the reinhart contract is pitiful

Why are you signing two more RD so that you can play Montour on his offside where he has been terrible and then have a 4 million right D in Miller not in the lineup. Didn't we do this last year with very bad results? Also wtf with the Reinhart contract.

I think people are going to be surprised by what Reinhart gets. Why would he accept much less than this on a long-term deal? He can just take the team to arbitration and be an UFA in 2 years when he's 26 years old.

Yeah, I didn't love this either. Buf: (1) Montour was fine on his left side; (2) I'm not ready to pencil Jokiharju into the top-4. I like him, but I think there's some shiny new toy syndrome going on with him right now. He can marinate on the bottom-pair for another year; (3) I don't think Miller is a top-4 D either; and (4) I didn't like the LH options in free agency. So I added DeMelo and Gudas instead. Risto was deal to create cap space. Miller will be the #7 D, but he'll still play 50-60 games due to injuries.

I don't see why Reinhart is accepting much less money than Skinner (a player than Reinhart is better than) and Eichel got on a long-term deal. If the Sabres try to play hard ball with him he can just take them to arbitration and walk in 2 years.

The difference with Reinhart and Skinner is leverage. Skinner was UFA coming off a 40 goal season on a team that could not score goals. Not to mention the O'Reilly trade debacle. Never mind Botts was just fired.

Bruins reject, dont need MOJO anymore, too big a cap hit

I think Reinhart has more leverage than you think. He can just take the team to arbitration and hit UFA in 2 years at 26 years old. At that time, the league's revenues should be stable/rising again. That would allow him to sign a contract like the one I just outlined with whoever he wants. Given that, I think the options with Reinhart are to: (1) sign him to a long term deal like the one I outlined; or (2) get ready for him to walk in a couple years. Maybe you can knock a little off the AAV, but I honestly don't think it will be all that much. Why would he accept that?

With that in mind, what contract do you think he would/should be signed to?

That's probably reasonably fair value for Ristolainen but I'm not sure a Dman with 3 year term is ideal for us given that we have Byram and Timmins coming through. Also, not sure putting Ristolainen and Kadri in the same lockerroom would work so great for team chemistry...

That said, we're not trading our Josh Anderson to Buffalo, because he's earmarked to be used as a throw-in in a trade with Columbus when we trade for their Josh Anderson, just to troll their fanbase.

Maybe. But it looks to me like there's an opening in that top-9 still (Kreijci, Bergeron, Pasta, Marchand, Coyle, Kase, Ritchie, Debrusk). And if the cap is flat, you have $18 million in cap space with Krug being the only big contract that's up (relatively small raises for Debrusk and Grezlcyk; Chara's contract stays the same). $4.5 for Mojo is high, but the one-year term and his familiarity with the team might be enough for Sweeney to bite.

Yeah I thought about that too. Though, I should note it's only 2 years after this one. Thought Colorado could be interested as I'm not sure how much Sakic will want to rely on rookie defensemen while he's making a cup run next year. Risto could fill out a top-4 with Makar, Graves, and Girard. Then any contributions from Byram and Timmins would just be gravy.

If they want to sign him long term then around 7 I think is a fair contract. The new GM is not tied to the Skinner contract and does not have to base his decisions based upon 1 player getting overpaid. If they want to do another 2 year bridge or arbitration deal then I believe around 5.5 would be the number. No one would sign him to an offer sheet over 8454871 and if they do I take the compensation 2 first a second and a third and run. No top of the league teams really have the cap to even offer Reinhart 7 or more per. If a rebuilding team.wants to offer him a deal in that range you either match or take the compensation 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks. If you get good enough value you trade him. If he accepts the bridge deal you have 2 years to trade him if you are not confident he won't resign. If Skinner signed elsewhere the Sabres fet nothing in return. If the Sabres don't keep Reinhart longterm they will at minimum get 2 years on a cost controlled contract and more than likely a nice return in a trade package.

I think there's very little chance Reinhart signs a long term deal for only $7 mil per. Even if you want to ignore/discount the Skinner contract, it's also 30% less than the contract Eichel signed 2 years ago. I'd be very surprised if Reinhart would accept that. The delta between him and Eichel just isn't that big. A good negotiator might get him to sign a long-term contract with an AAV that begins with the number '8', but not less. If you want it to start with a '7', then you're taking an arbitration award and watching him walk in 2 years.

