Also to Royle's point, we allegedly didn't get any good offers on these players. But I personally think that is down to negotiation tactics. The current age NHL (and frankly, current age business dealings) values transparency and honesty in a negotiation process. Starting all "negotiations" by saying a player isn't available may have previously elicited attempts to overbid to get the player anyways, but that is not how it works today in my experience. IMO the better tactic these days is to shop the player around, work with other teams medium term on potential returns that fit for both, and then when you have a couple firm in hand you shop to trusted other GMs in order to drive competition.
That is not what we did this year with our players. This exact tactic is what Vancouver, Carolina, and the Avalanche employed this year around Rantanen trades.
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