Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
The Atheltic's recent article about where teams are in their contending cycle is informative for this. He would want to pick a team that is earlier in the cycle than the Oilers.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/659...tiers-2025-26/
So you are likely looking at
- Dallas (window open)
- Carolina/NJD (window opening)
- Montreal, Detroit, Utah, CBJ (window about to open)
- SJ, Chicago, Anaheim (window will open in a few years)
And then you also have teams who are in a contention window, where he could sign there for a shorter-term, including where his mere presence would potentially extend their window. I would look at Colorado, Tampa, Toronto, and NYR in this regard. And you know LV is always big game hunting.
If he's smart he'd look at that top list, and find a team who are entering their window. But I suspect it would be probably a team from that second list: big markets, big pockets, ready to win now. |
Dallas would have to clear out an awful lot of salary to make it work. If I was him, looking at that list and all things considered (on and off the ice), I think I would be taking a hard look at Carolina.
They would have a fair bit of salary cap to move out to make it work, probaly 8M or so. Without going too deep into it, on the surface that sounds doable.
Edit: Sorry, should add that Carolina is probably going to need a goalie, too, in that window. That could complicate things there as well.