Worth it imo. Mark my words... this deal will prove to be good. He will get some good ice time in COL and will put up 40-50 points a season. You'll see. I'm predicting tha FUTURE!

I was in the range as well but for 3 years, so adding the 4th year cost us about $250-500k of a premium. It makes this year tight but future years it will be ok.

We now have 2C and 3C covered for $8 million for the next 2 seasons and it only cost us a 2nd round pick. All total it's a good bit of business.

I CALLED IT

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WORTH THE TRADE YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Then you're wasting Colton as TB was. If he's not getting 15+ mpg this was a moronic trade and signing for Colorado. Bednar is going to loose his
F-ing mind with Drouins utter and complete lack of effort on the defensive end. If they didn't switch ends of the rink between periods his skates wouldn't touch half the ice.

Drouin is not a 3c however. He will get a shot next to Nate on the top line. Colton is penciled in as 3C. I would expect our distribution of minutes to be more uniform this next season.

Indeed, the top dogs played too much last season, out of necessity.

That's a bit steep

I think this COULD be a good contract and is a not unreasonable gamble for him. He has been a 15-20 goal guy and high 30 points. He is physical, is surprisingly competent in the dot and a good two way player. It could be somewhat akin to nichuskin in the physical 3rd liner (in nichuskins case more of a failed top 6 or even 4th liner when signed) that with more opportunity can blossom.

All that being said I think it's a bad move for COLORADO. Their cap is too tight to take this gamble. They are better off taking gambles around 1 mil, like nichuskin and seeing if they pan out. A team with cap to burn for now can take these gambles.

You think he'll b c? He has not been there that often for Tampa.

100%. You guys had the luxury of Point, Cirelli, and then Paul with Stamkos also being a C whenever needed due to injury.

After MacKinnon and now Ryan Johansen we have nobody else that can play C in our top 9.

As for Drouin, unlike Montreal we also have Makar, Toews, and Byram on the backend; along with highly responsible forwards like Rantanen, Nichushkin, and Lehkonen to cushion him. I think they felt the upside potential was worth the risk, especially at his cap hit considering we have no room to add anyone that is a proven scorer.

Colton has every opportunity to beat out RyJo for 2C either this year or next; but he will also get time on PP2 and plenty of PK time; he will easily get over 16 minutes of ice time per night at a minimum.

I'm not a tampa fan but I see your point. I just always thought of him as a winger. But I do see his faceoff percentage when used as such was actually pretty good

If You're 3rd lining/PK guy you're wasting his talent.
Colton over the last 2 seasons 1.14 goals per 60
Playing with 3/4th liners compared to say
Tavares. 1.12
Kubalik .9
Marchand 1.16
Panerin 1.00
He may be the most underrated player on CF.
He needs top 6 time to truly bring his true value out. He's a 30+ 55-65 point guy easily.

This right here. If Colton beats out RyJo in camp, awesome. If not, he's still going to be on the PP2 and likely PK1 with OC. He's going to get more than 15 a game.

This looks pretty underwhelming for a team one year removed from the cup. An injury prone 2-goal scorer on the top line, and a guy who even at 50% of his salary was still a cap dump centering the second line. They really miss Gabe. Though I guess with a superstar and a solid top-6 guy as linemates, they may be able to elevate the third guy, and Colton with Wood and O’Connor should be a decent third line, so if the Drouin and Johansen experiments work they should be ok, especially since they still have an awesome defense.

Meh.