Except the obvious problem of him almost certainly commanding a no trade and no movement clause preventing a scenario of him being stuck on a team like Seattle for the rest of his prime years.

And then what if Seattle doesnt take Hall? Small chance but Colorado will be in the same conference and Seattle could see it as advantageous to strap Colorado down to that contract for the duration. Particularly if Hall doesnt play up to his salary next season. It isnt abnormal for a player to sign a big contract with a new team and then take a full year to get chemistry deflating his stats in the process

Got news for you, No way Hall signs anywhere without a NMC being attached to his contract. That's just not happening.

Yeah you're right. Realistically this probably doesn't happen because of a NMC.

I just looked at the last 10 signings of UFA or Upcoming UFAs that were signed for over 7 million AAV. Every one of them except Matt Duchene had a Full NMC or NTC. So chances are slim of him not getting a full NMC

Colorado has two elite drivers in MacKinnon and Rantanen. A smarter move would be Rakell. I get that it might be costly, but a very good RW on a great contract. He’s cheaper than Donskoi, with 2 seasons of control he won’t hamper the ability to re-sign Landeskog or Makar

I think if Sakic trades prime assets it'll be for a top 6 forward with more term. In fact I vaguely recall him saying something along those lines at the deadline.

The problem is, it’s hard to find players with more than two years of term, without giving up an arm and a leg. For Rakell you still get 160 games plus playoffs

Pittsburgh got Zucker for 4 playoffs for a 1st + top RHD prospect + cap dump/zero value player.

We could also pick up a player like Palat or Killorn for like a 2nd + 3rd or thereabouts.

Issue is Palat and Killorn have full NTC's. Sure the Avs are a great team and Denver is a nice city, but it's not TB. It's a fall back option but shouldn't be plan A, considering there's no guarantee they waive

I also would put very little value in using what PIT does as a comp. Rutherford is all-in, frankly he doesn't care what the Pens future looks like, since he won't be the one cleaning up the mess.

Sounds like you don't want Hall at 9.5 X 6 anymore that Seattle would. Doubt if Hall is going to be a face of any franchise in the future.

Killorn only has a 16 team no-trade list. Presumably Colorado (as a contender) would be a destination he's ok with.

Palat only has a NTC for another year. He might fancy going to Colorado instead of risking ending up in Seattle/CHAZ/CHOP/whatever-it's-called-now next summer.

The difference is that Colorado has to resign Makar, Landeskog, Grubauer, Mackinnon, etc... Seattle won't have that 'problem' as they won't have superstars in their 1st season.

And if He has a 23 goal 58 PT season Seattle says you keep him. Then they sign landeskog in the offseason.

Landeskog isn't going anywhere. It would be Burakovsky or Donskoi who gets cut to find cap space if needed.

Hall isn't a superstar. He's had one superstar season. Just saying smart teams stay away from overpaying big term contracts for players in their late twenties

If Hall helps propel the team to the Cup (or even get close), it's pretty hard to see them just letting him go. I think it's much more likely they do what they can to keep him, even if it means a revamp if the bottom six.

And even if he does somehow sign without trade/movement protection, keeping him past the xdraft and then trading him makes more sense than letting Seattle take him, as he would bring back a metric butt ton in the market.

To me though, Hall is a long term play or nothing. They can make the cap work, and it's not even that incredibly difficult considering the guys they have coming. The key to me would be getting his inevitable trade protection to open up after 4-5 years so there is somw flexibility in the future.

Good point about protecting and then trading him instead, that does make more sense in terms of asset management.

I agree that they can make it work even at like 6 years x $8-9m. But as you say it would be really important to maintain some flexibility by not having a full NTC beyond 2023.