Something like: Laich + 2nd for a good, ~$2M, Bottom6 who's a pending UFA.
Amirite? Who fits that best?
Pretty much exactly how I see it. Dunno who, don't much care
But... I think the Caps keep Laich and postpone the cap pruning until the summer (if they do it at all, lol). Mostly because at this point, replacing Laich with another 4th line player is just too marginal of an upgrade, even from a "Laich-hater" perspective. Team glue and all that. Boyd effin Gordon is a great player and all, but seriously, who cares.. And as for clearing next year's cap space, it might be cheaper to make that trade in the summer, certainly more time to do it.
(Just to be clear, I would be very happy to see Laich finally moved to get rid of nagging cap space concerns for next year. But I think the Caps at this point might be content to address it in the summer... ahem, hopefully).
Maybe they can scrounge up enough cap space to add another warm body right now without needing to unloadLaich. Otherwise, not sure why they would care about 50% retained on Weber -- seems that moving Laich would've been quite enough cap clearing for Weber + random 4th guy. Asking for 50% retained would make sense if they wanted to make room for somebody pretty significant while trading Laich -- or, if they just wanted to fit some warm body(s) in without needing to trade Laich (if I have my logic right).
Basically... if the Caps are indeed just gonna do Laich+2nd for 4th line guy, why did they need 50% retained on Weber?