I - and many others - have been saying for a couple of years now that part of Andersson's value is his team-friendly contract. It was an asset. Now it is diminished until the last year, and on top of this, Andersson is using his leverage which will undoubtedly hurt the returns.
However, this isn't dead in the water.
Vegas isn't going to be upping their offers yet. They have a bidding war of one at the moment. They will circle until other teams enter the fray.
Most of the top 4 defencemen are off the market. Andersson is the clear best available option. So that means teams that could be contending and were hoping for Ekblad now have to pivot. Hopefully there will be some offers.
On top of this, there will be other teams that will risk trading for Rasmus with the idea of trying to convince him to extend, and if they can't, they will either accept that he is a rental, or try and flip him and recoup some value.
There will also be teams that are willing to trade for him as a pure rental. That's ok - they will help drive up the price. As I said in an earlier post, this would be my preference at this point. If I am Conroy, I want the highest #1 draft pick I can guess at, so whatever team I think is going to do the worst (and that isn't on Andersson's NTC), then that's the team I am sending him to. A first just outside the top 10 is more valuable than 2 late firsts., right?
Either way, it is impossible to make me believe that Andersson's highest value was this off-season. Last off-season was much more valuable with 2 years @4.55 and the more likely potential of having him build affinity towards his new team. Lowest point will be at this year's deadline, and I can't see that happening. I am sure Conroy will be trading him soon - probably this week sometime, I would guess.
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