Russell is one of those decisions that will define Treliving's time as GM. One of those calls that either looks like a genius move in a few years or a total disaster. But I trust his judgement. He needs to have spoken to Russell and gotten an idea of what term and figure Kris is expecting come the summer, whether with us or in free agency. If they want to keep him, ok, but at what cost? You don't want to pay him top 4 salary and then find him getting pushed into the bottom pair, leaving us paying too much for a bottom pair guy(like the 3 we already have in those positions)
He needs to have considered how our defensive prospects project out in the next few years. Does he see Andersson and/or Kylington turning into top 4 players? Hickey? Does he want to take a run at a guy likely to hit the free agency market in the summer? Does he want to trade for Hamonic or Cowen and have them as a top 4 guy?
I hope that he's done his due diligence, considered all the options and then, when the decision has to be made, he makes the right one. I trust him to make the right call here.
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