Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
It's all rumours but I heard they agreed to include Valimaki which is why they thought the deal was done but then when discussions actually started with Stone on if he'd sign his ask was $10.5 x 8 and he wasn't willing to budge.
His ask for Vegas was a bit cheaper ($9.5M) and they could make it work where the Flames weren't able to (stupid Neal contract and Tkachuk being a pending RFA) to actually fit him in at anything more than about $8.0 - $8.5M.
TBH at the time Stone had only really been a Point per game player a couple times in his career, so $10.5M was pretty steep ask for that type of production in 2019.
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Yeah, I find that entire Stone situation to be one of those things where speculation turned to rumour, rumour turned to fact. I doubt we'll ever know much more than we were in it until the end - but, regardless, Vegas won the day for the right player and that's the key.
They spent assets in a trade for the right player in that situation, and only could because they had cultivated the asset base they had (in their situation, thanks to the expansion draft). In the absence of bottoming out, this is the only real path of action Conroy has to build a contender in my eyes. Build an asset base so overflowing that when that right player comes available, you can pounce and outbid anyone.
...just have to make sure you're actually identifying the right player.