If he wants more than that then you move him. The delta between Eichel and Reinhart is enormous. If he holds that much value contract wise you should be able to get an enormous return in a trade that you cannot pass up. The contract you propose is comparable to Raatanen in Colorado who is over a point per game player. That is significantly more than Aho a much better player and center got 1 year ago. Kyle Connor got 2 million per less than that 1 year ago coming off of back to back 30 goal seasons. Tkachuk got 2 million per less than that coming of a 34 goal 77 point year. I just don't understand what comps you are basing this contract off of. Please explain

Actually after some thinking I think it might actually be something Colorado could consider.

Ristolainen is a bit of a beast defensively, but some of his analytics are pretty poor which likely won't be attractive to Colorado. That said, I think some of his flaws are very coachable issues, such as the fact that he tries to do zone exists alone too much rather than relying on teammates. If he's paired with someone who's good at zone exits and transitions like Girard or Byram then perhaps those weaknesses would be mitigated to some degree.

The problem is the top 9 is:

Marchy-Bergy-Pasta
Debrusk-Krejci-Kase
Bjork-Studnicka-Coyle
(all better than MOJO except for maybe Kase, but he was brought in to fill the top 6 role)
and we arent paying MOJO for a 4th line role

So its not gonna happen unless there is a serious retention and the bruins only give up like Bjork and a 4th maybe

A couple points:

(1) Move him for what? The best case scenario in trading him is to trade him for another player who is similar to him, which basically just keeps the team the same. More likely though, we would be trading a dollar for 4 quarters, which moves us backwards.
(2) The delta between Eichel and Reinhart is not "enormous." Reinhart is a high-end two-way forward who can drive offense on one of your top two lines. There's not some "enormous" difference between that and what Eichel brings to the table.
(3) The comparables are Eichel and Skinner. I don't see him accepting $15 million less than Skinner, nor $20 million less than Eichel on a long-term deal. Again, he'd just take the team to arbitration and walk at that point.

Studnicka could break through as you point out. But, similar to my point about Colorado, Boston is making a Cup run next year. They may want to add another top-9 forward. That way, they can treat any contributions from a rookie as gravy, rather than relying on it to have a functioning third line. Although, I'll concede that retention is a possibility if we can find some cap room elsewhere (like if we get Reinhart to sign for 8-8.5 instead).

The thing about it though is that Stud looked good in the few games he played this year.
They arent throwing him in as a rookie to let him play, he is a 3rd line center next year.

I have to say that is a horrible arguement not based in reason. Jack Eichel was a point per game player as a 20 year old center when he signed his extension with plenty of room for growth. As a 21 year old winger scoring .5 points per game half of the production of Jack's Sam signed a bridge deal as more growth was hoped for in the coming years. Sam has stepped up his game to .76 points per game during that time while Jack has increased his production to 1.10 points per game during that time. 35% higher playing a much more difficult more valuable position.
When Reinhart signed his bridge as a 21 yr old right winger he was a .5 points per game player at the same time as a 20 year old center Jack Eichel was a
.95 points per game player. The two years since that Sam has upped his play to .76 points per game over those 2 seasons while Jack is up to 1.10 points per game over that same time 35 % more production. At this point both players are likely close to finished products as players with Eichel having slightly more growth potential being one year younger. How that warrants Reinhart being paid anywhere close to what Eichel makes is unfathomable to me. Comparing the contract that an upcoming UFA signs with a different GM is ludicrous, but if those are comps you want to use then Okposo should be a comp for Reinhart as well. He signed as UFA with the team for 6 million AAV coming off higher production .87 points per game in his prior 3 seasons. So is he now worth less than that contract because Okposos production would have been predicted to be higher. Of course not. What contracts are negotiated on are comps around the league. Similar production players, same contract status rfa or UFA, similar career point and arcs. Any comparable winger that was an rfa in the last 5 years that has either the same or even slightly more production has been paid significantly less than what you are proposing. If Kevin Adams were to offer Sam this contract he should be fired on the spot and never work in hockey again. If another GM thinks he is worth that kind of contract and wants to sign him to an offer sheet of that level then we say thank you and take the 2 firsts, second and third round pick which should be easily flipped for much more impact than Reinhart provides. About 1/2 of every forward picked in the top 20 picks over the last several years have offered more production than Sam. Additionally if other GM's see Sam being warranted to be paid like a top 20 player in the league then they would be offering massive assets to acquire that kind of player. In which case you take that compensation and laugh at the other GM offering it. But as you will see in the next few months that will not happen. Much more likely that you see Sam on a contract that starts with a 5 rather than a 9. Again I challenge you to show me an RFA anywhere in the history of the league with production similar to that of Sam that has been paid anywhere near what you are proposing and I guarantee you will not come back with one example.