I just see too many issues with acquiring Kane, and I'm not even referring to his attitude issues. I'm referring to everything else. How are you acquiring him? Based on past trades (mainly the Iginla and Hanzal trades), something like ZAR, a 1st and either another prospect or a conditional pick is probably close for Kane. However, that doesn't work with the cap. You can include one of Cole, Sheary or Hagelin, but that also requires Buffalo to retain salary. I also don't think anyone would want Hagelin and Buffalo wouldn't want Cole or Sheary that much. Sure, you can trade Cole or Sheary elsewhere and then use those picks for Kane, but adding those additional trades just makes any deals more complicated.
Botterill is the real wildcard here. On paper, I don't think many teams would be very interested in Sheary. He's not overpaid or anything like that, he's just an undersized complementary winger who is very streaky and very well could be a product of Crosby. However, Botterill was the guy that signed Sheary and Botterill saw what Sheary developed into. Botterill also has a liking for players he was familiar with, seeing how he added Wilson earlier this year. I could see Botterill liking Sheary, but I wouldn't say a deal could happen based on that. I could totally buy the Penguins wanting to start the playoffs with:
Guentzel-Crosby-Sprong
Kane-Malkin-Hornqvist
Rust-3C-Kessel
Hagelin-Sheahan-Reaves
My question is how do you actually accomplish that? I think to pull off Kane, Botterill needs to like Sheary and be willing to move Kane at $3 million for a package starting with Sheary. I don't see any other situation that would work. If Botterill likes Sheary, I could totally see something like Sheary, ZAR and a 1st for Kane at $3 million working. I think that's a perfectly reasonable deal and you still have the ability to use Cole as a trade chip for a center. If Botterill doesn't like Sheary? I don't see it working.