Quoting: Garak
Sure. The debate here isn't whether they need to dump Petersen or not, though. The debate is on what it will cost if they do decide they need to dump his contract for whatever reason. And yes, I agree that cutting bait on such a high draft pick like Turcotte at this juncture is probably not the best decision. That is especially the case because he currently doesn't have the trade value to justify doing so. Then again, with all the centers they have on the NHL roster and in their pipeline, I could see them cutting bait with him sooner than fans might think. I could also see them wanting to get certain players locked up sooner than later or bringing in certain UFA's to bolster the roster over the summer, which might require larger cap hits and therefore dumping Petersen's contract to create the space.
Yeah, well, you should have traded Jake McCabe to us for our 2024 first (instead of Toronto's 2025) and our 2025 second (instead of Toronto's 2026) and kept Lafferty (or sold him somewhere else for value), so go $$$$ yourselves.
Seriously, though, my current hobbyhorse rant aside, I reiterate my friend
@PuckLuck_77's distinction between overvaluing Turcotte and not wanting to sell him at his point of lowest value. Even IF we decided that we had to dump Petersen's contract, we have other assets that would be better spent on that move than giving up on Turcotte. Although I don't expect lightning to strike twice in the same spot, there's nothing to say that his 2023-2024 won't look like Gabe Vilardi's 2022-2023 (or maybe one season earlier), as PL intimates. To put it another way, if we give up a second to dump Cal, it takes the prospect eventually chosen with that pick surprising everyone by turning out to be better than expected for us to be wrong; if we use Turcotte for that purpose, it only takes him achieving his projected potential for us to look foolish.