It's a precarious spot for a GM to be in.
Your core is young and almost ready, but maybe not quite. Good enough that you need to backstop them as they can win now, but not at a point where you want to go all in, as the window is much longer than just next season.
He had to find a goaltender that would be good enough to help the team win now, but avoid plugging the position with a long term contract at big coin blocking the way for what's coming up.
I would have been happy if Mason would have done a two year deal but I'm guessing the only way to avoid 4+ years was to acquire a goaltender with term left.
As I've said I've always been on that train and I like Smith more than MAF and Howard.
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