He probably really likes it in San Jose and really buys into what they're trying to do there. Wilson probably sold him on going for one more big run with Thornton and Marleau back in the fold and then paying Lebanc the big bucks after the season.
He's betting on himself a bit, but the options were probably something like sign 5 x 5M now and not have Thornton and Marleau back, meaning SJ likely regress, or sign 1M now with Thornton and Marleau back and sign 8x7M next off-season. Or something like that.
I'd think Tre takes a similar approach in negotiating with Tkachuk, although to a lesser extent in terms of the discount he takes. Sign 6x6.75M and not gut our depth, allowing the Flames to make a serious run in the next 4 years while we still have Gio, Monahan, Gaudeau, Lindholm, Backlund plus all of our depth...or sign 8x9M and force us to gut all of our depth.
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