are not very good. Not that it matters now, but the Islanders pick should have been unprotected. Even though it was, the likelihood of the Islanders falling to bottom 10 or just missing the playoffs and moving up 10 spots was highly unlikely.

I think going by the trade values themselves is better than going by your personal evaluation of trade values.

Horvat at the deadline got the NYI 1st (top-12 protected) at a time when the Islanders were out of the Playoffs and trending downward. Allegedly Allvin hunted for the best possible 1st in a Horvat deal so that was the best pick available. That pick was really valuable and the Canucks' 2024 1st would be pretty similar in value given that they are coming off a worse year than the previous one. Rasmussen is worth less than that and in this case he'd be traded in the offseason when high picks are less likely to move.

At the deadline Detroit showed a willingness to sell a core piece at the time in Hronek and they prioritized the highest possible 1st for the value in the deal. Maybe that line of thinking continues into the offseason. Detroit has Kasper and Soderblom joining Larkin, Copp, Veleno and any potential UFA additions in the NHL at center so they'd be dealing from a position of strength.