Big difference between playing behind Pageau. DJ Smith won't have a choice but to play him in all situations.
And why would we trade him as a rental? Why not sign him for two or three years and trade him with term? If he gets a chance to play with Lafreniere or Tkachuk regularly it could improve his value a bit.
Granted, GMs know what he is and aren't going to fooled, but for me the main reason to keep him around a while is we just need NHL bodies to insulate the youth. Particularly at center.
He would be more difficult to trade with term.
The reason he would be movable as a rental, is that a team only has to add his remaining cap hit at the deadline, and can then walk away.
Would Namestnikov have gotten us a better return if he had 2 more years tacked on at the deadline? Probably not.
The Senators have re-signed so few UFAs to anything more than 1 year contracts, I'd be shocked if we kept Tierney beyond 2021. We seem to be funneling all of our money into cost controlling our RFAs. We offered Pageau an extension, but it is difficult to know how serious we were, considering the gap between what Pageau wanted and what we apparently offered wasn't that great. Why didn't we bridge the gap?
Tierney will have no place on this team going forward. He will be very hard to get value for because the cap is about to get obliterated, and he won't be a priority for any team to add. This is why I think the best bet is a change of scenery move. If we add a different player who we think will be a better fit, maybe they end up being worth more than Tierney at the deadline, or in the off chance that we do compete for a playoff spot, maybe we get more out of them on the ice than we would with Tierney.
He is not a bad player. I just think a lot has changed in the last year in terms of his value, both internally on his part, and externally with what is going to happen with the salary cap. I'd imagine he peaked in value last off season, and it has been all down hill since then. I could always be wrong.