Yeah the interesting offer sheet would likely be Matthews next year.
They've got $34M of space in 2019. You're probably looking at ~$14M to sign Nylander and Marner, so $20M left. If the Islanders throw $13M at Matthews, now you've got $7M of cap space to spend on 3 more D, 3 more Forwards, and a backup goalie. No matter how good your forwards are, I'd be really nervous about a D-core of Rielly, Zaitsev, and 4 ELCs.
It'll be really interesting to see how they manage the cap in the next year and a bit.
Do they downgrade on the wings to save some cap and end up with Edmonton-tier wing depth?
Do they stand pat and hope their strong forwards and Andersen can cover for a paper thin D corps?
Do they trade one of the "big 3"?
Or do they play hardball in contract negotiations and seriously ramp up the risk on an offer sheet?
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