[DionTheDman]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I think you certainly have markets with an advantage.
Let's look at the Rangers - they had Panarin choose them. They had Fox choose them allowing them to get him for a low acquisition cost. Those are game changing acquisitions not available to most teams.

If you go back further, when Panarin came over, it's not like the Hawks uncovered some hidden gem. The entire league, including the Flames, were after the guy. He chose Chicago because its Chicago.

Funny thing about Panarin. We were really darn close to snagging him before he ended up with Chicago.

Calgary, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Toronto all made strong pitches. Sounds like the Flames — who heavily pursued him — were closest, but with so many small, talented forwards already in position (Sam Bennett, Johnny Gaudreau, Markus Granlund, Jiri Hudler), Panarin thought that might be too many.