What's the cost for Pelech?

At 30 years of age, Mayfield isn't growing anymore. He's likely never be better than he is now.
Those are lots of difficult trades. Players with M NTC with a mid high cap and term. IF they did they could probably sign a UFA. What teams would have the cap for them?

Cizikas, Palmieri, Wahlstrom, and Pageau don’t have positive value. Your pipe dream is thinking they do. You likely have to attach a pick just to move those players for likely nothing.

If you think they dont youre insane. How would Wahlstrom not? He could easily get a 4th or 5th. Easily

Palmieri has one year left after this and is on pace for over 20 goals and nearly 50 points... thats positive

Pageau is a great 3C and with retention will easily get a 2nd to 3rd

Cizikas is debatable but considering he is the same player he was in 2021 when Seattle reportedly offered him 5 mil AAV with term, he has positive value

Do any of them get a 1st? Heck no. Without retention even a 2nd no way. But they are positive assets

Mayfield's "ceiling" is a really good 3RD. He just needs to play like it. Under Trotz he was solid but he seems to be complacent rn. I think 2025 summer he could be moved if he has a good 2024-25

Idk why you’d move pelech to pay more for hanifin though. Has pelech fallen off a cliff? All three of the centers would be pretty easy to move but you’d have to pay to move anders lee contract though. Move one of the firsts you get for moving one of the others centers

Wahlstrom is a bust. I wouldn’t call getting a 4th or a 5th “positive value” when the guy was taken in the 1st round.. that’s negative.

Palmieri isn’t worth a $5M cap hit at his age. Most teams are cap strapped and if you want them to add a $5M 3rd liner, you’re adding something to that deal or you can keep him.

Pageau is again a $5M cap hit 3rd line player and at best a 40 point player, more likely a 30 point player now and he’ll only decline. There’s not much positive value to that when you can get guys at half his price that produce more - you even mentioned salary retention and if you have to retain on a guy, that means he’s not worth his contract so he’s negative value.

Cizikas is a 4th liner who will be out of the league in a couple years. Seattle only offered him the money because they needed help getting to the salary floor at the time. Doesn’t mean they thought he was worth it at all. You’d be lucky to get future considerations for him.

There’s no positive value in any of those players in a cap world.

This is still a fringe playoff team. The next couple years the metro will be Canes, devils and Rangers at the top of the metro. By the time these younger kids develop and contribute, if they do, Barzal, Sorokin, Dobson, Horvat will be older

They should of done a full rebuild

Wahlstrom is "positive value" in the sense that you are not paying to offload him. Just because he was a 1st rounder 6 years ago doesn't mean you're taking a loss by not trading him for a 1st+ in 2024.

Saying Palmieri isn't worth a $5M AAV at his age is just showing ignorance of the market. He's scored at just under a 50 point pace since the beginning of last season (31-34-65 in 109 GP), and is signed at that $5M cap hit through next year, his age-34 season. Jason Zucker signed a $5.3M AAV last summer - a year younger than Palmieri, but coming off a 48 point season. Before last season, Reilly Smith signed a contract that took him through his age-33 season at the exact same AAV after an almost identical 2 season runup to UFA (30-33-63 in 109 GP.) JT Compher just signed at $5.1M AAV through his age-33 season after a career-high 52 point season last year. I could go on, but I think you get the point - middle-6 forwards that can score at a 50 point pace have an open market value in the $5M range.

Won't push back too much on Pageau - I think he's positive value if you retain him down to $2.5M but he's not a $5M player currently.

I don't disagree that Casey will be out of the league in a few years, if only because he's 33 now and will be 36 by the time his current deal ends and I don't see someone that plays his style of game going that much further into his late-30s. But he's still doing exactly what he was signed to: score 25ish points per year, take the hardest defensive assignments, and be the lead center on the PK.