There are definetly instances where teams need to move salary or a contract to add a piece and the other team doesn’t want or can’t take it back in their deal. It’s not as prominent as during the summer but you can get decent players for under market value or straight up cap dumps for assets at the deadline if you have the cap space. Especially if you’re willing to take on someone with over a year left on a deal.
That is where we should be at this point regardless of what Sid wants.
We should also be looking to give younger assets the role when we send someone out in return for assets. Just like Jake out last year, DOC gets the nod to go on the top line.
I think the only person this year is Pettersson. Send him out at the TDL, get a 1st back, promote any of Graves, Gryz, Ludvig, Shea, JSI, etc. You're not likely getting a 1:1 performance replacement but as we saw with DOC, you're likely getting "good enough".
THAT is where comfort with our current position should be. "We have to keep Pettersson because Sid..." shouldn't even really be a rational thought. This all assuming we are out by the TDL, which who knows - Jarry could go on LTIR, you bring in Blomqvist and Murashov and they post .950sv%s and Yager becomes the next Pastrnak next to Sid...and suddenly, you're in the running for the President's Trophy.