I guess at this point I'm making an assumption that WPG is making a lot of trades to their "core". I could see Yamamoto being a piece of a larger trade between the two.

Hawks would probably take a flyer on Yamo for free.

I think the Caps would give a 4th on Yamo, he could be a good fit here.

hawks are the most natural fit for him imo

For free? Yeah, maybe. Not so sure EDM will be able to get out of their cap troubles that easily though.

I can't imagine Blackhawks mgmt complaining about the possibility of getting Yamo for next to nothing when they need to reach the floor and need players that can play with Bedard.

Nothing will be paid as a sweetener. Almost impossible to move money right now and the buyout costs nothing as Yamo is under 26. It's a 1/3 the standard buyout cost.

This isnt the hill to die on when they have guys like Ceci and Foegele to move. Unless, they trade for Pesce. I dont see either going. Nugent Hopkins probably will be asked to waive his NMC. Their cap clearly has options when the Oil and Holland are in the market for Pesce.

Teams still know their cap situation and use it as leverage which is why the Canucks bought out OEL as nobody was giving an inch on Boeser/Garland trade talks whereas now the Nucks can dig in.

If you think Yamo is better than who we already have available to play with Bedard, you are mistaken. Having a bad team doesn't mean we don't have decent, good, or developing players that could take another step. CHI management would rather get paid to help teams out of their cap troubles than do it for free, let alone pay for it.

Agreed, that was my thought too. But if, for whatever reason, EDM doesn't want to buy him out, maybe they need the full $3M or something, I still wouldn't pay for him or help EDM out of their cap troubles for nothing. That defeats the entire purpose of why CHI has all of this cap space. Obviously they would like to try to get something for him, but I doubt they will be able to, at least not from CHI. Their best bet is probably to just buy him out.