Quoting: SakuThornton
Koskinen is signed at $4.5M, not $2M. This helps Edm clear space to add a goalie separately through another trade. Last season, Detroit picked up a 4th round pick for eating just over $1M on David Savard's contract. Nick Foligno netted the Sharks a 4th for around $1.35M in retention as well.
Taking back $4.5M in cap in full is most definitely worth at LEAST a 2nd round pick at the deadline (AKA Lavoie). As for Kessel's value at 50% retention, keep this in mind: Kessel's production at 5v5 has remained steady despite playing for an extremely poor Coyotes team. (1.88 PTS per 60, even ahead of J.T. Miller, the prize of the trade deadline). If that's the case for his trade value at the moment, I'd definitely expect that to pick up closer to the deadline
Dude... Kosko's salary for the WHOLE SEASON is 4.5M. Both Edmonton and Arizona have now played 49 games, or right about 60% of the season. That leaves 40% of his salary left to pay, or 1.8M. So it's actually less than 2M that Arizona would be covering if he was traded over today. And every game that goes by with him still in Edmonton drops that number by almost $55K. If the trade doesn't happen until the deadline, that would be 13 more games Edmonton plays, meaning the salary for Arizona to cover would be down to 1M and change. In other words, nowhere near a 2nd.
Besides, Stevie Y fleeced the crap out of them with that deal. Do not expect every retention deal to go this way. If you want to go to trade comparables, the usual going rate is for 7M retained to garner about a 1st. So 4.5M ain;t no 2nd, and 1M and change sure as hell ain't remotely close to a 2nd.
As for Kessel, keep this in mind: none of this production talk means anything. NO ONE in the NHL is willing to pay as much as a 3rd for him half-retained at this time. Arizona tried. Even if it "picks up" (don't hold your breath), nobody is paying a 1st for him.