If trouba got 8, Petro is getting 10+

Petro signs for at least 10 mil per

*Condescending parent tone*

You can have Muzzin or Pietrangelo, not both

*emphasize*

No cap with a 20 man roster. 12.5m for five players....doesn't include Muzzin or Petro.

Want to know a sure fire way to destroy your cap? Sign 30+ year old defenceman to major term and dollars. There were exactly 52 defenceman in the NHL last season who were 31 or over. Out of those there are probably 5-10 that are still high end players, many are guys that were either top defenders in their 20's or where at least very good players.

What does that mean? It means that the chances of a defenceman, or NHL player for that matter to be good as they move through their 30's is incredibly rare. 52 were aged 31 and up, move up just one year to 32 and up and the number drops to 38, go up another year to 33 and up and there are 27 defenceman who played last season, most of which were depth veterans.

If you want to give Pietrangelo this contract you are hoping he's elite still at the age of 36. How many elite defenceman are 36 years old? There are none, the closest is Giardano or Kieth who are both 35 and incredibly rare breeds. The overwhelmingly smart bet is to assume that Pietrangelo will be less than he is today, every day for the rest of his career. Why? Because time is real.

But...but...????

You keep this up and I won't promote your favourite Marlie!

He's staying in St. Louis

But...but...????... It's not fair...*kicking a can*

*picks up the phone*

Don't make me call Dorion! Do you want another Ceci?!

Fine... I'll take Muzzin? but only cause Pietrangelo won't come anywaysssss

Good because Dubas wasn't going to lose former Soo Greyhound great, Jake Muzzin anyways

That is going to be a hilarious situation to watch. I am sure someone will sign him to an insane deal but it won't be worth it. It'll fail immediately. Term and 30+ years in age, almost never workout. Sure point to Burns and Giardano, but remember there was a time when Phaneuf was a top end defender in the NHL, despite his faults he was a higher end guy and in his early 30's he's barely an NHLer. That is Pietrangelo's future. He does turn 30 this season.

I never remember when phaneuf was a top end defender. I always remember him being a pylon

How quickly we forget about "The Double Dion"

Dear God I've found the Pierre McGuire burner

He was never suited to be the guy. Was always best being a higher end foot soldier.

Anyways that is a bit of a weird take away. Pick someone else then Marc Staal was a higher end guy for several years and is showing his age. Brent Seabrook? There are many examples. Could Pietrangelo actually be good? It possible but I think its highly unlikely. Whats more likely is he'll look okay in year one, show some troubling signs in year two and in year 3 it'll be clear he's declining and by year 4 he'll be a bottom pair guy taking in huge money. Some GM will probably give him term and dollars but it'll be a mistake. Unless its San Jose, because clearly they have discovered the fountain of youth.

Oh I don't doubt the trend. It's impossible to tell sometimes if a player will fall off from age or not. The only way to tell is to take the risk.

I did some digging into this earlier today and if you look at most high end defenceman and they are aged 23-29 currently and most of the guys that are closer to 30 are starting to fall in the rankings. There are of course outliers, Giardano and Burns are still top end elite #1's. But beyond that, there are very few defenceman who hold any portion of their value in their 30's.

Its just not worth the risk. If he wants even 8 million, it would be impossible for me to be convince he's worth that money and if he wants term on top of that, I'd never even talk to him.

It also probably doesn't help that the role of a defenseman is changing rapidly these days. Most of those players that are 30+ started playing in a late that wasn't focused on having that great puck moving defenseman. With the current overpay of dmen, I don't see him accepting anything lower than 9

I think GM's are slowly starting to change with the times, there are still too many older guys who just don't understand where the game is going but looking at the contracts handed out in FA, most GM's seem reluctant to overpay older players anymore. Too many bad deals have happened and those look worse than making a bad trade. Lets look at Montreal for an example, they moved Sergachev for Drouin, sure they lost that trade but its not that bad since Drouin is still a good player just not as good as Montreal had hoped. But look at some recent FA signings, Lucic, Neal, Myers this year and those deals really hurt. You just can't afford to make a mistake with term and cap hits in this era, it can utterly devastate your team.

So will someone offer Pedro term and cap dollars? Depends on how he looks this coming season but any sort of step back should be all the concern one would need to not pull the trigger on a big deal.