What do you think Binner makes?

Honestly not sure what to expect. If he hadn't won the cup, I think you could make an argument for 2.5/3mil for two years and see what happens. I'm concerned that he hasn't played a full NHL season yet and I would be careful to avoid another Allen contract, but it would also be great to have some stability in net. I think you gotta go max 2 years and somewhere between 4-5.5mil range now with the cup win in there though. It'll be an interesting contract.

Murray got 3.75 on a 3 yr contract. So I figured Binner may come in around that but prob 4-4.25 depending on the length but am curious to see what others thought.

SJ is definitely going to match that.

The offer needs to go upwards of 8-9 million to make Sharks unable to match.

Sharks match that without hesitation.

You guys are probably right, but as I said in the description, we've got 5mil in additional cap space to up that offer sheet if necessary. That said, I really don't think the Sharks could match above 7mil without serious strain somewhere else (Thorton, Pavelski, now maybe Marleau to resign? Plus some depth RFAs yet), and even if they do match, we'll keep Schenn and no harm done to the Blues. Now SJ is paying more than they probably wanted to for Meier, so good luck to them in cap hell, I don't mind that at all. No risk for the Blues to offer sheet here even if SJ does match.

Murray is probably the closest comparison, but even then Murray was supposed to be good. Binnington was pegged as an AHL lifer before January even by his own organization. I left some cap space in case Binnington needs more but I think you're right, 4/4.5 is probably where it'll come in. I hear people talking about 6mil, and that's just crazy to me.

Long-term the importance of Meier is higher than any of the aforementioned players.

Also if STL were seriously considering going 3-5 millions higher with the offer sheet, that would mean they receive more picks as well.

The amount where SJ can't match provides them around two firsts, a second and a third. Which is close the value you'd get by just trading him.

Point being, Meier is not leaving SJ. All the rest can wait, Meier is coming first.

You know as well as I do that the Blues are not paying $8 mil, two firsts, a second and a third. However, you also know as well as I do that SJ can't pay Meier $8 mil either, and I would bet that in a realistically ideal world the Sharks want Meier for three years at like $4.5/5.5mil because that bridge deal is the only way that they can keep everyone. Now I like Timo Meier and I think he could be a good addition to the Blues, but not for more that 7mil. The Blues do not NEED Meier for this team to be successful, so they don't need to overpay. Basically I think the Blues can make a competitive offer sheet in that "first and a third" range of a cap hit, (less than 8mil) and be fine either way- because they have Schenn for one more year if the Sharks match, or obviously if they are able to poach Meier. They don't need to make an offer that guarantees they get Meier, they just need to make a good enough offer that there's a chance the Sharks can't match.

And you say "all the rest can wait", but I'm not so sure. SJ is lucky that Thorton only wants to play there and obviously the other RFAs are in the same position as Meier, but Pavelski is openly talking with other teams right now and can sign with them in a week. If SJ wants to keep their captain, that will need to happen before Meier (unless Meier signs, like, tomorrow) and that'll cost like $6.5 mil+. He's obviously not a long term signing but I think SJ proved with the Karlsson contract that they are trying to win now and "long-term" is not what they are worrying about. And if they want to win now, they'll probably want that 38 goal scorer back. So that limits what they can offer Meier as well.

I'm not sure what you're after here. The offer sheet I've laid out only compensates a first and a third in 2020. I didn't mean throw 5mil more at Meier, just that we have the space to make that 6mil offer sheet something like 7, 7.5. But I'm not giving up more than a first and third for Meier. If Sharks can match that, cool, because they definitely didn't want to be paying Meier 7 million dollars this year, and that's a win in my book.

Signing EK with that contract meant that it's going to be unlikely for them to re-sign Pavelski, unless he signs a team friendly contract.

As for Meier, I can see them signing to a contract like Hertl did ($5,625M x 4). But they're willing to sign him until the $8M contract, provided there's good term. Otherwise Meier is not signing it. That's also something you gotta note - the player have to accept the offer.

For now, the main thing for SJ is to sign Meier.