he's not gonna leave

Hence the word IF.

Even if Pietrangelo leaves, I don’t quite understand why St. Louis should look for a replacement for him, they will have Parayko and Faulk for top 4.

flat cap for the next 2-3 years, the cap hit he would require would make if very difficult to retain their up and comers like Thomas and Dunn and signing Binnington to a new contract

Then theyre going to have to make a deal around some of those players

Deals around Jake Allen, Alexander Steen, and Tyler Bozak specifically but I don’t think he stays so my argument is still irrelevant

Not around Kyrou, Barbashev, or Sundqvist. Those guys are all on cost-controlled contracts under three million and trading them doesn't free up much space to keep Pietrangelo and will require us to make further moves anyway, so it's just unnecessary depth cutting.

Look for us to move Bozak, Allen, maybe Steen, maybe even Faulk or Schwartz (though the last two significantly less likely) to keep Pietrangelo. Some combination of those contracts would actually free up meaningful cap space

Even if he doesn't stay, I can't see us trading away any of Kyrou, Sundqvist, or Barbashev for further defensive help. Especially not for Montour, who isn't very good.

Bozak, Allen, Steen, Gunnarsson all off the books in the next two-three years still tho. That's $18 million in cap space. And a contract lost to Seattle too- maybe Schwartz, Faulk, Perron. A Pietrangelo contract won't prevent us from re-signing the young guys.

I just dont know how you afford it this year without doing some massive offloading. Both Dunn and Pietro will probably get 3M in raises each. Next year you lose Gunnarsson Bozak and Steen, but Schwartz probably gets a raise, Thomas probably gets 3M+, Kyrou probably get 2M depending on how next year goes, Binnington probably gets a 2M raise atleast if he keeps performing how he is, he sees that Bobrovsky contract and says hey get me close to that, because that dude stinks. Not saying it won't happen. Armstrong is a good GM and he probably could do it, but it would be close.

Sabres would be interested in Allen

Montour is average at worst. So I wouldnt say he isnt very good, thats too extreme

Ive been about trying to make an Allen deal work. I'd be interested

Yeah, it will definitely be tight long term, not denying that, and we won't be able to keep everyone. I just think that the elite defensive talent is one of the ones that you should keep.

No thanks x 3.

You are right, he's fine, my point was more that he'll be a third pairing guy on this team and if that's the case there's cheaper options on the free market- DeMelo, Braun, Rutta are all also average at worst and will come in cheaper most likely than Montour at 4 mil, and we can get them without having to give up assets.



Allen is real good and I think he would be a good pickup for Buffalo to split time with Ullmark. I think there's a real solution, that people have bandied about on here before, of a Hutton-for-Allen swap with some retained on Hutton to give us goaltending depth (assuming Hutton isn't, uh, blind anymore). Or, at least a late pick somewhere in the next few drafts, although you guys are kinda low on those.

You don’t know how we can afford it first off its easier to get Dunn for cheap. He isn’t fully proven. Dunn takes a cheap bridge deal. Same with Thomas, Bouwmeester Bozak Steen Allen Gunnarsson all off the book gets around 19 Million off the books, but Schwartz on his stat rate performance I don’t see him taking that big of a upgrade in Cap. I hope Faulk gets taken in the Seattle Draft that’s another 6 million off the books. Sanford can be traded too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Bortuzzo gone too. That’s 20 Million. Pietrangelo obviously it’s 7-8 Years for 9 Million. Dunn around 2-3M for a Bridge, Thomas 4 Mill for a Bridge, Binnington isn’t proven enough to say he’s worth more than 6 million on a short term deal because he did have worse stats than Allen. Perron is off the books in a few years too that’s another 4 Million. I’m half expecting Schenn to get traded because Thomas is fully capable to play 2C. Sundqvist is a cost friendly deal same with Barby and Blais. It’s more what’s leaving rather than coming in. Armstrong knows how to negotiate. He got Parayko 4 years 5.5M....