Dubas counters with Graves for Cowan.

If this is the retool RIP as many guys be underpaid so yea not happening lul

Also Pitt rejects. That aint even close

And why we constantly wanting a 5'10 174 pound Dman here and making more than a mill hell nah. Learned nothing from VGK these kinds of Dman aint it

I could see Van possibly having interest in Timmins

I'd be shocked if Dubas didn't take this. By all accounts he viewed Robertson as untouchable his entire time as Leafs GM and even burned a year off his deal to have Robertson jump into the playoffs in the Top 6 at 18. He's always been very high on him.

Same for Lili. Even when Sheldon didn't want to play him Dubas would always keep him and push for him to have a bigger role.

If he's trying to win next year this is a deal he takes. Two prospects who won't contribute for years isn't worth as much to him as 4 guys he is super high on who can all contribute today.

If they were trying to compete next year, they wouldn't have traded Guentzel for futures. They need futures and will probably be rebuilding fully in another year. This team is a long way from competing at this point. Need to add at least a 2LD, 1LW, 2LW, 2RW, 3C, 3RW, 3RD.

of course you are you're a leaves homer

If they were trying to rebuild they wouldn't have made Bunting the center of a package that netted them a 2nd and 3 C+/B- prospects.

No I just watched Dubas make traded for 5+ years and know that he is absurdly loyal to certain players (like Bunting) and that he tends to overvalue guys that he likes.

Given neither of us knows precisely what offers were available, I would expect Dubas took the best futures package he could get. Both Seravelli and Friedman said no team was offering a top prospect without Guentzel having an extension in place and Guentzel didn't sound interested in any extension talks. So that was likely the best offer they were getting. Bunting also has the prospects of being flipped again later for more futures given his short term and relatively affordable that likely had to be included to offset some cap hit.

Carolina has $3.5M in cap space. They were the middleman on Lybushkin, have a goalie buried in the minors counting towards the cap, three other goalies on their roster and are currently carrying 14 forwards.

They could easily have kept Bunting who would have helped them compete in a year they seem to be going all in with two top 6 deadline pickups.

Dubas targeted him if not there is no reason why he wouldn't even get a 1st for a PPG player.

He honestly doesn't even have the option of looking to the future cause the penguins pick is likely top 10 this year and SJ gets an unprotected 1st in 2025 so there is no incentive to tank.

The deal was done well before the deadline so no idea on what CAR had planned. Dubas also retained on Guentzel which wouldn't have needed to be done either. That's probably because CAR wanted cap flexibility if they wanted other deals as they have often been mentioned as a team that is consistently interested in many deals. Bunting is a stop gap that can be flipped again in the future. Something Guentzel wouldn't be with an extension as it will come with massive cap hit and trade protections. PIT is barely in the top 10 picks now and could easily fall out of the top 10. The 2nd is conditional on CAR not making the SCF in which case it does turn into a 1st.