Ana definitely says no
Phi actually could take that

Why do they say no? They traded Deslerierus or however you spell his name for a 3rd and Zegras immediately started getting cheap shotted. They need a guy like him, plus the market value for goons is a 3rd

Nemeth and Hajek are both non-NHL caliber players and Georgiev isn't good enough to make up the difference. Would be doing a rival a favor.

Weird how having Deslauriers did not stop Paquette from boarding Zegras in October.

Highly doubt Philadelphia would do it, but I could see someone else at the cap floor could say yes.
The Rangers are far more likely to keep Ryan Reaves than to re-sign Frank Vatrano in my eyes -- especially if the plan is to maroon Vatrano down to the third line and separate him from Kreider and Zibanejad.
Kakko will get money in between Chytil and Lindgren
Copp will make $5.5-6M unless you give him an 8 year deal (a la Ryan Nugent-Hopkins)
Blais presumably gets the money from his RFA tender ($1.6M) and Motte will get a similar salary to that.


On the other hand, I could actually see your scenario for Brennan Othmann play out like that, but I believe the maximum games you can play before your contract slides is 10, not 35. As a result, he'd have to go back to the OHL if he doesn't pass the audition.

Othmann going to be a tough decision unless he shows in camp he's ready for the huge jump from juniors to NHL. Reality is AHL is probably the best for his development- but 19 YOs can't play in AHL...and he turns 20 in January. And unless they intend to keep him on NYR, his ELC sliding 1 more year could prove significant to their CAP management- but that would mean him playing max 9 games with NYR before being sent back to junior or down to AHL. So I guess it's a matter of what's beneficial to him: back to juniors so he plays heavy minutes start to finish? or stick with the team- probably play a minimal role in 9 spaced out games- all while practicing with the team...then to AHL in January to finish season there with a heavy workload that point and forward.

My thoughts exactly.