Why not buy out Lucic if he's going to be in the press box...I like your thinking on Burky / JP and a Donskoi signing value...but EDM needs to disposition Lucic eventually.

because if they can afford to keep him for one more year, the buyout is another year less come next summer (it's always double the contract length, as in 8 this summer, 6 next summer)

I don't like the idea of buyouts. It would turn 4 years of dead space into 8 years of dead space. My first option is swap bad contract for bad contract. Second option is retain 50% and see if anyone is willing to take him then. Last option is to buy him out before expansion draft. By then he'd only have 2 years and if we still can't trade him then, then that's when I would buy him out. As long as he's not playing, he's not going to be a factor on the ice so no reason to buy him out now.

and turns into 4 if we buy him out before the expansion draft. By then, he's owed basically no money so even by that time, a team might be willing to take on that contract with only 2 years remaining and not a lot of real cash owed.

if you sacrifice a 1st you may get seattle to take the contract at that point too

haha that depends where the 1st is. If it's late 25-31 by then then maybe I do it. But if it's a lottery pick I wouldn't.

Gonna be tough even then. Look at what Vegas got:
-Took on 1 year of Jason Garrison, added Gusev+2nd+4th
-Took on 1 year of Grabovski, added 15th OA pick+2nd+depth dman
-Took on Clarkson (LTIR @ $5.75 mil/3 years), added 1st+2nd+William Karlsson (who was a decent-ish prospect at the time before blowing the heck up)
-Took 2 years of Fleury, added 2nd.

Pretty wild returns.

very solid analysis for a long hold on Lucic until expansion draft. you guys impressed me on his one. take the rest of the day off and grab a beer.

Conveniently, I've just opened one and am enjoying the sunset on the east coast (Slash cruising ACGM...). Cheers amigo!