[Cali Panthers Fan]

Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't make.

Not surprised, even though there were some pretty big moves made today by other teams, and I'm not disappointed in the slightest.

I didn't want the team spending any assets to pick up players. No more Treliving type deals bleeding picks to acquire someone who does almost nothing to help the club for a couple months. The only way that made sense is if they could get some good young players like they did in the Frost/Farabee deal.

I didn't want them gutting important players from this current team that's IN a playoff spot as I think that sends the wrong message. Only an overpayment would make sense, and many of the guys that were potentially available had NTC/NMC's that kept them out of play as well. Not worth alienating a guy over a possible trade at the deadline (see: lessons learned from Markstrom debacle, only to be traded a few months later). There weren't a lot of expendable veterans left on this team after the Kuzmenko/Pelletier trade. Mantha hurt; Rooney and Miromanov have no value; Vladar has more value to the team currently than the rumored 4th round pick that was being offered. It just didn't make sense today.

This club has moved a LOT of veterans off the roster over the last 2 seasons, acquiring a lot of draft capital and/or young players with potential. It is possible to have too many draft picks in the pipeline as you can't find playing and development room for all of them. At some point you have to use a different approach than just getting futures, and they're trying, but not a lot of those young and good players are available. If they are, you would have to move guys like Zary to get them, which is a lateral move at best.

I'm good with where this team is at. Still really early in this rebuild process. You won't always hit a homerun on a day like today, but you can sewer your process by making a move just to make a move.