Connolly is a cap dump. You gotta give at least a 2nd (maybe more) to dump that contract.

Then you got Arizona retaining 3M on Kessel... add another 2nd without even paying for Kessel.

Serious underpay in that trade.

Seattle might take the Dunn trade but not if Dunn is signing for that cheap.

agree on Connely, disagree on the retention costing a 2nd. imo retaining like 2 mil gets Phil down to a contract that's atcually what he's worth. Kessel has value, but not this much at 6.8 mill cap hit

retention brings kessel down to what his value actually is then hawks pay the price of a one year rental for a 33 year old

Kessel has to be retained down to 4.8M before he's worth anything... as a 60+ point player?

Toews has been a 70 point player and is getting paid 10.5M. Does that mean Toews needs to have 2M retained on his contract before he's worth anything?

Kessel is a 60+ point player. What the one year rental price on that?

Not to mention you got Connolly going back the other way who's a cap dump. Chicago got Henrik Borgström (a 1st round pick) for taking on Connolly's contract.

1. Borgstrom was a 1st 5 years ago, he's not worth a 1st now

2. Kessel and Connely are only one year removed from both producing at almost the same ppg rate. Both were 40 point players a year ago. Connely makes half the cap hit and did it in 14 mins per game vs kessels 17+. Kessel is better i'm just proving the point that looking at one year of stats doesn't really justitify a certain cap hit. and I get that +/- is a bs stat but is it a bit of a red flag that kessel has been a big time minus player on all 4 teams he's played for? Yes it's a bs stat, but again proving kessel isn't worth his cap hit.

as a trade asset...yes. arizona will have to retain if they want to move him. hawks just got the vezina winner for free bc he was making what kessel is. look at what 60 pps free agents are getting...hoffman, hyman. Both younger than phil

borgstrom is now worth much less than the 23OA pick he was drafted at and a year has been shaved off connollys contract so the price to unload him would be less

Hoffman has less production than Kessel and got 3 years despite showing some signs of decline. Hyman got less cause they signed him for 7 years taking him to age 36 and he has a play style known not to age well.

I rather keep Kessel than pay for 2 years of Connolly at the same cap hit (with the 3M retention on Kessel). The assets coming back aren't enough to justify it.

If you wanna dump Connolly and get Kessel half retained I'd want a 1st round pick.

yotes get nothing from keeping him another year and letting him go for free. maybe teams will pay a first but you could just sign a tatar or palmeiri and keep the pick. 2nd and a prospect is a fair offer if he costs 4m or more