Ok, so even if he does suck and you play him 7 minutes, not much less than your typical 4th liner, you are getting something to take him. He also showed he can produce a little when played with better players, so if you need him in the top 6 a few games he can hold his own. He's a better option than True, McCormick and even Lind, plus he brings some grit they don't. His contract is also not bad if you want to just buy him out, only one season where it's over 1M and it saves almost 2M still that year.
If Sheahan was valuable he wouldn't have been waived and he would have teams looking to add him at the deadline. He's not physical, doesn't block shots, isn't even that good in the faceoff circle. He may not very replaceable by a stiff like True but you can find someone better in free agency. He was only signed by Seattle late into the summer cause nobody else wanted him.
But Kassian's buyout is nearly 4 milion dollars. He is owed nearly 6 million if you don't buy him out.
I don't see any team taking on that contract for just a 3rd rnd pick. If they would, he'd already be gone out of Edmonton.
At this stage of Kassian's career with what he currently brings, I would much rather play Lind and see if he can develop some than ice Kassian. That would save 4 million that could be wisely used elsewhere too.
With that cap space, you could get a much better value via the UFA market in this covid cap crunch than you are likely to get from Kassian and a later round 3rd.
Sheahan was brought in as Gourde's placeholder, a vet to PK and play some bottom line minutes until the team got healthy.
Seattle had a lot of players from the expansion, so it was always a numbers game, and Sheahan has played 51 games this season, just because he was waived when they had no space due to the dumb idea to carry 8 D all season, doesn't mean he has not played well for them.
Bringing up blocks is puzzling to me. In 11 years, Sheahan has 277 blocks, while Kassian in 11 years has 75. I mean, Gourde, who everyone views as an elite defensive penalty killer only has 117 blocks in 6 years. Reading block stats is like looking at corsi numbers, it is a stat that does not tell you a damn thing about the actual player or what their overall impact in a game is.
But either way, Sheahan does block shots.