Quoting: OldNYIfan
I would have thought that Zacha and Kapanen are equivalent in value, with any on-ice difference being offset by Zacha's lower cap hit and the fact that he's a natural center
Uh-oh, looks like we're starting a run of disagreements here lol. I'm not going to comment on the rest of the trade because I don't really have that strong an opinion on it, but on this I do: Kapanen's value
far exceeds that of Zacha. I understand your points that bring favor to Zacha; lower cap hit and natural center. The thing is though, even at $2.25m, Zacha is over-payed. He is a black-hole defensively (like bad even for the Leafs) and very bad in most other categories. He puts up an okay amount of points for a 3C, but about 30% of his points have come on the PP the last four years. He won't be getting that same opportunity with the Leafs, nor would he with most other teams. If there were a Zacha for Kapanen trade going down, NJ would have to add significantly.
In the majority of circumstances, I would agree with you that the positional value and cap hit would help to even out trade value, but Zacha is one of the few exceptions (unless the counterpart of the trade is someone on a much closer level to him).
I know you said you 'would have thought' that the value would be equal, so I hope it doesn't seem like I'm going after you here, I just nearly short circuited when I read that.