Edited Oct. 26, 2021 at 11:17 a.m.
Quoting: Sad_Siegs
Marat is still unproven along with the first round pick, i think you are over valueing prospects and picks rather than a finished product. But i do understand what you are saying, but the wild are a playoff team and will need to make a push to get to a championship level team. Marat probably wont bring that, the same is true with who gets picked.
I'm not talking about a single playoff push for this year. I'm referring to the $12M in dead cap space next year and the $14M in dead cap space in the two years after that. Holding onto and keeping, then using, our prospects ELC's is paramount if we want to stay competitive during those years. This goes beyond just one year, this is more about keeping a realistic long-term outlook on the franchise than anything else.
In this regard, utilizing our prospect pool of Rossi, Boldy, Addison, Beckman, Khusnutdinov, Lambos, O'Rourke, Wallstedt on ELCs as cheap roster inclusions during the next 4 years as they make the NHL is more important than either a center or than two players who don't move the needle enough for us to properly contend. We're more than just a Kuznetsov and Hagelin away from doing that.
We won't have the means to properly go for the cup until the dead cap comes down in 2025 to a more manageable $1.6M. In this case the youth fits our timeline better than a 29 year old Kuzy. We're also taking on $11M in cap in this trade, and not sending an equivalent amount back. We have less than $3M in cap space right now, how are we supposed to afford this? The answer is we don't, and decline this trade for the multiple reasons I just stated above.