You're not close on the AAV IF THEY DO

I don't think that giving up pick #65 for one season of a 0.5-PPG bottom-6 winger with a cap hit of $4.25 million is a good idea for Anaheim even if the Ducks don't run Trevor Zegras, Frankie Vatrano and Cutter Gauthier at LW.

A bridge would be awful.

Kane will want more. Overpays for maatta and fabbri.

You also do not want to bridge those guys when cat and some of the other guys will be coming off their ELCs at the same time

They're not getting bridge deals, but only 3 guys are coming off their ELCs by that time and a bunch of large expiring contracts, so wouldn't be that serious.

Why?

Because they both further progress as players, Seider's numbers likely improve drastically once he's not murdered in matchups every night, and the cap is due to increase significantly for the foreseeable future.

Because they're more likely to get significantly better than regress once they have a competent coach and apt deployment. Signing long term reduces their cap-hit long term when the cap is *likely* to rise exponentially.
Plus, you don't want paying them and the ELC extensions of our future prospects at the same time.

Quite the assumption

Sure. I assume neither is going to suck ass suddenly and that paying them something starting with an 8 now beats paying them something starting with an 11 in 2-3 years... Do you have an actual rebuttal or was that it?

Bridge deals exist for a reason, and it's not always the case that players get massive raises when the bridge is over. Plus a lot of those prospects either won't be NHLers or highly paid NHLers.

Lalonde is plenty competent btw. Team is having a great year.

Is either player worth 8? Not sure.

You can not be sure all you want but Seider at 8 years is getting $8M+, and Raymond at 8 years probably just shy of that.

You're just talking to yourself at this point.

I know exactly what it is they're likely to get.

Oooohhh good for you, princess! You want a cookie?

I always interpreted bridge deals as a "prove-it" deal or a deal you make out of cap restrictions. Maybe the bridge deal is forced by the agent. More often than not, signing a bridge deal is not out of choice by the team.

The team is bottom 5 in almost every performance metric; they're overachieving significantly due to a high shooting percentage mixed with a lucky bout of goaltending. If Lyon was average during his stretch, this team would have been eliminated a few weeks ago. It is also quite clear this team depends on Larkin for more than just his skill -- he's a leader. When he went down, the team crumbled. Lalonde has no control of the locker room. He is no more than a bridge coach.

Big game tonight, lock it up. Positivity until elimination lol

I found that negativity provides the reverse jinx!

lol oy