Kurashev

I would have walked away at anything north of $2M. I like him but not at that price.

Absolutely. I mean, it doesn't matter since there's plenty of cap space but I don't understand Kurashev at that salary. He's just a warm body. What has he really shown to suggest any Rockford callup couldn't replace him cheaper.

Thankfully it's only 2 years so if he improves it'll be nice but he's only shown flashes and flashes don't earn you $2.25M.

If he only marginally improves, his QO might hurt.

Agreed, the next two years are more or less a wash, they're not even thinking about being a playoff team until 2025-26. So ultimately it doesn't matter. I just don't know what anyone sees in Kurashev. Whatever it is, I didn't see it.

Personally, I like this number for him. This was my guess back months ago. I think everyone forgets how young and inexperienced he really is. He has shown flashes of some really high end play, and if he grows into that and becomes more consistent, he could actually end up being a really important piece for CHI. If he just kind of levels off and maybe improves defensively a bit, he should be a nice trade chip or even a long term bottom 6 option. Not really much to worry about here.



His QO won't hurt. The most it could be is like $3.5M, depending on how they structure his salary. If his salary is straight up $2.25 both years, his QO will only be $2.25. If they front load it, his QO will be less than his new AAV. There isn't much to worry about with him, he either pans out or he doesn't.



The walk away number was around $4.5M. So, CHI had to pay him, their only choice was one or two years.