don't think florida has the cap to do that, might have to retain

Most of that return is going to ARI to retain 3.75m x 2. So the Panthers are only adding about a million to the cap. Sorry if it isn't clear, I just didn't show the retain because it isn't on the Blues' books.

Gotta think that it'd take more for Zona to retain that much...It's still basically $7.5 mil in cash. It's not the typically Arizona "Hey we'll take your high cap, low salary player" deal.

So even the teams that would consider being the cap-eating middleman can't do it with Vladi. He's playing the next 2 years in STL isn't he.

Hard to say. If he came out and went on a run, and was open to willing to waive his NTC to go anywhere someone might bite. Heck, I'd be pretty happy if my beloved Ducks swung some sort of deal for him. Can't imagine he'd be happy to waive to play on one of the worst teams in the league though. Be nice to fire him with Comtois and Zegras, and try to see if they can boost his value before moving him next year with some retained money.

Living in Newport Beach and winning a game here and there might be exactly what he's looking for lol. I know the Ducks are a pretty frugal organization too though, they'd have to be pretty certain that they could win the flip.

I never would've imagined this is how the Tarasenko story would end in STL, pretty depressing if you ask me. I thought their best bet was to find a partner before the expansion draft and before UFA. At this point, I don't see a solution that makes sense for any team, anywhere. Maybe he has a change of heart and decides that playing for the Blues isn't so bad.

To be fair, they were a cap-ceiling team for a number of years. Obviously doesn't make a ton of sense right now to spend though...gotta get the kids playing and see what you've actually got in guys like Steel, Lundestrom, Jones, etc. *If* Tarasenko is healthy, I'd think long and hard about doing something like Rakell for Tara...

Getting a rental (ex Nino, Vatrano, Rakell, etc) would be a nice route to go IMO. Leaves the cap room open for next season and still gets a contributor (who actually might want to be here) for the middle six this year. I've given up on winning a VT trade, let's just see what kind of trade is even manageable.