Your expectations are unreal. No one is trading away a projected #1 center for a center that is 29.
I think what you're not getting is that we have no need to trade Scheifele and would be better off not doing that at this time unless it is the exact deal that we want.
His caphit is incredibly friendly. He plays a premium position and he is a right handed shot, which also demands a premium. He's also 6'3 so he doesn't get pushed around and can toss a bodycheck when he wants to.
The packages that are being tossed around here would be similar to what we could get next year or the year after so there's no rush to do anything right now.
We currently don't have any Cs that are cemented past the end of next season other than Scheif. PLD hasn't signed long term (yet) and Perfetti/Lucius haven't played a single game at C in the NHL so we can't realistically bank on either of them being top 6 Cs at this point either. David Gustaffson may have top 6 upside but he keeps getting injured when we call him up and he's only played in a checking role in the NHL so far. While we do have some potential replacements, trading Scheif would mean the team is taking a big step back, not just writing this year off due to the COVID distractions and seeing what we can accomplish with a new coach next year.
In a trade we'd likely need to take some cap back in the form of a roster player and then we'd want that blue chipper plus a 1st. Unless we could find a 1 for 1 type trade (Jones for Johanson) sort of thing.
Valamaki is the exact last thing we need. We don't need another Left handed D prospect to add to JMo, Dillon, Stanley, Samberg, Heinola and Chisholm. I get that he is who you want to give, but that is not who we want to get.
Zary was drafted late in the first round and his 9 points through 25 AHL games this season doesn't scream Top 6 C. Again, he isn't proven at the NHL level so he would just be in competition with Perfetti, PLD and Lucious to maybe have a top 6 C spot. Based off his draft position he's likely 50-50 to ever be an NHLer although he was ranked higher on a lot of mock drafts.
Then the 1st is a first, but when 2 out of the 3 assets are not what we want it's pretty easy to just keep Scheifele instead.
You seem pretty high on Pelletier but we were really high on Petan, who is the exact same size and also puts up point per game numbers in the AHL. So I wouldn't want to be banking on him as the centerpiece of a Scheifele trade either.
Which means for us it's either a hockey trade where it's Scheif for Andersson sort of thing or it's Coronato ++.
Coronato is a right shoting winger with some bite to his game, which we could actually use, but because he's going to Harvard I also wouldn't want to trade for him. After the Fox fiasco I'm surprised you guys aren't more gun shy about drafting guys headed there. That Harvard degree is worth so much that there is a huge incentive to stay in School and then just pick where you want to go as a UFA. Jimmy Vessey did it, Adam Fox did it and I'm worried that Coronato could do that too.
In summary, there isn't anything that would make sense for both teams. Not for Ehlers. Not for PLD. Not for Scheif.
