Trouba probably doesn’t waive

Each of Trouba, Smith, and Mikheyev have partial no-move clauses. I really don't know how likely any of them would be to have Chicago on their no-move list, but it's absolutely possible that any or all of these trades are nixed by the players.

My thinking for Trouba is: all 7 Canadian teams are on it followed by the bottom 8 US teams in standings

The only one of those proposals that makes any kind of sense is the Pittsburgh deal.

In both the Mikheyev and Trouba proposals the only thing the Hawks should be sending back is FC.

The way I'm looking at it, the going rate is roughly a 2nd round pick for a cap hit of $5,000,000 for a player that's going to be bought out. Mikheyev has $9.5 million left across two years but should average 30-40 points per year-- I'm saying he's worth slightly more than a 2nd round pick. It's a poor return for the Hawks if the Canucks' pick is 28 and the Hawks' is 34 next year, but I'm expecting the Canucks to be worse and the Hawks to be better, and with a 1st round exit from the Canucks there's a clear upside for the Hawks. I don't have a great idea how good Trouba is, but the other trades I've seen on this website seem to imply that he'd be about even value at $5-6 million per year-- I'm saying that with no retention he's worth about a 2nd round pick. I'd rather the Rangers trade be more similar the Canucks, but I'm expecting the 2026 2nd round picks to be nearer the middle of the round than the start and the Rangers' 2026 1st to be closer to the 20th pick. I'd love to get a 1st back straight up for each of Mikheyev and Trouba, but I don't think that would happen.

Thanks for the explanation.

I personally like to use Puckpedia’s cap relief calculator to determine value since it is unbiased and based off historical transactions.

Puckpedia values the cost of moving Trouba’s remaining two seasons at $8m per season at the 13th pick of the 1st round. Given that the Rangers are a good team chances are their 1st round pick for the next few seasons won’t be that low, so the Hawks taking just a 1st round along with Trouba and sending back FC is already a good deal for NY, no need to add anything else.

Similarly, Puckpedia’s cap relief calculator values the cost of moving Mikheyev’s remaining two seasons at $4.75m per season at the 21st round pick of the 1st round. Again, this pick on it’s own could very well be a deal for the Canucks so there really is no reason for the Hawks to send anything but FC to Vancouver.

As best as I can tell, Puckpedia only factors in the player's cap hit, not the player's value. It thinks the Rangers would have to give 1.2 to the Hawks to take on Adam Fox's contract, when 1.2 wouldn't be enough to get Adam Fox from the Rangers. A better way to look at it IMO is the player's contract compared to their value. If we think Trouba is worth $6 million a year and Mikheyev is worth $2.5 million a year, then the Hawks are taking on $4 million and $4.5 million in excess cap hits across the two years, respectfully, which Puckpedia values as #37 and #35 overall respectively. I don't know if those player valuations are correct, but that gets us relatively close to my trade values, depending on whether it's a buyer's or seller's market.

I guess that is the real question, how much are Trouba and Mikheyev valued? The fact that their respective teams may value the cap space more then them indicates the value may not be as high as you project.

Conversely, how much does the acquiring teams value them? A rebuilding team like the Hawks may be looking strictly at the assets attached to Trouba and Mikheyev as the true value in the deal and therefore would be holding out for the best draft capital possible. If you find a trade partner who feels they could make a significant contribution to the on ice product, they may place a higher value on Trouba and Mikheyev and be willing to accept them with little or no draft capital attached. Which then also raises the question of how many teams have the necessary cap space available to acquire said players.

The Fox comparison is really not applicable since the Rangers would not be looking to move him, they value him as an asset so why bother looking at what he is worth in draft capital?