Paying OEL, Ghost, and Dumba a combined 10.5 million would be a waste. Decent offensively, and bad offensively while all 3 are aging.

This d-corps would bleed scoring chances against. Not enough bite.

I could see that for Laine at ~$2M retained, but not $4.35M. I'd rather see an additional pick that upgrades on conditions tied to Laine's performance, since Robertson would likely just get flipped.

Not a big fan of the lack of actual defense on the blue line. Don't mind the idea of a Laine trade, I also don't think Beauvillier signs for that low

At the end of the day I think people are going to freak out when Laine gets a first (though I think FO is actually going to do a player swap as they need to get past the point of futures) but people need to realize 50% retainment on two years are like multiple firsts at the current market (Its probably going to go up a fair amount this summer but right now about 4mil retention right now gets you a first). Nobody is going to retain on that right now unless there is a 3rd party broker...20-25% though is extremely plausible and probably the most likely outcome.

This.

$2M retained brings him into the realm of market value for his recent production, and will probably be necessary to move him. Anything beyond that is additional significant assets, probably multiple 2nds or 3rds for the extra $2.35M over two years.

Too many people look at 9 points in 18 games played and just assume it's all his fault he didn't play this year, and that he's a negative asset.

I fully expect 25% will get him moved for fair value but I also expect there will be conditions applied on the trade for games played but everyone is acting like this is a cap dump trade but Columbus FO won't be treating it that way. Also I do expect other FO to realize last year was mostly due to a targeting incident from Andersson. As long as he has a full clean bill of health, which I am sure any buyer is going to double and triple check on.