Quote:
Originally Posted by dino7c
to not qualify him would be insane
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Not really.
Don't qualify him - At worst he walks and we replace him either internally or via UFA or Trade. You open up a spot on your power play units for guys like Tkachuk and Jankowski if they're ready. Not like Colborne on the PP was working all that great.
Qualify him - At worst you're forced into paying ~3.6M (I think that's this year's walk-cutoff) for a tweener 2nd/3rd liner in a year of huge cap squeeze and you're forced to buy out another contract which in turn removes cap space from the following year.
While 40 point forwards have their value, teams let them go for nothing all the time if they're not core pieces. Look at Andrew Shaw, who's on the verge of signing a 4.0M x 6Y deal. Sometimes even productive players have to be let go.