i think val still has much more value than that.

at this point there is almost no downside for a team to acquire him since he either gets his **** together and becomes a stud or he relapses again and u can terminate his contract..

i think the avs could keep him given those circumstances but the risk of him disappearing in the playoffs for them is too real.

for any team not in a win now window he is surely worth the risk.

I'd be real surprised if the first move the new CBJ GM made was to bring in as controversial of a player as Nichushkin. Especially not when the team is already dealing with Laine in the assistance program.

Probably gets traded for a worse replacement or for future captial that can be moved to fill the void he leaves. Really hard to imagine him ever coming back with his nameplate being removed from the lockeroom after game 5.

I mean he has negative value right now, plain and simple. Also he isn’t going to waive for some place like CBJ if he is reinstated. The best bet is a winning team with some Russian teammates and they just get out of his contract.

What else do they have to send for someone to take on that level of risk?

I mean assuming he makes it to reinstatement some sort of conditional draft picks I would assume

Retention, to begin with.

He’s productive; but, yeah…it’s very hard to get over the toxicity here. Otherwise, why would COL be looking to move him?

If I’m CBJ, or really any team, I sit and wait for as long as possible. If someone wants to pay a dollar - go for it. But I think you’re going to see a bunch teams sitting on their hands waiting for the ask to go down. Or maybe some of the TOR fans can convince themselves they can Fix Him™️.

Otherwise, I’m paying pennies and basically keeping the guy on house arrest.

Val makes no sense. We have enough wingers. At this point in order to move him should he waive his NMC, Avs would have to pay us. They would get nothing for him.

They'd definitely have to find a team that is desperate and willing to take a risk; Toronto definitely qualifies, LOL. The upside would be that, if he goes to stage four, it's a year suspension so they can LTIR that for a year then try to void the remainder of the deal. If the Avs were willing to retain, say, 20% of his contract, I could see a team that needs a clearly talented and clutch player who is also clearly troubled. That's more bearable than a buyout but it's still a tough sell.