Quoting: OldNYIfan
Wahlstrom has had four seasons to prove that he is talented. He isn't. He has no ceiling, let alone a high one. Over his last 140 games he has recorded 46 points, which is a third of a point per game. He's a bust with an injury history. In contrast, Vatrano has improved every season on a bad team and we expect similar productivity from him this year, and even at his full cap hit of $3.65 million, he'll be cheaper than 6 of your forwards and likely to outscore all but three of them. Moreover, he's missed one game in the last two seasons. Without retention, we might accept the Tampa first for him and take Wahlstrom as a throw-in.
Wahlly tore his ACL. He has the talent, and is still young enough to recover. And he's an RFA. The isles have a lot of depth at RW, so no, he didn't play, but he definitely has talent and will be back.
I think you're grossly under valuing Wahlstrom, and grossly over valuing Vatrano who is benefitting from a team with no depth that teams don't take seriously, and got a lot of goals early in the season. But you're right, better to wait until the deadline, hoping he recreates last season.