Panik's straight fire. Way underpaid. Poor man's Coleman. You must be thinking of some other players I added. So let's go through them.

Johnson's old and slow, and overpaid based on draft position from when he used to have some offensive skill back in the '90s or something, but he's reliable in his own end for 19:30 a night, and Ottawa needs exactly that, just as badly as Pittsburgh needs 3M in cap space.

Maniscalco's a prospect in college, so he isn't old or expensive. No one has heard of him, so he isn't overrated, either.

Ekman-Larsson just posted his best plus/minus in seven years. It hurt his offense. I think he should go back to playing offense, at that cap hit. Don't you?

Leddy is ancient and was never defensively sound, but he was really good in the playoffs this year somehow, and I think he really wants to win a Cup, and can still be decent when he really tries. NYI need cap space and would love to give him away for free to a team that has a spot for him to play, and Ottawa has that.

Kerfoot stinks. That's a cap dump for Toronto. But a big chunk of his pay is an offseason signing bonus, so he comes out fair-priced for the first season.

Marner's $700k from July to June. Then either they flip him for about a 10th overall and some prospects, or the franchise attracts additional investors with deeper pockets in order to keep him. https://www.capfriendly.com/players/mitchell-marner

Andersen, Turris, and Georgiev are the question marks, but in an earlier comment, a Rangers fan said Anismov could fetch half-priced Lundqvist, who is not a question mark. So I think this team contends for a year, then flips Marner next June, and only pays Marner and Andersen a combined $1.7M for the year.

Can you honestly think of a reason they shouldn't do that? Marner and Andersen for $1.7M for a year, for a top pick, but then they get to trade Marner away next summer, for another decent pick. Seems like a good idea to me.



Even if they finish last, their odds of winning the draft lottery again are like, half, and the odds that player is actually as good as Crosby are like, a quarter. So you multiply those together and you come up with: Marner immediately helps this team make the playoffs, sell tickets, get games televised, and start making money.

OEL was -3 this year. That says something. He's usually pushing for Mr. Futility. He stopped playing a risk/reward game, and turned into an overpaid Hjalmarsson. Bad trade.

What exactly does it tell you? Because he's worse defensive now that he ever was when he was a guy on the periphery of the Norris Conversation, and his +/- was way worse in those years. I don't really get your comparison to Hjalmarsson either

Hjalmarsson used to be Arizona's main shutdown and PK defenseman. Now OEL is. Nobody noticed.

Stats change with roles. They keep trying to compensate for that, but I'm not sure it can be done.

Marner and Andersson don’t make them a contender. What they do is put them in the murky middle where they don’t draft high enough or appeal to add talent. Sure Marner and Andersson cash wise are super attractive especially to a owner like Melnyk but imo it’s a year or two too soon to do that type of deal. Use this deep draft to add talent and see what happens.

Getting into that murky middle of the league and winning a playoff round could help add a couple B grade UFAs next year. But more importantly, it could let Melnyk sell some shares in a team that's profitable again, and then his own personal finances stop being an issue in how he runs the team.

The Lundqvist trade is from a Rangers fan. Arizona is reportedly trying to cut costs. I added OEL instead of Hjalmarsson in my last Sens post, but Sens fans don't like OEL.

Hjalmarsson has said he won’t waive his NMC right now so I get that. However if OEL were in a bigger hockey market he would be crucified. He has severely under played his contract, and imo is one of the most overrated players in the NHL right now. OTT ownership is some bizarre stuff for sure.

Okay. So make a lowball offer. I feel like he's probably gonna be a slight upgrade over Hainsey.

No offer not a fan of either team just my opinion

Yo if y’all got any more of them picks the Leaf’s left side is getting crowded- Dermott is young, looks good, and probably won’t cost much.

Excited to see how Ottawa plays it this offseason. Lots of options.

Also wouldn’t mind a top 10 or top 15 protected first for next year + Brannstrom instead of the 5th overall this year-I think this year’s draft is a can’t miss opportunity for Ottawa.