Well, I reported this in the bug forum and have yet to hear anything back...
In the meantime, I'm definitely becoming more of the opinion that this is some sort of issue with the trade AI. If I offer a player from my roster for a pick or a player with a lower wage then the trade is literally always refused for the reasons I previously stated above. But if said player is on a 2-way contract and sent down to the minors by me then the trade happens and the objection disappears.
This is regardless of the cap space available to the team I am trading with or the relative (often minimal) difference in the salaries.
So, for example, I've just gone through the trade block and decided I like the look of Nicholas Deslauriers from Buffalo and I'm gonna trade Matty Puempel for him from my expansion team. Buffalo's payroll is currently $59.8m and the relative difference of the two players is as follows:
Matty Puempel 3* ability, 3.5* potential, salary 1.27m
Nicolas Deslauriers 3* ability, 3* potential, salary 0.89m
So a difference of around $400,000 dollars, for a player that is listed on the trade block by the AI for one that has a .5 better potential rating from myself. It's well within Buffalo's available cap space and a good deal for them all round. My scout rates the trade as very likely but it still gets refused on the grounds that Buffalo "can't remove so much money" from their payroll.
Yet if I send Puempel, who I put on a 2-way contract, down to my AHL side and try the trade again it promptly gets accepted by the AI
