[N26]

I really like Tanev and while I think this contract is a year too long and about $500 000 too much that's the cost of doing business on "July 1". I think Markstrom is at least a year too long and a million too much also but getting him for less was unlikely.

One thing I would like to add to this debate is that I expect Hanifin-Andersson to be our top pairing by mid-season, whenever that is. I will be thrilled with two years of a solid Gio-Tanev shutdown pairing while Valimaki and Mackey get the time and reps to grow into a solid second pairing.

After that I don't know, as that is too high a salary for your third pairing but maybe he can be traded by then or maybe the cap does go up again making it less and issue.

We've got Andersson and Hanifin each under $5mil for several years so if they work out we will be paying our top pairing less than most teams for a while.