He is 25 years old... I highly doubt he turns into a 40-50 point guy if he is even a full time NHLer. The fact that he looks like he can even stay around in short spurts is more impressive than he has looked in the AHL for the most part.
It would be great if Seattle takes him. Get him a better shot and we don't lose anyone important. We can easily replace him in UFA and then we can trade Kerfoot for much better value than Brooks would have received.
Some guys are better players at the NHL level than the AHL level. The Marlies have been a hot mess for the better part of 2 years since Keefe got hired for the leafs. Playing with the big club he has looked very solid and has looked like a good NHL player.
Kerfoot will return a 3rd+4th most likely with his production being underwhelming again this season. Kerfoot is a decent 3C, but at 3.5M is too pricey to be a long-term fit for the team and not good enough in his role to be justifying that type of money.
The best-case scenario is to keep brooks on the team the next 7 games and try and push up his minutes to see how his play responds. If he continues to play well in a 3rd line role, then it makes sense to get him on a very cheap deal for next season and bring in a veteran 3C for cheap to split time with him.
We can still trade Kerfoot or let him be taken to the expansion draft, and the cap savings would be great with the vet coming in at 1M and brooks at 800K, so we'd save around 1.75M that could go towards Hyman's raise on his UFA deal.
Guys who could come in and play that defensive 3C role (altering with Brooks, if we find him good enough over this next stretch and the playoffs) are guys like Kuraly, Soderberg, Flippula, Derek Ryan, Bozak, Bjugstad,
I think brooks if he continues his play, gives dubas the option to find an internal replacement for kerfoot through platooning the 3C spot between brooks and a veteran C
