I am not saying it’s a deal for the Leafs. I am saying it’s a pretty even proposal. Also Kane is a significant upgrade on Ritchie if you are willing to ignore the garbage that comes with him
obviously for the Leafs, the deal only works if they really want Kane. They get him for almost nothing. They can always address the extra $1M up front on another deal.
To be fair, if one could "ignore" the garbage that went with him, he'd have already been traded, maybe with no retention or for some sort of positive value.
To me, "fair value" has absolutely no place in trades. It's all about whether both teams think they're better off the minute they've done the trade, in comparison to the minute before.
Kane is obviously a huge upgrade on Ritchie, and if the Leafs had another $1m to spend, then yeah, Ritchie+something for Kane could be a great deal *(removing Kane's baggage).
However, that isn't the case. The Leafs, when healthy, can paper a 21-man roster that only includes 6 defencemen.They've got a goalie who's up for a raise of somewhere between $3m and $5m. They've got a committed raise to Rielly of $2m; have $1.2m coming off the books, and are hoping for a $1m cap increase to remain.
They may need to be looking towards downgrading Ritchie, rather than spending more in that position.