Quoting: Shaners79
Wouldn't you rather Gravy on another deal, probably around 4.5 than Ekholm?
No, Ekholm is a little better and I think Graves's next contract may be a little problematic for however signs it, be it with term, AAV or NTCs.
The appeal with Ekholm is that his contract will be quite easily moveable when the defensive logjam starts kicking in around the 24/25 season.
Also, if Graves signs with the Devils to something like 5x5 and then gets traded one year later, future potential free agents will lose trust in the Devils front office.
Trading for Ekholm and his contract, and moving it on the year after, doesn't carry the same reputational costs.
Quoting: TheFastAndTheFleuryous
Not to mention that Ekholm’s too good and too expensive to be on the 3rd d-pair.
This strikes me a rather outdated idea.
The biggest contributing factor to the Devils success this year is that, when healthy, all three of their defense pairs have the capability to heavily tilt the ice in their favour.
That's the point of getting Ekholm in.