As a neutral fan who keeps seeing these comments, what's the deal with Garland? Very good player on a very good contract, why do people keep saying he has negative value? I'd take him tomorrow on my team and would gladly give a second for him...
PERCEIVED lack of value. He's not bad (got 50-point talent, scored that much last season and came close this past year) but it's coupled with, as mentioned, the previous lack of cap space and our own fans think we're going to get ripped off and will need to dump him for pennies on the dollar, hence the "sell him with sweeteners" narrative.
Since we bought out Ekman-Larsson though, we're not really in such a bind (and it's a seller's market for wingers in general, so I for one hope we hold onto him, since realistically in a supply/ demand perspective he won't yield much, though again, not because he's not personally good, there's just no readily available market for him, but if another team wants him the way the Wings wanted DeBrincat, he'll go for less of a return but won't be a cap dump).