Why did you penny pinch on McQuaid if you have nearly 20M in space?

Well no need to overpay for a bottom pairing guy. Never hurts to have cap in case a big name guy hits FA.

Kind of a interesting place and lack of draft picks for next couple years so they may as well spend to the cap for atleast two years til they have a chance to draft instant help or so they trade to try to get some picks back. I like there your nucleus so I don’t think you can really go bad either way. Maybe a nyquist, pavelski on a couple short deals and take another shot probably need a buy on a tender maybe quick out of la depending on how crazy of a contract

He'll get more elsewhere. Also two huge names in UFA are Panarin and Duchene. If you can't sign them when they're already apart of your team, you have zero chance to get anyone else. Who would think of Hockey when talking about Ohio anyways? Usually people think of terrible pro football with the Browns and Bengals stinking it up for the last 20 or so years.

Sad that this is probably the most realistic thing to happen this offseason, though I could also see Duchene coming back for the right price. I’d like to see Peeke in the AHL next year so he can play and hopefully they can bring in a few depth guys to help when injuries happen.

Agree that Columbus isn't too tempting as a location. Do think Duchene would re-sign if giving up a 2020 first wasn't a part of the condition.

I think it'd be smarter to use that cap space to take on cap dumps and replenish your assets that way.

After this year, I imagine they will try to build on the magic, with a quick retool, obviously depending on ufa decisions, probably best to attempt to get some picks back, too bad they couldn’t front load werenski contract, and restructure jones with a some massive money in next two years

It's tempting to do that but I feel like it would be smarter to do a mini rebuild. You have a strong young core in Jones, Werenski, Dubois, Anderson, Texeria, Bjorkstrand, Jenner, and Dzingel, Atkinson and Foligno in their prime. That's a solid team no matter what (if this young goalie can be solid), you're still gonna compete for the playoffs but you can use the cap space to supplement it with prospects.