I would much rather use that 1mil you used on Heed to sign Rutta who is better. Also I think thats actual overpayment on Marner. He is not getting best winger in the league money.

they will trade zaitsev

With Zatisev's contract, I think he will be very hard to move...and who replaces those minutes??

Well, I didn't think Mathews should get as much money as he did either...I genuinely think it will be around this mark on a 6 year deal. Time will tell! Rutta over Heed works for me, just as long as he doesn't want $2.25m like his last contract.

sign a free agent like gunnarson, heed or stralman. or even promote from within- dermott and give holl time on the 3rd pair

They are going to need a qualifying D to expose in the expansion draft, might be worth keeping him one more year for that reason alone.

Only realistic option I think would be Stralman depending on price and give Dermott a bigger role. Also who takes Zaitsev's contract? All of this is dependent on that.

i imagine he would have Seattle on his partial ntc. he would probably want to stay in toronto where they are contending for a cup over an expansion team that probably wont come close to what vegas has. they will trade him before hes p-ntc kicks in

i see teams like NYI, Dallas, the ducks, Edmonton, OTT, Florida or even Pittsburgh to be options

I thought that only players with full No Movement Clauses are protected from being exposed?

im pretty sure if he puts seattle on his no trade list they arent able to expose him but I dont think the would pick him anyways