Quoting: BluesBandit
Really? I love Schwartz but he had one healthy season over the last 4 years. He also may walk after this upcoming season and with our young forwards, we can probably stomach his loss. It's also easier to replace a top 6 LW than find a top pairing LD. Dunn-Reilly-Scandella/Perunovich is as good as an left side in the league for the foreseeable future.
For starters, I think you forgot the expansion draft. Adding another D while keeping Petro means we'll lose Reilly or Dunn for nothing. More to the point, I don't at all think it's easier to replace Schwartz, who is an elite play driving LW. Those definitely do not grow on trees. Next, Reilly is overrated, as last season was a definite outlier. He's not a 20-goal, 70-point, plus defensive/possession, top 5 for Norris guy. He's a 50-point, average defensive/possession guy. That's great and all, but we more than have that covered at this point by guys who are better defensive/possession players. Just from a math standpoint, we don't have the ice time for another 23-24 minute guy. He might not even be PP1 on our team, which would just further diminish his point production. Finally, he's due for a new contract only one year after Schwartz.
If our needs dictated the deal, fine. But they don't. At this point, the only real positive for us is he's a couple years younger than Schwartz.