Either claiming Kovacevic or trading for Bear (or both) would be a smart move right now for Vancouver

"Montreal have rich owners who can pay the insurance on Ferland's contract"

I don't think you understand how insurance work... And Ferland's contract is uninsured, so it's a no for that weak return.

Finally, I'm pretty sure that if Vancouver paid a 2nd for Stillman, it's not to make him eat hotdogs on the gallery but to play.

They paid a 2nd to get rid of Dickinson contract but needed help on D because of the injuries
A 2nd just to dump Dickinson was a lot but they get a serviceable #7 dman in return

Carolina don't need to trade Bear now that they've waived Martinook and have Gardiner to go on LTIR. In fact I think they prefer to keep him to help them be as close to the cap ceiling to maximise LTIR relief.

I worded it poorly but what I meant is that Montreal can pay the "insurance" (i.e. NON-insirance) since it's not insured.

Vancouver didn't pay a 2nd for Stillman. The 2nd was to dump Dickinson. Stillman was just a body going the other way.

Maybe, I imagine Ferland would be going back along with a pick

I think Kovacevic will get picked up by MTL.

If Ferlands contract was insured, then yeah makes sense. Habs get draft picks for essentially dead cap and help Vancouver not have to use LTIR to start the year. Problem is Ferlands contract isn't insured and paying what essentially comes out to 2.75M in actual real dollars for the cap burden and 3rd and 4th is simply not worth it IMO. Got to think a 2nd rounder is needed for anyone to consider doing this deal.

The reason Ferland is probably not a Coyote right now is precisely because that contract isn't insured.

A cap dump transaction where you take a (longer) contract back isn't really a cap dump, isn't it...

Are you saying you tjink Dickinson at $2.75m X 2 years had positive trade value despite losing his roster spot to Nils Åman?

Not what I'm saying at all.

Like I said up here, Stillman was the desired return for Vancouver (with injuries to Dermott and Myers). Dickinson "was just was just caphit going the other way"

Nah, dumping Dickinson was clearly the centerpiece of the deal.

I believe you are correct and Van probably felt the need for depth on defense more then depth at forward plus it frees up cap space to maybe do something more later.

If they keep and demote Dickinson its a $1.5M cap hit to the Canucks, they send Stillman down and its only $200K against their cap.