Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
I see some Islander fans who are convinced Johnny is signing with them and it makes no sense. They have an overpaid medicore roster and just fired their HOF coach. Lou will make him get a buzz cut. I just can’t see it.
Philly makes sense because it is his hometown, his wife’s hometown, his good buddy Kevin Hayes is there, Torts is probably a plus for Johnny based on how he plays with hard nosed coaches but they just don’t have the cap space and have to make multiple moves that could result in weakening an already weak roster.
Jersey likely makes the most sense. 2 good centers locked into deals, many other strong prospects in the system and cap space to make moves happen.
Calgary still makes the most sense for hockey reasons, money reasons, legacy, comfort, but the worst option for being close to home
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NYI has a Team Canada quality D-pair who are both 27 and locked up for 7 & 8 years at very nice numbers. Plus Dobson and now Romanov, that's a really nice blue line for years to come.
2 good goalies - not a ton of term, but they can probably lock down Sorokin if they want to.
Barzal isn't as good as Lindholm [yet], but Nelson-Pageau is probably a better 2-3 punch that Backlund-Monahan at this point, and at a slightly lower AAV.
Palmieri is their most regrettable contract at this point, but he could easily bounce back. Everyone else is pretty much fair value to their production, even in the bad last year.
They'd need to make a bit more room since they need to re-sign Dobson, but I don't think it would be too hard to move Bailey or maybe Varlamov.