Nearly 1.7M on an 8th defenseman is awful. Still don’t understand what Waddell was thinking bribing him back

I thought I read somewhere that Orlov + TDA was because they had the framework of a Pesce trade, but the trade fell through.

In any case, I could see them sending TDA off for a 6th & a bag of pucks if they need to bring on more salary at the deadline.

Kochetkov might be a good pick up.

He's waiver exempt...

Raanta's out a couple weeks, suggest it's 2 weeks, it's not even to the deadline. This creates WAY too much chaos when Freddie is back. Carrying 3 goalies would be bad anyway, but then having Kochetkov counting against the cap from the minors is a non-starter. Martin played very well against the Bruins, I'd be more inclined to just ride with him as a backup for 2 weeks, since he is a fine number 3/4 goaltender anyway.

is his play bad or is it just still a locker room issue?

It's at least Raanta's third injury in the past two seasons, and the statement today was *at least* a couple of weeks. They've got one month to come to an answer on "do we have at least two goalies we trust to play multiple playoff games without breaking down", it wouldn't be surprising if they decide the answer is no.



Kochetkov wouldn't be traded unless they are deciding to fully commit to an entirely different long term #1, and probably not even then.

I haven't seen any noise that's been made public, just that Orlov/TDA at the beginning of the year was a disaster.

TDA as a playoff fill in for Burns would be manageable. TDA as a playoff fill-in for Slavin/Pesce/Skjei/etc would be not good.

It's still more than 2 months until the playoffs. Raanta will be comfortably back since then since they're going a *couple* (couple meaning 2) weeks. Freddie will be back too, and he's not been injured this season, he had a health issue. Another goalie doesn't make much sense. It created a 5 man crease with only 1 starting spot. Too many cooks, it's not worth it.