Quoting: Miguelicious
I agree, yall got a pretty dangerous bottom six (that Perrault line aint no joke either!).
However, with all the pending UFAs & RFAs (Stastny, Perrault, Lowry, Copp, Thompson, Lewis, Pionk, Forbort, Stanley, Poolman) and only 24M (less 5.3 if Little is back to full health) would you want to pay him more than league average when you play him on the bottom six as opposed to having a cost-controlled top 4 RHD in Bear?
Really asking because I don't know much about PEG's team but Copp is interesting for sure!
I totally understand your thought process! Speaking to our UFA/RFA situation, Stastny, Lowry, Forbort & Lewis would be the only UFAs I can realistically see being brought back. I think Stastny will finish his career as a Jet and take a more team friendly deal. Lewis would also be around league minimum and Forbort deserves a raise but won't be outrageous. For our RFAs, Pionk will command a big raise and I have no issues giving him that. Copp is 2nd in line and I could see him coming in around $4.5m/year on a longer term deal which is do-able with our cap situation. Stanley unfortunately I believe will be selected by Seattle
Little is all but confirmed to be done with hockey and will ride out that contract on the LTIR before retiring.
Now, going back to the Bear for Copp scenario, Bear is a great, cost controlled (like you said) defender, but I just feel like Copp, while he will be more expensive benefits the Jets more.
I appreciate your feedback/response!!