Quoting: Campabee
Anaheim is trying to resign Lindholm so he could potentially be off the market. I want to share with you an analysis someone did on another website. It might clear the waters a bit on why Habs fans feel like he is the best option for some teams.
Teams that are rumored to want a D man at the deadline:
- St. Louis
- Toronto
- Edmonton
- Florida
- Boston
- LA
- Carolina
- Ana (if they trade Lindholm)
- Dal (if they trade Klingberg)
- Calgary
- NY Rangers
- Tampa Bay
- Nashville
So that's at least 13 teams with needs. Will they all go out and get someone? No. But there are a lot of suitors, even with multiple sellers.
Now who are the key D men available?
- Chiarot (making 3.5M)
- Giordano (making 6.75M)
- Ristolainen (Philly may re-sign, but making 5.4M)
- Manson (making 4.1M, has partial NTC)
- Chychrun (but he's on a long-term deal and teams like Philly could also get involved here even if not in the playoff race this season)
- Klingberg (pending UFA making 4.25M but Dallas being in the playoff race isn't going to retain salary)
- Lindholm (pending UFA making 5.2M but Anaheim may re-sign and even if they don't, they're unlikely to retain much salary here)
- De Haan (making 4.55M)
- Subban (making 9M)
- Leddy (making 5.5M)
So look at that list... the Habs can retain 50% salary on Chiarot easily, so he's easily the cheapest contract to take on of all the top D men known to be on the block. Now who is potentially ranked ahead of Chiarot as an option talent-wise? Chychrun obviously, but he's in a different class of acquisition. Lindholm, who may not become available. Klingberg and Giordano. I'd say that's about it. So Chiarot is on the friendliest contract to absorb and there really aren't enough great options available for all the teams with rumored needs. Some teams may be waiting to hear what happens with a Lindholm first or may want to know how much salary Seattle will retain on Giordano. But I think once a decision is made on Lindholm and/or someone bites on one of Lindholm/Giordano/Klingberg, the floodgates will open. Say Giordano goes back to Calgary and Lindholm goes to Boston, for example. Well now you're Florida or St. Louis or Toronto or Edmonton and you want to shore up your D for a Cup run... are you giving up a mid-round pick for a Justin Braun and hoping that moves the needle or are you taking on at least 4.5M AAV to get Subban or 4.25M to get Klingberg or 1.75M to get Chiarot? I think he's going to be seen as the best option by at least some teams.
Hahaha, was that done on "Habs eye on the prize"
The problem with that analysis is that it absolutely skips over the fact that it makes no sense for a team to be paying a 1st(+) for a guy that's not going to be in your top 4 (unlike Savard, who was jumping into the top 4 in Tampa). Another thing I'd point out, and I've asked it multiple times over the past couple of months, but when was the last time that a pending UFA LD brought back a 1st, not to mention more at the deadline?
You know what though, I've said it a bunch of times too, sure, some dummy might get trigger happy and shoot himself in the foot to get Chiarot, because I mean hell, look what that dummy in Philly gave up for Risto! But, Habs fans are literally asking for someone to pay top dollar for a top 4 dman, that's not going to play in the top 4 for the vast majority of those teams.
Just as a side note: The Hampus Lindholm stuff on there makes me kind of laugh. The attempt to minimalize Lindholm's value by saying "Anaheim are unlikely to retain much salary here"...whattttt? Retaining 50% of that contract at the deadline would cost them about 800K.