MTL gladly accepts.

I actually do like Gourde's game for the most part but his numbers have been declining precipitously for the past 3 seasons although he did have a decent PO showing this year. Any chance that's due to him being buried down the depth chart? Or is this him simply regressing to his mean? If it's the former, maybe he could fit in with the Avs; if it's the latter, then Colorado is just taking Tampa's albatross for them so they can re-sign the up-and-coming Cirelli. He's got 5x5.166 left which isn't insignificant so Avs pass. Also, doesn't Gourde have an NTC? Think he's just going to waive it to leave the SC champs?

Johnson isn't waiving for Detroit. Plus he doesn't have a lot of value from Detroit's point of view he's 30 with 4yrs left on his contract at $5M per. and his production has dropped in each of the last couple of seasons. Being on the wrong side of 30 that most likely isn't going to get better. A playoff team or a contender is your best bet if you want a big return for Johnson.

It's a tough call, he has had success playing top 6 minutes. His contract was due to that 25+ goal rookie season. I do think he is buried on the TB roster. He could play the 2nd line for TB, but Johnson seems to get stapled to the Top 6 based off of reputation with Jon Cooper. The big question for Colorado, is Yanni Gourde a better Nazem Kadri, worse or the same? The contract is more, but is the value better over the long-term? Also, the only way I think Gourde waives is to go to a team that has a chance to contend, that's why I picked Colorado.

Yeah, TB in a tough spot with Johnson. He's a "tweener" can't seem to find a solidified role on Tampa. I picked Detroit considering that Stevie Y gets a 2nd round pick attached and that Detroit doesn't have to protect Johnson for the upcoming expansion draft. Maybe he waives for a chance to play bigger minutes for a year and then goes home to Washington state to maybe be the captain for Seattle?

The problem with asking someone to waive is that they hold all the cards - they have literally no reason to waive unless they want to leave a bad situation or have some other, non-hockey reason for wanting to move. Even a guy like Hjalmarsson won't waive his NTC in the last year of his deal to go to a contender for family reasons. Gourde is living in a no tax state, playing on a team that just won the Cup and has no obvious reason to want to leave. And for Colorado, they would want a proven, consistent goal-scorer to go on the Kadri line; that doesn't describe Gourde.

I understand why you, as a Tampa fan, would like to see Johnson and Gourde just waive their NTC's so you can keep Cernak, Sergachev and Cirelli but I don't see, A) those players just waiving to help out a team that sees themselves as better off without them and, B) having their suspect contracts taken on by other teams.

We are not paying for someone to take Johnny

Wings pass, you can keep tj, his contract is brutal and he is declining fast. This would take a gigantic asset with him for us to take him

Gourde’s problem is his contract. Don’t really have a problem with the value, but living in a flat cap world where big extensions are do decreases the value of some players to some teams. Avs decline unless TBL is retaining which they won’t so yeah probably a dead deal.

Avs decline, his contract is too long,