Offer sheeting Bourchard is no laughing matter, Pitts only wins this battle due to them being old and having no player worth offer sheeting at the moment but if POJ looks better this year you better watch out lol .

Edmonton will match that. Just saying.

I know its not going to happen in reality which is why I said for S&G's. However, If Bouchard would accept and Edmonton wouldn't match and then were able to sign him for term you can take POJ, Smith, or whoever in terms of offer sheets. Pittsburgh would easily win that tit for tat.

They'd be stupid not to. If they did Pens have 5 mil in cap. Originally, was doing this as a way to clear enough cap to make a trade for EK work a little easier, but then remembered there was a young RHD that is an RFA right now and the team is kinda cap restricted, so why not get younger and better.

Fair enough.

I also know that if they do this it has potential to turn around and bite you in the butt, but if you could get a RHD like Bouchard at age 23 turning 24 on a 1 year deal to where you still have his RFA rights the following year and can sign him to term then that's a risk I'd be willing to take.

And if you pair him with Graves, he'll blossom even more. Graves was solid for NJ this year. It sucks we lost him but we've got younger and most likely better guys coming.

I think if the Pens Hypothetically got Bouchard you could pair him with either Graves or Pettersson and be perfectly fine and that would be one hell of a top 4. Also, because you wouldn't be getting EK you could then keep Petry in sheltered mentoring minutes with either POJ or Smith. Similar to Hainsey when we brought him in and had him play with Olli Maata.