Stamkos or the Shrimps

Tampa's bigger problem is finding the teams that those guys would be willing to waive their NTCs for while actually being able to afford them. I can't see those two agreeing to waive from literally the best team in the league to one of worst teams in the league...even if they were the ones with the money to bring them in.

Yanni Gourde

Rule #1, if your undrafted player breaks out in his first full season, at 26, playing on a great team with great support, don't sign him for 6 years @ $5.167MM per season. Give him a bridge deal of 1-2 years and see if he can do it again. We'll call it the Cory Conacher rule.

Ottawa declines this trade offer.

Actually Tampa did just that. Problem was that Gourde started to flourish just during that said bridge deal, meaning that yet another bridge deal wasn't a realistic option...

Gourde NEVER broke out .. played 1st/2nd line where a chimp could excel with Point and Kuch .. Gourde is a low skill great hustling 3rd/4th line grinder .. TOTAL 100% contract error by JBB .. one of few to be fair..

I laugh at people here still thinking TJ and players have a choice with NTCs .. world is different now and will be worse in 2021 .. anyone can be waived with a NTC .. why Gourde hasn't been waived yet is beyond me .. only difference I see is TJ isn't coming back and to waive someone says we don't want you under any circumstances .. so waive TJ this year and waive Gourde next year could be the approach

Honestly they would've already be traded if it was so easy to move a guy with full NTC, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Can't really think of other reasons why they're still in the team.

Tampa already tried waiving Johnson...no one took him.

Also Gourde would've walked if he didn't get that money. Scoring 112 points in 162 games while averaging around 13 minutes a night during that bridge contract sealed that deal. Keeping him might've been the mistake, but the money was well deserved.