Real possibility

like your enthusiasm and creativity but I think your contracts are low. I think someone offers Patches at least 7.5 mill and Panarin gets 8.5 so taking that into consideration I would be very concerned about the long term outlook of the cap. Also if any of our prospects turn out to be superstars they will also need to be paid.

Completely agree with you but because of multiple reports stating Patches want FLA we can assume he’ll take a discount to enjoy especially if it mean to help bring in Panarin. Cap is always the unknown and can only assume it will go up

A couple of comments on the Pacioretty trade proposal. He's taken a huge discount for the past several years in MTL compared to his production. He will now insist on getting paid full on the next contract, somewhere in the 6 years by 7.5M range. Don't expect much if any discount in Florida. The players listed in the trade don't make much sense to me - and I hope they wouldn't make sense to Bergevin either. Habs need left-shot defense and decent centers. Petrovic is right shot D, they have depth there already. McCann is at best a #3-4C, Habs have a bunch of them already. Bjugstad might be a reasonable #2C option in MTL for a few years. For a counter-proposal, how about Patch for Bjugstad and the 2019 FLA 1st round pick ? What I'd really like is Borgstrom for Patch straight up, but he clearly seems off-limits and I understand that from FLA point of view.

By the way, forgot to mention that's a scary top 9 forwards and Top 3-4 defense. The Panthers should be a team on the rise for next several years, even without the trades. I hope Luongo has a few more years in him.