Quote:
Originally Posted by Aarongavey
Buffalo was recently able to sign 3 RFA’s to 7 year deals, eating up 6 UFA years for Thompson, 3 years for Cozens and 3 years for Samuelsson. It is definitely possible to be a bad team and still have young players sign longterm if you have the money to make it worth their while.
Ottawa pulled off a similar move with Stutzle, Tkachuk, Norris and Chabot so signing young players to long term contracts does not appear contingent on having a competitive team.
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Nobody said it was contingent, just that it is something young players with options value. Just like playing for a team close to home isn’t contingent to signing young players with options, but it absolutely has value.
It’s not like Buffalo and Ottawa haven’t lost their fair share of great players as soon as or even before UFA hit so I’m not sure what your point actually is.
I know you’d rather believe there is literally nothing negative about dismantling an team and nothing positive about trying to ice a competitive team, but that’s just not the way it actually works in practice. A lot of players value playing with good players and playing on teams that are in the playoff mix.