Why would ottawa pay to move murray if they have the cap to keep him another season

Terrible trade for Ottawa. They are not close to a playoff team, trading 2 lottery picks and a high end prospect for a winger in his walk year is horrendous

To not pay him millions of dollars?

It’s almost like you didn’t spend any time thinking about/reading the post. DeBrincat comes with a 9AAV extension, and even if he didn’t he’s an RFA, this team is definitely closer to being a playoff team than not.

They are significantly closer to being the worst team in the NHL to being a playoff team.

Terrible trade.

And give up assets, doesnt make any sense.

That is a wickedly high scoring 1st line with 123 goals projected by the 3 guys in a full season , (43.8 goals DeBrincat, 46 goals Norris, 33.2 goals Batherson)

He expires as an RFA that’s not what a walk year is

So an RFA is a walk year? LMAO OK

There's no mention of a $9MM AAV extension for DeBrincat in this post. He QO should be $9MM, which is alot.

This team will already have three high priced forwards in Tkachuk, Norris, and Stützle, as well as defencemen Chabot and eventually Sanderson. There's only so much room for $7MM+ salaries on a cap era team

$9,000,000 DeBrincat
$8,330,674 Tkachuk
$8,000,000 Chabot
$8,000,000+ Stützle
$7,000,000+ Norris
$7,000,000+ Sanderson
$5,000,000+ Zub
$4,975,000 Batherson
$57,305,674

Show me a team with that much invested in their top players (5F 3D) and I'll show you a team in cap hell

$10,000,000 Eichel
$9,500,000 Stone
$8,800,000 Pietrangelo
$7,000,000 Pacioretty
$5,900,000 Karlsson
$5,250,000 Martinez
$5,200,000 Theodore
$5,000,000 Marchessault
$56,650,000

BTW, the next three salaries are Murray, White, Zaitsev ($15,500,000) for Ottawa, and Lehner, Smith, Dadonov ($15,000,000) for Vegas

DeBrincat is not the guy for Ottawa

I didn’t mention the 9AAV extension, my mistake. Must have been lost when I was editing the post.

I think you are jumping the gun on a couple of those contracts, but my big question is do you think DeBrincat is not worth a 9AAV contract? Why not worry about those other guys contracts later when you are getting the sure thing right now?

I would not give DeBrincat $9MM

If I did, I'd have to give Norris over $10MM

DeBrincat scores goals, 39G is 73 games, 43.81 goals per 82 games
Norris also scores goals, 32G in 57 games, 46.04 goals per 82 games, plays a more defense responsible position as a centre, and has a 51.3% faceoff win record

Not giving up two top 10 or even top5 picks plus a top 20 prospect in the league for Cat. Like what he brings but in no world does it make sense for Ottawa to pay so much just to have to sign him to his big ticket contract. If he was signed at 6.4 for another 3 or 4 seasons then maybe but as is, I would much rather give up significantly less for Fiala and also pay Fiala significantly less on his next contract. Use the money and assets saved elsewhere.

Sorry for being off by 1 year.

But yeah, he has a 9 million QO and then can walk. So much better.

You're not only off a year but RFAs are not "walk" candidates...that phrase is reserved for UFAs. $9M for a elite top 5/6 24 year old goal scorer in the league is a good deal.

I thought his current deal took him to UFA, so yes, I was off by a year.

Its 9 million for ONE year. He doesn't have to sign an extension and he walks to UFA.

What? He's got one year left on his current deal, then is a RFA. He can't just walk. The team that owns his RFA rights large in part owns his future. His qualifying offer is $9M, the player the team and the agent will not want to sign a one year QO which is why you rarely see that happen in the NHL and the player walking after a 1 year QO deal; in other words, what you are suggesting the risk is very low.

Well yeah it's rare because oftentimes the player gets traded. See Sam Reinhart. Soon it will be Kevin Fiala and maybe Matthew tkachuk.

Regardless, no team is trading 2 likely top 5-7 picks for him.

First, they are currently sitting at the #7 pick, second there is no reason why Ottawa will continue to improve and the next year pick is top 2 protected. So in reality we are talking about a #7 in a bad top 10 draft year, and likely a #7 to #12 next year.

I think it's pretty silly to assume you are going to get a player better then Cat with either of those picks as elite or franchise players are extremely rare. There are typically 4 to 6 of them every draft year. Almost always these types of player are found in the first 50 draft picks, and odds outside of the top 2 or 3 positions to find one goes down dramatically to 10% and worse the lower the pick. With the #7 and let's call it the #8 next year, odds are very against a team to do better then Cat drafting at those positions (roughly 20% overall). While a team is likely to get 2 NHL players, the question is what kind of NHL players. Risk is just that...risk. Cat isn't a risk.

So net net, if a team views Cat as a big hole to fill and building to compete in short order (2 years or so), the risk in drafting a couple of 18 year olds kids isn't necessarily a smart move versus taking a elite goal scorer.