I think I'm feeling bitter about the "33 is an old guy" comment that I made today..

That was a good year for me..

I should have clarified more, I see that being the range for Spurgeon but I see him closer to the starting point “unless" he has a better than normal year or gets traded at the TDL and has a great playoffs, then I could see him getting closer to the max amount I mentioned. But term will play a factor in how much he gets, also whether or not winning is a priority much like Duchenne did with Nashville.

Right...the one difference being that St. Louis won the prize every team is chasing every year.

Oh, I agree with you thatt that would be the hope. But can he do it better than Muzzin could? Do we know that? Dermott would certainly fetch something good. And I think it's a moot point if it wasn't for who Sandin might be. If Sandin projects higher than Dermott then there could be some redundancy

In that case, I would love to have Eric on our team?

That comment had me laughing pretty hard lol

I get what you're saying... But it all depends on what the return is. What do you think we could get for him? IMO it would have to be an overpay as he is too important to our D currently. I think Sandin and Liljegren will be fine next year as long as they get sheltered minutes. But we still need to fill out our top 4 and as of right now Dermott is expected to be a big part of that. Muzzin is great and I would be happy to have him back next year...depending on his next contract tho...

I don't mean to rain all over your optimistism of Sandin but...if (and right now it's a big if) he makes the big club, he should not be getting any more than 3rd pairing minutes and be paired with a vet based on it being his first year in the league.

Of course all this becomes moot if AHL teams make adjustments this coming season and Sandin is not able to adapt (hence the big if).

For this year? Sure, he's super important. And it sucks for him that he starts injured. But for next year? Who knows

What could he fetch? My guess is a guy of equal value where we have gaps.... lw, rw (if Mitch, Bracco and even Hyman go... man, this is far down the rabbit hole) and forever the rd situation. Nothing more. But I dont think his value is anything to sneeze at all. Our Ld looks good moving forward

Actually, I was referring to next year for his importance more so than this year. I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one.. To me our D specifically the right side is a much bigger area of need oppose to lw/rw, and dermy plays the right side pretty well.

I agree he has value but I can't see us getting enough value back to make it worth our while. If we were to trade Dert we would need to be blown away by an offer which I don't see another team doing because it wouldn't be a smart move for the acquiring team IMO.

But what team and player(s) specifically do you see us getting for Dermott?

Meh.

Sorry if that seems off. But the kid was an 18 yr old playing top minutes in all situations in the ahl playoffs. He might be the closest thing we've had to a sure fire bet in terms of being a solid nhl d. He's all but on his way to the show. . at some point.

That's ok. Pretty much most everyone disagrees with me.

All I'm sayin is Muzzin is proven. And with stuff we lack . Take a run at him in ufa for something that works. We can protect 3d. Reilly, a top pairing rd ufa, maybe Spurgeon, muzzun( > Dermott as of now, who will also want prob 3M) and Sandin and Lilly are protected. Which means we need to find 1 middle bottom pairing cheaper than Dermott as a rhd. That could work.

Regardless, at this point I just want Staal. And coffee soon...

We agree on just about everything...but it was bound to happen sooner or later. Also, I don't disagree with you, I would be fine with trading him IF it was for a deal we couldn't refuse! I'm fine with trading anyone as long as the deal makes sense for us/ makes us better.

I like Muzzin too, and I would be happy to bring him back (again depending on his next contract) but he could most certainly make more on the FA market. I fear that if we offer him a 4-year deal he will want 6mill, but if we give him 5 years I think we could get that AAV down to 5-5.5, which I would be fine with. However, I believe even if we did re-sign Muzzin, we would still protect Dermott over Muzzin, especially if we sign someone like Spurgeon or someone worthy of protecting.

Dermy's next contract will be determined by how well he does this year.

That's why I'm asking what trade/players do you see specifically that we could make headlined by Dermott? It's hard to say whether or not I'd trade him if I don't know what we would be getting back. And I would love to have Stall on our team.

Expansion draft is in June.
Wont have to protect a newly signed UFA as he would be signed the draft has happened
Pending UFA does not get protected either I think? Not sure on that one.


Are not worried about Muzzin's age?

Expansion draft is in June 2021. I'm not concerned about Muzzin's age, I think he will be fine and if not... Dubas could move him out assuming our window of contention is still open

Woah, I thought June 2020

From everything I've read, it's June 2021.