Cirelli's not a 1st line C.

He will be.

I doubt it.

can sergachev play RD cause i have been thinking of a trade where we trade for him and he plays on the RD of Rielly.

Not really. If he could, Hedman-Sergachev would just about be the best pair in the league.

Much better at LD though.

So like Rielly than thanks.

Yeah, every player wants to leave a legitimate Cup contender to go... where, LAK? NJD? MTL? There's literally nobody who has the cap space and also a legitimate chance at making the playoffs. Stamkos is 30, Hedman is 29, Kucherov is 27, Vasilevskiy is 26, Point is 24, and there are plenty of good prospects to fill holes as they appear. All of those guys are locked down long-term (except Point who has two more years but there's just no way he leaves before UFA) and they shouldn't be anywhere close to regression. We've made the ECF more often than not over the past few years. Tampa can lose some talent to cap casualties and remain contenders and anyone who wants to win but abandons ship for a lottery team they think is "up and coming" because Tampa has "only" reached game 7 of the ECF is downright moronic. Obviously some guys want money and you can't fault them there but there's been no indication that Cirelli and Sergachev do and that's not in Tampa's culture. But that's the only scenario where they leave; they decide money is more important than winning. Literally nobody thinks it's all downhill from here for TBL.

I never said they were not contenders and will still be for the next few years.

But they are over the peak and looking down the hill now.

Their D will be considerably weaker next year.

Sergachev will probably eat up any cap left for next year and they will need to fill in the rest of the forwards and D with min contracts.

Tampa is in a good potion over all cap wise but I think Vasilevskiy cap hit is what kills them going forward.