People always wonder why teams want to "bail out" another, and I still have troubles understand how is this always a question.
The thing isn't about bailing another team out, it's about trying to make their own team better.
Why the Hawks "only" got a second and TyJo? Why weren't they able to squeeze more out of this? Because maybe another GM would have accepted the same offer, or the same offer with a 7th ronder as add in. We don't know, Bowman doesn't either.
It's a poker game, a psychological warfare of bluffs, calls and raises. You never know what your opponent will be willing to take or get.
The Hawks didn’t “only get a 2nd” they dumped Seabrook’s dead contract. It cost Florida a 2nd to dump Marc Savard’s contract in 2016 and there was only a year left on that, this is a three year deal. I forget the other examples of the costs of these kinds of contacts but I it doesn’t matter, that price would be hypothetical, no one would take this deal. Three years of 6.875m dead cap space, even when it can be LTIR really sucks.
LTIR cap hits don’t go away and if you cap out at the start you don’t do things like accrue cap space during the year. Accruing cap space is how teams afford TDL deals. Tampa can get a TDL pick-up is player is put on the LTIR like Stamkos was but
if they are capped out that’s the only way. (Note: LTIR is complicated and I already regret trying to discuss it since I probably screwing it up too but the “it’s a ton free cap space, they’re soooo lucky/cheating/brilliant” takes are wearing on me.)
Having Seabrook’s deal sitting on their books for three years, or having to pay to dump him later, isn’t exactly the superfun triumph people make it out to be. BriseBois dumped Johnson and can fiddle with his roster to try to maximize the LTIR. Chicago is free of the Seabrook deal that otherwise was unmovable, that was a huge cap dump too.