Only problem here is teams carry 23 man rosters not 20

Yes! Get Ehlers and reunite that Mooseheads line.

Yeah blues decline. Blais is playing well for us and is signed cheaply next year

Doubt Florida has much interest in that. The center market is much thinner this year than the LD market

If Drouin signs anywhere for more then 1.5 I'd be shocked

Thats not the only problem here. Macdermaid is subjected to play 82 games no thank you.

Byram won't sign a deal like that and neither would the Avs, I wouldn't think. Mac and Drouin would never even play together so it's pointless to sign him. Drouin shouldn't be getting that much money from anyone considering how much time he has missed and how unproductive he has become, the assists this season aside. If he wants to get his career back on track, he's going to have to do a PTO or league-minimum deal year-by-year and work his way back up to being a regular middle-six guy.

I don't disagree, but why does Byram not want almost $6M?

He's going to want more. He's looking around at the young guys that signed for $7-8M recently coming off their ELC's (Thompson, Stutzle, Hughes, etc) and thinking he should get something like that and he's right. But he may have to wait a year until Toews is gone and the cap goes up.

I understand that, but I'm m not sure.

For one, maybe he stays patient and signs a shorter deal for less. Hopefully he's OK with this anyway.

Otherwise, Toews trade talks could come up.

You're thoughts are pretty realistic tho

My guess is he signs a 1-2 year bridge to get his QO up and forces them to sign him long-term or trade him which, let's be honest, would bring a HUUUUUUUUGE haul back. You hate to lose such a good player but a guy that age and that skillset would bring back legit top-6, top-4 and high-value draft picks all at the same time. Any team that is lacking a 1D, wants to jump-start a rebuild, has the cap space and the young players to make such a deal would do it and the Avs would be foolish to not consider it. Have to keep the window open as long as possible with this core; trading Byram could help that. Not saying they do it but it should be in play.

I'd agree BB is likely to want more if it's a longer term deal in which case the Avs want more term or else the Avs will be looking to bridge him for less to retain some control. Personally I'd look to try and do the latter were I in GMCM's shoes. To me that deal falls right in the middle ground where the Avs don't want it to be.

Drouin will, imo, be looking at 1-1.5 mil offers at best. Basically 'prove it' type deals. Bennett is a good target but Kuznetsov may be of interest now it's common knowledge he's asked to be traded, though the cap is trickier there and if as I read he's unhappy at not playing 1C then the Avs might not be of interest to him. Blais I like but can't see STL being keen on moving, and E-Rod likely gets more. Whilst MacDermid has looked better since he's been given some more ice time and been trusted more I'm still pretty certain that bottom D pairing is a disaster waiting to happen.