I don’t see any team offering enough right now for Kreider and Namestnikov together. Separate deals.
My take on a Kreider deal is that Gorton is getting experienced on the market, he is not ‘auctioning’ off Kreider to the highest bidder but has set the price to a 1st and a solid prospect. Like the Hayes trade. Of course the value of the pick and prospect vary, but they are two corresponding containers so to speak, and the value of both must not be too low (ie an expected late 1st and only a so-so prospect).
Obviously Gorton has been in contact with potential suitors, and nobody has met the price, neither now nor at the draft. There might still be a little dust left to settle from the UFA flurry, but unless final negotiations are going on as we speak or in the coming days, I wouldn’t be surprised if Gorton can accomplish very little from now until the deadline. Unfortunately. There is of course some windows that opens during the season with teams finding needs, but they won’t be many.
It is just how the land lies. A bunch of teams are trying to offload contracts. Almost everyone have contracts they want to dump. We are in that situation too after the Panarin trade and it will take years before Gorton can partake in discussions involving him taking on any term. That is an instant conversation killer vis-a-vis like 75-90% of the GMs.
I dearly hope I am wrong, but I don’t think Namestnikov has much value around the league. He is darn skilled but he plays with his head under his arm, can’t at all value situations in-front of him on the fly. Our pro-scouts who scouted him must be the same guys who worked on Etem and co., they don’t see these things, obviously. GMs aren’t doing each other any favors. It’s like the Girardi buy-out. Instantly after getting bought out there is interest in him, before there are none. You wanna bet that Shatty will get more as a bought out player than at 50% retention?
Brooks has reported that Gorton won’t retain 50% AND take back bad money. But I hope something can be done there however. That we can find someone with term that makes more sense than Shatty who is like the worst imaginable fit for us. Too bad Gorts didn’t realize that while Shatty still had while and it’s just sad that nobody around the team did either and could push him in the right direction. Just SAD.