well at least you only double overpaid for that Zona pair. Any more than it might have gotten ridiculous.

You and Montreal keep that toxicity between you two

Talk about major overpay for Schmaltz and Valimaki, Drury+Morrow+Carolina's 1st and 2nd round pick. Should get it done.

I wanted to get both Schmaltz and a serviceable 3rd pairing D for under $5 Mil. That was a price that I felt they couldn't say no to. What would is the least you think we could pay to land them in this situation?

I've been watching the NYR threads, and I think it could definitely be in the canes best interest to offer sheet Laf. NYR is going to have a hard time keeping the band together next year, and making a play like that for Laf given that for 2023-24 the canes won't have cap trouble could cause chaos for a division rival at little price to the canes. Point is, we could make you pay a lot more than $2.1 Mil to keep Laf next year.

But that's toxic and keep that between you and mtl

We almost cannot spend of our cap space for next season without getting silly (which we don’t do).
Schmaltz isn’t a center
Retention isn’t needed
Paying a premium for a 3LD makes no sense.

Paying 2 good prospects and a 1st or Morrow and a 1st is plenty for Schmaltz. I see you took out Blake. Also Arizona will have 0 interest in retaining on Schmaltz.

Also 0 chance we sign Tarasenko to that deal.