Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
Yes the contract negotiations are two ways, but the chance of losing Tkachuk in four years is a hill that Treliving should die on avoiding. If that means a higher cap hit for five or six years, or a bridge deal for one or two, so be it. Losing a 25 year old Tkachuk to UFA is worst case scenario that far overshadows signing him to a contract with a bit more money than they would have liked.
So one or two, five to eight, are the terms that should be discussed unless Tkachuk's camp is willing to give up pretty much everything else to be a UFA at 25, and a 6.75M cap hit isn't that.
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You can say for 100% certainty that 6.75 isn't the cap hit needed to give in on a 3 year deal. What if the ask for 5 years is 9 or 6 years is 9.5? What impact does 9 for 5 have on the next 3 years? What moves are needed this off season if 9 is the number? What players have to go? 6.75 put brad in a spot to not be forced to make any moves. He can focus on making good moves not looking to dump players for less than they are worth. And this is all based on him signing 1 year arbitration deal and walking as a ufa in 3 years. Players have done it before but I'd bet he would still want long term that summer over signing 1 year deal to get slightly more the next summer
I wonder if leafs fans would take mathews right now at 3 years @ 9.5 rather than 5 at 11.6?
Considering how many rfas have yet to sign it isn't looking good to get tkachuk at great cap hit and long term. Could be 1 or the other. I like how thing look for next 3 years if he in at 6.75.
Maybe brad will get something better done as he has in past but I'm thinking 5 years or more won't be a cap hit starting at 7. Hope I'm wrong though