Canes say yes.

Gardiner is gonna spend the year on LTIR, no point moving him

Gardiner would be a disasterrrrrr

Agreed, canes take that. Worst case, Panik is waived and gets buried in the minors. Canes will prioritize defense prospect over forward prospects so that works well for us.

You know Gardiner on LTIR does nothing for us, right? You have to be at the cap to gain the extra cap space LTIR provides.

If we put him on LTIR right now, we’d gain exactly zero extra cap space, only a roster spot.

As a matter of fact, even if Svech signed today for a 9M contract, and Gardiner went on LTIR, we’d only gain like 1.5M in cap space above the cap ceiling.

While true, you don't need to put him on LTIR until the season starts, meaning they could make another move for someone like Dvorak and then gain the extra space to have him. Say Svech signs for 7, Gardiner to LTIR makes the space for Dvorak possible.

Dvorak is purely an example

Or you could just move him, get $4M off the books for two seasons, and not have to mess with LTIR. The Canes do not use LTIR traditionally, and the only time they did was for Dougie during the bubble which was a pretty specific situation. I see literally zero ways they go into a season using LTIR. The daily accumulation of cap space is a tool the Canes use every season, and LTIR puts an abrupt stop to that.

They're not shipping 4 mil off the books here, since they're retaining. That's the entire problem. Even if he goes on LTIR, with retention, you don't get that cap back.

I understand the Canes don't traditionally use LTIR, but as you said, they have under Dundon. Dundon will spend as much as he can to lure fans back in after the TDA backlash, if it's the difference between being able to bring in a big name like Tarasenko/Eichel/Dvorak (I know Dvorak isn't in the same conversation as the other two traditonally, but my point still stands) then he will do it because it will have the most effectiveness in winning favour back with the fans.

Is he actually supposed to be out for part or all of the season?

If so, that like negates this entire post haha

Blues pass.

If he’s healthy, I don’t think so. His offensive play driving metrics have been pretty solid the last two years in Carolina and he’s still very useful on the power play.

His health seems like a bigger caveat than I originally thought, but if he’s good to go, I think he’d be a good addition

Idk if they’re going to get any offers much better than this at this point

Except it's not a good offer for the Blues, who don't need/want either of those players. And there's no law that says they have to trade him right now anyway. He can stick around a while and answer everyone's questions about his shoulder to raise his value. Eventually, someone will probably pay a lot more. Or he'll just decide to stay. Army is not going to get shoved over a barrel here.

The trade has already been completed so that’s the Isles problem now haha.

Joking aside - nobody knows. The only news out there is that the Canes have been trying to get rid of his contact, nobody will take it, and they just added a boatload of defenseman in the offseason. We will see, but Canes actions tell me that they are expecting to not have him.