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Originally Posted by 2macinnis2
Well you would hope over time teams and owners would 'wise up.'
Not the case in Buffalo. After foolishly overspending to sign a Leino and Ehrhoff, here you go again.
One thing that does seem to happen to good-not-great players who change teams (especially if going to a fairly bad team) for egregious mark-up is that they seem more likely to play below their potential.
When considering the whole package, ROR is not a great player- never has been and never will be. I saw Cube reference Bergeron. Total player package including intangibles, ROR will never hold Bergeron's jock... especially not now that he has a lifetime contract.
I think the key is to develop a premier core (hoping for Flames that is Monahan, Gaudreau, Bennett, Hamilton and Brodie) and pay those guys elite money. There's no way around elite money for guys who carry your team. Around them you draft and develop strong support players, much like Chi has, and know that there is going to be turnover in that group of support players thanks to the cap.
But once you long-term overpay a ROR (or for Flames' sake say a Frolik, Weidman, even a Hudler, etc etc), that becomes much more difficult.
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Great post. If anything Buffalo is building towards being a perennial playoff team, which compared to where they were is a wet dream for their fans, so of course they'll be eating this up right now.
"OMG, another star-ish player in Buffalo? Hell yeah, pay the man! Look at this; prospects! UFA's! It's all coming together!!!!!"
But as much as they point to their current cap situation and say "bah, who cares, you guys are looking too far ahead, we can afford it now, so we're going for it, playoffs!!!!!", it's a contract like this that could/likely will stop them short of becoming a Stanley cup contender when that window starts to open up for them.