Ken Holland has always been an excellent GM when it comes to RFA signings.

*doesn't suck all the time

nah.

Steal, Yamamoto could’ve easily gotten 2-3mil

I.E. Holland used his leverage? Yeah I guess, like every deal made in the league. If Yamo wanted to hold out that badly he could have. He had no ARB rights yet. I'd like to see ARB rights kick in right way for young players after their ELC's across the board, but of course that's a matter for the NHLPA to push for. Right now, Yamo just had no leverage other than an offersheet hope and the mere fact of holding out.

UFA starting at 25 as opposed to 27 would be something I'd like to see too. It's a somewhat subtle approach but would probably result in names changing teams more often as opposed to having to "Trouba" themselves off of their current team by taking short deals to walk themselves to UFA. We're already seeing players take shorter-but-expensive bridge deals to push themselves right to the precipice of free agency, so let's cut the fluff off the thing and streamline that process.

On a completely unrelated note, expect the Oilers' 2023 first rounder to be used to move Kassian during next offseason. I can't see Holland admitting to buyer's remorse on Ceci after a season and all of Barrie, Foegele, and (presumably) Smith are still something useful while on the ice. If Kassian can't stick on the top line after getting another free ride to McDavid's flank, he's the most logical asset they'd need to cut bait in order to afford both Puljujarvi and Yamamoto next offseason: Holloway or Lavoie coming in as sub-$1M replacements is a huge boon for a team that bungled its +30M cap space cushion in a single summer. A Keith buyout solves nothing and assuming he'll do the club a favour and retire is bad management at best.

Best hope is Kass goes on a year and can be traded to some sucker GM who values his grit haha. But unlikely. Otherwise I agree, good chance at a dump there with Kass. If Bouchard tears things up - we could also see Barrie moved on as an option - that contract is pretty tradeable if he keeps producing decent points.

4.1x3 would have cost one second. I'd be thrilled if cbj or buf did this

Wow

Darnell Nurse?

They are saving it for Pettersson and Hughes ... at the same time.

He was a pending UFA next summer. But, point taken in Ken's UFA astuteness lol. Less impressive.

As much as I'd absolutly love to see 3 Hughes on the same team, Quinn cannot be offersheeted, he's a 10.2c RFA.

Giving a Elite #1 Dman Elite #1 Dman money nothing wrong about that

If you think he's worth that power to you, but I really don't think he is

He's not an elite #1 defensemen