Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
I find it more annoying. TBL played all year without their best player (give or take Hedman) and didn’t sign a $10M player to fill in while he was gone. Vegas signs a $10M player when they are at the cap and all the cap players have contributed to team success so far.
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Tampa couldn't sign Cirelli unless they either traded a good player or put someone on LTIR. In fact, they were already $6 million over the cap with Cirelli unsigned, so even without re-signing him, the would have had to make a big move. So they didn't only sign Savard, they also re-signed their RFAs and put themselves over the cap.
It seemed really suspicious at the time that Kucherov waited until just before the season began to announce the he would elect for surgery and be out for most if not all of the season. It seemed like Tampa was hoping to somehow keep him in the line-up while moving some players, but couldn't get any deals done so Kucherov took one for the team. I am not saying that he didn't need surgery, but he could have had it earlier or waited until the next offseason.
I think Tampa kept the LTIR option in their back pocket and Kucherov was cooperative in order to keep the team intact. I don't think what Tampa did was well thought out, but they painted themselves into a corner.
I agree, what Vegas did was a lot more deliberate as they acquired a player to put themselves in the position, where as Tampa was just trying to keep their team together.