It would be simply a paper transaction, a place for Detroit to dump a $7.5M cap hit, but Pavel Datsyuk could be had. With the Russian star pretty much set to play in the KHL next season, allowing Detroit to get out from under the cap hit that comes with his burdensome contract would come with a bonus as well to the team willing to do so.
The Insiders on TSN discussed it yesterday, and the bonus to giving the Wings some much needed cap relief would be an added prospect from the Wings - Bob McKenzie mentioned a couple of players - Tomas Jurco or Teemu Pullkinen - by name.
Is that something the Senators should (or could) do?
With a cap that isn't going to go up by very much, if at all, even the Senators might not be able to add the $7.5M and still have room for the contracts of Mike Hoffman and Cody Ceci (among others).
The Sens have close to $54M committed for next season, not including contracts and raises due to Hoffman, who should come in between $5M and $6M on a long term deal, and Ceci, who should be between $2M and $3M on a bridge deal.
That would bring the total to somewhere around $61M so the Senators would have room to add Datsyuk's hit as well as a potential top 6 prospect and also bring in a veteran 5-6 defenseman.
However, if I were Pierre Dorion I would be pushing for winger Anthony Mantha in the deal as opposed to Jurco or Pulkkinen. Mantha is younger, has more offensive upside and although he might be harder to pry from the Wings in this deal, I would hold out for him or nothing. I think Mantha will be ready for a prime role next season and could compete for a top 6 forward spot, and still has 2 years of his entry level deal left.
There are going to be a number of teams looking to cast off contracts, and maybe the Senators would be better off getting an actual body for the use of cap space, but this would be a decent option in that they don't have to pay for the cap space that is used and would get a pretty decent prospect out of the deal. I guess the success or failure of the trade would be whether or not whatever add-on to the deal brings would make the Senators a better team and fill that top 6 role that they are looking for anyway.