Quoting: BigShoots
It is an "IF" but it's just the easiest project ever. Your team isn't near the cap, doesn't have many offensive players and can acquire one for next to nothing. Why wouldn't you want to do that? The downside of such a gamble is so minimal. And if you have to retain at the deadline that only helps the trade value and again doesn't hurt the team at all.
The guy was probably worth a 1st plus in the summer. He's clearly a capable player. While scoring 39 goals is probably not realistic again I don't see why he can't be a 25-30 goal guy.
Sure. That's why I say a 3rd is the max I would find to be acceptable to spend on a player right now. But we don't need to add right now. If he sucks we lose a 3rd round pick for the privilege of helping VAN out with their cap troubles. If he is fine, we maybe break even on a trade if we retain. If he scores 39 goals again, we MAYBE get a late 1st at the deadline if we retain, but we also arbitrarily move our own 2025 1st round pick later in the draft. When we don't need more depth, we need top of the lineup players. The only thing we need for depth is RD.
All 1st round picks are not created equal. A late 1st round pick still has a slim chance of becoming an NHLer. And the difference between a top 3 pick and a 4-15 pick is a pretty drastic drop off in them becoming a real difference maker or high end player. So, we don't need to artificially improve our team in the short term for more "maybes". We need the best possible shot at drafting more top of the lineup players. Where is the line where it becomes worth it? I don't know. But, personally, I'm not interested in Kuzmenko for any reason, really. So the deal is gonna have to be pretty sweet.
P.S. WE DON'T NEED TO "GO GET GUYS TO PLAY WITH BEDARD." That whole narrative makes no sense. We are rebuilding. We don't need to compete or anything "while he is on his ELC", like so many people say. He has people to play with. He was playing at almost a point per game pace with what we have on the roster, and we have more young and exciting players on the way very soon. Next year is almost as unimportant as last year was and this year is. Bedard is a smart kid, he understands what CHI is doing, and he is completely team first. He will get his "help" in due time.