Quote:
Originally Posted by butterfly
Put yourself in the Flames shoes. What would you do?
Roll the dice and ensure a 7-8 year contract that gives you no escape route and the player gets regardless of performance, or be protective of your future balance sheet knowing that Zary, Pelletier, Honzek, Suniev, Poirer, and hopefully many more are coming due, and offer as little term as possible for an asset embarking on a decline?
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Noah is probably still a ways away from that eventual decline. and even if we see a gradual decline in his early 30's, his cap hit relative to what the cap will be then will be a smaller percentage. It won't take away roster flexibility as bad as it will in the first few years. The first few years (in theory) are more of a re-tool anyways, so to me - that's okay.
But I am good with either. He's a really good defenseman still on the young-ish side, seemingly hasn't even peaked yet. Those don't grow on trees. It could take another 5-6 years to develop even 1 of our d-men in the pipeline to his level.
I know he's not flashy but he's a very very good NHL hockey player that logs a lot of minutes.
If we trade him - I like that direction too. To me this really is a win-win situation.