What I am saying is that the trades were all conditional on an extension. They technically were trade-and-signs in official terms, but they were de-facto sign-and-trades because it was clear that the players agreed to the extension before the deals were finalized, as they were announced almost immediately after they signed. This style of transaction would be the only way that Hamilton would ever be available on the trade market. Any other circumstance, and he's going to be own-rentaled. The Justin Faulk trade was a key example of this. The original deal with Anaheim for Kase + undisclosed conditional picks fell through because Faulk didn't want to extend with a rebuilding squad. They were ready to keep Faulk for the season before St. Louis swooped in with an extension offer, which Faulk agreed to and helped set up the trade deal.

Necas and Trocheck would start to even make me rethink.


Good idea.

Yep this is where trade talks start as far as I am concerned.