Personally, I think if Tavares leaves, it's time to embrace the rebuild.

I don't really think James Neal is worth 7m, but we'd need gross overpayment to get a UFA to sign with the Isles with the state of the franchise being what it is.

Ouellet+Glendening+AA rights for Leddy, Done deal no take backs.

I thought the Florida trade was bad until I saw the Detroit trade, that's HORRIBLE return for Leddy

Sounds mutually beneficial. But then, I'm not a huge Leddy fan.

Seeing Leddy play with the Hawks back in the day, I've always liked him. He'd definitely help in Detroit but the NYI right now need just about as much D help as Detroit does. Can't see Snow trading Leddy unless he gets back a similar D and honestly Detroit doesn't have one right now.

If NYI aren't resigning Tavares, and are trding top pairing defenseman who's over thirty and signed long term for three younger players, I think they're probably okay trying to gradually fill the position internally.

On the other hand, by the time they're paying a combined 15M per year to Chara and Neal, I think they'd be much better off just matching all offers to Tavares.

Oof. You're overpaying for Val, mate. He's probably 3 mil at the most.