Wouldn't surprise me if Tanev is left exposed.
Giordano's drop isn't as bad as people make it out to be. He is still a great defencemen. Tanev is the team's best defensive defencemen, but I argue that for the money he is making, he needs to produce too. The good news is that he is a huge upgrade over Hamonic - both in how he actually plays defence, and how he arguably makes his partners better (or at the very least, doesn't bring them down like Hamonic did).
But he is a defencemen that doesn't produce offence. That's a fairly big cap hit for that. Losing Giordano is also losing the leadership. That's fine if you think that's an attribute that needs to go (I think Giordano is not only the best leader on the team, I can't think of another that I would go with).
Wouldn't shock me if Calgary kept Giordano and exposed Tanev. I have a feeling they will pay Vegas to take someone else altogether and try to keep the defencemen together, but time will tell. I do think that whomever is left exposed on defence (and I will include Andersson here too - Hanifin is the guy that I think is 100% safe), that will be the player that Seattle selects barring a trade with them.
Had we kept Bennett, I couldn't see Seattle picking him over Giordano or Tanev.
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