Fair value for Joseph is a 4th round pick.

With the 4th round pick going to Ottawa.

I think Joz is better than this season shows, but come on lmao. No GM in the league is making that deal, he's making 3mil for 3 years and he had 3 goals, none of them at 5v5. I think Ottawa could keep him and be totally fine, but let's not lie about him being a positive value asset right now.

Worse players have been traded for more recently (i.e. Granlund, Greenway, etc).

A 4th round pick is more than fair and there are 31 other teams in the NHL.

Somebody will pay.

He's good on the 3rd/4th lines yet I think he's paid a tad too much for my liking. With a potential cap crunch if we keep DeBrincat, it might be best to move him. But I think a 6th or 7th coming back is about fair, maybe FCs if we really needed the space.

I do agree that he's positive value asset (nothing crazy, mid-to-late round pick return) that brings value to a team. He's definitely paid more than he should be for his current output, but I don't agree with the narrative that he'll cost assets to move.

To your main point though, I don't think the question should be if the Sens should keep Joseph. His role is valuable to help keep too much of the PK duties away from the top 6 while not overtaxing what was a very clearly outmatched 4th line, and his style of play fits very well with the way that Ottawa wants to play in general. The better question is whether they can afford to keep Joseph, and that can't be known until Ottawa knows what's happening with Cat (and to a lesser extent the other RFAs, but I would imagine that Dorion has a good idea of the ballpark on the relevant contracts). I expect that we'll have a pretty clear idea of where things stand there on the 28th, and as a result will have a pretty good idea if Joseph is going to be a 3rd liner in Ottawa or elsewhere come the 29th.

But yes, I do have a top 6 of Brady/Norris/Batherson and Greig/Timmy/Giroux penciled in after virtually any Cat trade that doesn't return a top 6 replacement.

I like most of this squad the 3rd line would be a good line. Joseph battled thru 2 injuries last year , tough to rehab and then play with a high ankle sprain. Anyone who has gone thru that will understand. If he is healthy he will be fine. What I don't get is why people are inclined to hand Smejkal a spot on the roster ? Big body , decent numbers in Sweden but not sure how he will do in a 4th line checking role. If it works out great but I have my doubts. For me the wild card is who is in nets. Until Ottawa gets that solved they are on the outside looking in.

Worse players with a way better pedigree

It was Batherson who had the high ankle sprain. As for Smejkal, I don't know much about him like most people. I imagine there should be a good battle between him and Sokolov in training camp for the LW4 spot.

Batherson played 82 games last year, i doubt he had a high ankle sprain

Batherson got a high ankle sprain at the end of the 2021-22 season against Carolina. This injury apparently takes a full year to properly recover to 100%. He was able to play 82 games but wasn't playing at 100% until later into the season.

If you say so sure. I’ve had a couple of them they take ~ 6 months to feel normal again.