patches will be back near the deadline, no?

not good

The cost would be significantly higher

Personally would rather not lose Seeley, as he is one of our best LD prospects, and Quapp has quite a bit of potential as well, but probably gets outclassed by Hamrla. If the Canes can land Dunkin Boy, starting would more than likely be Necas, and I’m not opposed to doing that. But assuming that the Canes get him, they won’t let him walk for nothing. He either gets resigned, or he doesn’t get acquired at all.

What do you do when patches comes back and you are 5 million over the cap? Also that doesn’t even get close to getting pasta half retained.

That's the kind of stuff Vegas would do.

Player A goes to IR
We have cap space, let's trade for a big name now.
Player A comes back from IR.
We're out of cap space and need to trade away players for nothing.
*Insert shocked Pikachu face*

Pasta extended starts with Jarvis, a first, plus. Necas could be the plus but definitely not a centerpiece in the deal

Boston hangs up immediately, they could get waaaay more from a team looking to extend him.

And the bruins aren’t getting Jarvis. I don’t expect the Bruins to be ever so courteous to get Dunkin Boy to sign the extension favorable to the Canes, so I would expect Waddell to work his magic with an extension. Ideally it’s a prearranged extension, but considering the Canes and Bruins history with each other, I doubt that happens.

Is Patches really gonna be back in the regular season?

Around the all star break is the rumor

Whether its Jarvis or other prospects youre gonna have to give up something you dont want to. Necas + aint gonna cut it. "Dunkin Boy" is pretty much a lock for 40-50 a year - so you cant just give up stuff youre ok with giving up.

He is expected to be out six months according to the team, so he (and his cap hit) should be back by mid-February.