As much as I like JD74, that's too much money. Add 1-1,5 millions and you can get a way better player on the market (Terevainen, Stephenson, etc.)

I think he’s showing you they just have enough money to keep DeBrusk, sign Lindholm, keep Ullmark, and sign Swayman (I think he is short on the extension cost by about his open cap room). They won’t have the extra funds necessary to go to the two guys you mentioned. It might be more prudent to let JDB go, sign Heinen, and allocate the left over money to a vet defenseman on on a one year contract if we are keeping Ullmark.

I’d also argue that is kind of the minimum for DeBrusk who should be pretty attractive when you look at his age. I’d rather have him than Stephenson and Terevainen is equally inconsistent/older.

I think you're going to be about 2 million short on the Lindholm deal. Why should he sign for less as a UFA than DuBois signed for.

If the Bruins went with this spending next year, I wonder how they reupped their guys in the summer of 2025, when the only expiring contract is Ullmark 5m.
Why sign Lindholm for that much or term?

He’s coming off a year where he likely can’t demand what Horvat and Scheifele got. I think the number is going to be between 6.75 and 7.75m and fully expect him to get 7 years. Boston is probably one of the more attractive places to Lindholm, because he fits the system and he’d be playing with Pasta/Zacha which essentially is recreating the line he has the most success with. Sweeney has tried to trade for him with Calgary and Vancouver, so my guess is he’s ready to pay the necessary price to secure him.

Its a risk, but so is waiting for the second tier free agents and hoping you don’t overpay them (which is essentially what happened with Reilly/Forbort, but Ullmark hit which kind of excuses it). If you could have gotten Lindholm without giving assets based on the previous three years before 2023-2024, you’d have been incredibly happy and would have paid 8.5M AAV.

My belief is that DuBois is overpaid enough that the Kings would have to add a first or equivalent to him just to get market value in a trade. I doubt he gets 8.5m on the open market and the Kings are probably kicking themselves for that decision. Giving him the money and giving Winnipeg Villardi/Iaffalo must be maddening

If he goes long term, this is his last contract, and he's been budget friendly on his previous ones. Add to that the cap increasing significantly the next two years and no one's going to be taking budget signings for a while, previous salary comps are going to get thrown out because they represented much larger slices of the cap ceiling when they were signed. Dubois took a bit over 10% of the cap, and he was an RFA signing.

I would not be surprised to see Lindholm command at least 8.5, probably 9, as arguably the best center available for a long term commitment, given he's never had the health issues that Monahan has struggled with for years.

What he’s signed previously doesn’t really matter. The open issues is he has had a pretty bad year overall. If I’m blunt, Jake DeBrusk is having his worse year finishing and statistically, he’s better in most advanced stats that adjust for playing time than Lindholm.

The question is how does it impact Lindholm’s market value. My guess is if he’s signing in excess of 8, he’s signing a 5 year contract instead a 7 year one.

Anything is possible.

because of the market. he's signing after sucking, PLD signed after putting up two really good years and having a team trade a pile to acquire him.

The question is how much does one year affect his value. If he’s signing the contract after last year, he gets 8.5M AAV on the market pretty easily. I believe there is a discount there. How much? Who knows.