The issue is, a whole bunch of teams are going to make moves at the draft to shore up positions of weakness and then if the Flames wait until Lindholm is signed around July 1st we will be out a bunch of trading partners for our remaining UFA's. Because of this and my belief that Conroy is being smart about this, here is what I think is happening.
- Hanafin is getting traded regardless of anything and it will happen before/at the draft
- Lindholm can't be signed but the Flames and Lindholm will agree to a deal in principle before or at the draft, with the Flames laying out a plan to him and his agent of which UFA's will be re-signed (Toffoli and Backlund being big ones) to stay competitive with an eye on playoffs.
- If Lindholm is uncommitted and still wants to wait past the draft, Conroy puts his foot down and some combination of Backlund/Toffoli/Tanev/Zadorov/Lindholm get put to market to get in before teams start shoring up weaknesses.
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