Good thing salary cap doesn’t count for the playoffs

Dach is also skating, that doesn't mean they are rushing him back

So you bail tampa out of a huge problem, take in 11.7 million in cap for two already declining players signed for 4-6 more years, and all you get back is a single 1st rounder? Christ that is beyond awful for Chicago.

The video of Kuch skating this morning showed he is nowhere close to being ready anytime soon

Is that even a good trade for Chicago? Doesn’t look like it is

Imagine that both Gourde and Point were both 2 months from skating to playing after this surgery it was like TB timed it out perfectly and knew what they were doing huh

Except not even close. Kucherov experienced the first sign of injury first week of December. They tried cortisone injections and a couple other non surgical options, didn't work, so 3 weeks later he has the surgery. Rehab time is normal and does happen to let him likely come back for the playoffs. Tampa did nothing against the rules and yep it is convenient for them. Other teams, like Chicago in 2015, did the same.

McDonagh isn't declining at all and Johnson is still a solid .5 to .6 ppg player outside of a bad year. He is slightly overpaid but nothing ridiculous. Tampa has no want nor need for this trade anyway since Kuch won't be back until the playoffs.

Smart cap management at that point i was agreeing

Ah, didn't mean to jump on you then, but Tampa certainly didn't want to lose Kuch for the entire reg season. There have been quite a few on different sites acting like this was all planned by Tampa or something and not just a fluke with the timing.

Once they realized he was going to need surgery they optimized it. They've got experience dealing with this. This was why Point missed the first 2 months last year and Gourde had it earlier in the off season the year before

I mean it was optimal that the injury happened at a point where if the rehab goes well he will be back around the start of the playoffs I guess. The timing was fortunate but no way Kuch wanted to miss the reg season. Point came back October 10th when he had the injury and only missed a handful of games.

Johnson literally cleared waivers, no one was taking him for free. Also he is damn near 30 and signed for another 5 years when he already peaked 6 years ago. He is a cap dump level player with that contract

Yes, Johnson was placed on waivers as Brisebois took a shot to move him that way(but didn'treally expect it to work). Tampa also had a deal in place to move him before Kuch had to go on ltir. He had one near ppg year yes, as well as one tougher year(31 points in 65 games). For his career he's a .6 ppg player and has basically hit that every year outside of the two where he went high and low. His contract is hardly a cap dump level for what he usually produces.

Due to the current climate and cap situation, Tampa had to move someone and Johnson was the logical choice because he did have 1 down year and because of Tampa's depth. He has 3 years left after this, not 5. I see you're just another that assumes 30 means done on here, so need to discuss that point further really. Oh and hey, he's back to .6 ppg essentially so far this year. He'll likely be Seattle's pick in the exp draft and be a capable 2/3C for them. He needs to play center and not wing, as he is not nearly as effective as a winger.

For the record, he's a .63 ppg player for his career or 52 points a year. 5 million aav is far from terrible for that level of production. Even going deeper, he's .59 ppg since 2016 for an average of 48 points a year, and taking out his near ppg year and his one sub .5 ppg year, he's still at .6 ppg or 49 points year for his career. Again, 5 million is at most a slight overpay for what he brings. Yes, he's perhaps Tampa's most expendable 4-5 million player, but that does not mean he is some scrub or in any normal situation, a cap dump.