Then they don't want him badly enough.
And if that's the case, good. McPhee already gave away too many futures for Tatar. Outside of Glass and Suzuki, Vegas...well I don't want to say they don't have forward prospects. They do. But they're the type of guys that you'd be surprised if they became top 6 forwards.
Suzuki has high boom potential and could be a solid first line player if everything goes right. But he has bust potential based on his play style. His skating and skill look good and it's what you want to see out of a first round forward pick but there's no guarantee it will translate at the NHL level. As it stands in preseason he spent most of his time getting pushed to the perimeter. With Cody Glass the upside is at most a Schiefele type but what he provides Vegas is a near guaranteed top 6 center. The way he plays now he is capable of handling the NHL. His smarts and technique let him play well beyond his years in maturity and poise. In preseason it was fairly obvious that he COULD handle regular NHL time but it would be to his benefit to round out his game in juniors and let Haula handle things. But he will at worst be a solid two way 2C in the NHL. No other prospect in their pool save for maybe Gusev has that kind of guarantee (then the challenge is convincing Gusev to come over).
Then you have Tuch who has proven himself. By every measure he has all the tools to be a star except for developing finish. That doesn't mean he's a bust. It just might mean the difference between an annual 35-40 point guy and a 60-70 point guy. But regardless of what version of player Tuch may become he is the only guy present on the team or system that can replace James Neal. Shipping off picks as part of a package here means no picks for a while to replace him and you have to bank on Gusev leaving Russia and being good enough for Vegas.
Getting rid of Tuch and Glass means shipping off two guaranteed top 6 forwards in a year that you're losing Perron and Neal. And throwing in that 2019 first rounder means Vegas can do nothing to try to replace them with a first or second round pick for a year.
Including Theodore makes sense for both sides. Karlsson is an upgrade for Vegas and Theodore has number one/two OFD potential for Ottawa. And Vegas has Schmidt and Miller on the team already and have Brannstrom and Hague in the system. They can afford to spare Theo if it's for a clear upgrade. But the two most promising young forwards this team has? It puts a lot more strain on the scouting, forces the team to do all it can to get Gusev to join them, and could ultimately leave Vegas and Karlsson with a weaker roster than he had in Ottawa. At that stage, what would be the point? And how do you convince a guy like that to re-sign with a handicapped managerial staff?
Put simply if the deal is Theodore, Tuch, Glass, 2019 first and whatever other picks for Karlsson I'll be furious. It's not that value isn't
fair, it's that it's stupid for Vegas in the short term and especially in the long term. Theit only hopes of building a strong team around Karlsson at that point is to fish talent out of the UFA pool and that seems to require stupid contracts just to outbid other teams which almost never pay off.
I'd prefer seeing something along the lines of
Theodore
Suzuki
Hague/Brannstrom (but not both)
2019 first round
2020 second round
Maybe throw in Nikita Gusev
Karlsson
Ryan
And even that is a lion's share that depletes Vegas' depth. If it's not and Ottawa will only move Karlsson if Tuch and Glass are involved I'll be more than happy if McPhee does nothing.
Edit: and before Ottawa fans start jumping down my throat again this is not to suggest Karlsson isn't worth a lot (though if the word is he won't sign in Ottawa, then his value is diminished) and any of the guys I mentioned are so unmovable that Karlsson wouldn't be worth it. Put it this way. Edmonton and NYI have McDavid and Tavares respectively and haven't been able to accomplish jack shit. We cripple our own team to get Karlsson and it would be the same story. Almost guaranteed that even if we managed to re-sign Karlsson we'd be wasting his best years grasping at straws trying to supplement the roster if we got rid of Glass and Tuch. This trade would be downright catastrophic if we mortgaged our future and he
didn't re-sign.