Quote:
Originally Posted by butterfly
For example, Ruzicka, 8x2.5. Who would say no? Pelletier 8x4? Get these players on board because those are the sort of contracts that can return value in spades. Like what Tre did with Lindholm and Hanifin.
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It will be interesting to see how Conroy negotiates as a GM. Whenever Treliving had some kind of leverage he used it (for example, letting Gaudreau and Tkachuk miss training camps and signing them to shorter deals to save cap space in the short term).
It wouldn’t surprise me if Conroy goes a different direction after observing first hand how being a tough negotiator can sometimes backfire. For example, Gaudreau was ready to sign in the summer of 2021 but Treliving apparently was not anywhere close to the number that Gaudreau’s side wanted. Not saying Conroy will be a poor negotiator… just a different one. He might be more willing to pay that extra $1-2 million per year to get the extra couple years at the end for his young guys. This is becoming more and more common in the NHL (Ottawa and Buffalo, for example)
Treliving always seemed to do everything he could to get guys who were on the team already to sign extensions at lower cap hits even if it meant shorter term deals for them. Then he would use the cap savings to outbid other teams during free agency to get guys like Markstrom, Coleman, Neal, Brouwer and Frolik. Hindsight is 20/20 of course… but it would have probably been better for Treliving to not have that cap space available to overspend on some of those guys and instead have him go bargain hunting in free agency or let young guys take those roster spots. That money would have been better spent locking up guys like Gaudreau, Brodie, and Tkachuk for an extra couple years on their second NHL contracts.
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