This is a variation of a trade proposal I posted here a few weeks ago.

The story of the off season for the Coyotes has been that they want to compete. They are a budget team, which means they care about REAL DOLLARS, not cap. They have these two LTIR contracts that they have to pay real dollars to not to play for them.

Apparently, insurance covers up to 80 percent of the contracts. This means that the two LTIR contracts could still cost the Coyotes as little as 2.25M this season. Joseph makes 2.7M in real dollars. He also takes up a roster spot, which saves the Coyotes another 400k-775k+ since the Coyotes will get to send down someone on a 2-way contract whose spot Joseph will occupy. That makes this deal cash in/cash out for the Coyotes this season, but they also get an NHL player (instead of paying for nothing), and they upgrade a 4th to a 2nd.

The Senators need to dump Joseph in order to sign Pinto to a 1-2 year bridge deal at 1M-2M, and fill out at least a 22 player roster under the cap. Taking these LTIR contracts is fine because they expired at the end of the season, and the Senators will be 4-5 figures away from the 83.5M cap ceiling. Which means they would lose very little bankable cap space by going into LTI.

Arizona isn’t interested in paying a 4th liner $9m over his contract when they can pay league min for the same production. We’ve got enough 2nds

like the thinking (unlike every TML proposal) but 2 problems - joseph is 9.3m real cash over 3 years, a lot cheaper are the 2 LTIR and the only Fs that dont need to clear waivers are cooley and guenther, doubt they drop one to bring in joseph.
unfortunately for OTT Kubalik is better option (I imagine youd want to keep him) but he is on last year (can TDL) and about same cap hit way and more attractive, 31 GMs know OTT is a bind no cap space and really need to sign Pinto.

think the cap max in training camp is 110%-cant take both to LTIR prolly only Voracek works-which AZ can LRIT little easily if needed

I agree that the term is the killer.

Arizona could likely attach a 2nd round pick to him next off season, and dump him somewhere else. Basically, rent him for 1 year at cash in/cash out. If he doesn't bounce back, move on from him.

My theory is that Ottawa and Pinto have already agreed on a contract. Either 1 year at 1M or 2 years at 2M (give or take a few 100k in either direction). They are waiting to see how much cap space Ottawa can generate before signing it. They will sign it before training camp opens. The Senators and Pierre Dorion negotiate big time through the media (see the Garrioch articles when they were having trouble with Debrincat). If there were problems with Pinto, we would know. Similar to how we knew there were problems with Brady Tkachuk when he held out.

With the above said, moving Kubalik or Brannstrom probably isn't enough. It would only allow the Senators to either sign Pinto to a 1 year deal or roll with a 21 player roster, which is too dysfunctional. It's fine for a contender who can coast through the regular season to do the 21 player thing, but for a young team who still needs to prove themselves, it's a huge handicap.

Retain 50% on Joseph, exchange the #2 for Ostapchuk and leave out the AZ #4 and there might be a deal.

It doesn't make sense from Ottawa's POV because they can bury Joseph and get 1.125M in cap relief. They aren't going to burn a retention spot and attach a 2nd round tier asset to Joseph, while also taking on LTIR contracts (that are still owed millions after insurance) just to get 350k in cap space

If the offer was Joseph half-retained for a later pick or future considerations, that makes a bit more sense. Even then, I doubt the Senators would go up to full retention because Joseph's buyout next year would only be 3.7M/4 years (750k/750k/1.1M/1.1M). If they retain half, they only save about 700k in cap over those 4 years, and it's spread over 2 years which intensifies the cap penalty and makes it more difficult to work around, especially since the cap will go up in the later years and the 1.1M will represent a smaller portion of the cap.

Saying Joseph has too much term so the trade wouldn't work for the Coyotes is perfectly reasonable. But the counter where the Senators give up boatloads of assets for little to no cap benefit doesn't make any sense.