Certainly a hard pass for Anaheim, but you probably know that

Decent deals

Hard to judge which is most realistic, because probably none of them are.

why

why is it a hard pass? is there a scenario where the trade is not a hard pass?

If we can't get a first for Adam Henrique, or at least a 2023 second plus a good prospect for him, we'll just hold onto him until next season. An over-the-horizon second and a disappointing forward who never reached his hoped-for potential doesn't do it for us.

fair point, if the deal were to be made it would be 2023 second. In the description i said that all three of these trades were not happening, so the 2025 was a placeholder for the 2023. but also in any trade the pens make they will need to include a roster player to make the money work.

(1) Your 2023 first for Henrique with 50% retention and our 2023 third.
(2) Your 2024 first for Henrique with 50% retention.
(3) Your 2024 first and Kapanen for Henrique with no retention and our 2023 third.

The Ducks would take back expiring salary to make the money work this season. How the Pens make the money work next season is something you'll have to figure out in some other way. So boil that down to not including Kapanen or McGinn (or Carter but that should be a given).

Okay, well...

- Barbashev retained will almost certainly begin with a 23 2nd or equivalent prospect. And even if you offer that, it still could be beaten because he will be popular. Asking them to take Blueger back is at best a wash, he has no value to them in this situation.

- I highly doubt Nashville quits on Jeannot so quickly. If they did, others would offer a lot better than a late 3rd and a bottom 6 UFA.

- Lots of problems with the Anaheim trade: asking them to retain multiple years AND take Kap's cap when he might be no more than a longer rental, offering deferred picks.

So yeah, none of these teams come close to accepting.

Okay, fair enough. What about just the Henrique trade: To ANA - Kapanen 287,500 retained, Samuel Poulin, and a 2023 2nd. To PIT - Henrique 2,912,500 retained

this way both teams don't lose or gain cap space.

Dunno, probably depends on how they feel about Poulin. The Ducks fans here would know better than me.

So you want the Pens to get 2x the player for 1/2 the cap while the Ducks get 1/2 the player at 2x the cap. If the cap is wash then the Ducks simply keep Henrique... he's the far better player.

The only one close is St. Louis, but if they are taking Teddy back to make the cap work they will certainly not be retaining. Either way a 2nd is good value on Barbashev.

Preds pass.

Well yeah, I mean it's not so much about Kapanen. He's just the cap casualty. The 2nd rounder and a decent prospect in Poulin is what we're trading. I know Henrique is the far better player in this scenario that's why I want him on the Pens haha but I doubt sleepy Ron is actually going to make a trade that helps this team anyway.

I kind of ignored the 2nd+Poulin in this thread with the mindset that value gets you Henrique (it's not enough IMO). I'm really more focused here on the value the Pens then need to add on top of that to take Kapanen back and in your proposed trade there is none, it's zero. Cap is king my friend and you can't just dismiss Kapanen as a "cap casualty" and call it a day. That casualty is now a Duck for the duration of his contract. Term is real enemy here.

Let's talk about Poulin. He isn't even playing hockey right now as far as I can tell as it seems he's left the AHL team in December for "personal reasons". I hope the kid gets whatever straight but he's basically un-tradable until he does.

I've said many times to get Henrique 50% with only a 2023 2nd there has to be a really good prospect in the trade. Something that fills a hole in the Anaheim organization which means a winger with at least middle six upside or a right handed defenseman with 2nd pair upside. I look at the Pens prospect pool and I see none of either of those things. It's really hard to see any sort of trade that would work for both teams here.