Lucic is a step above Johnson and Okposo at this point. Those two are threatening Alzner territory.
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"We don't even know who our best player is yet. It could be any one of us at this point." - Peter LaFleur, player/coach, Average Joe's Gymnasium
Seems like the Neal/Lucic trade to me. Matheson could be a good turn around story. He’s definitely got a lot of talent. Hornqvist is old. Both teams probably happy to make the deal.
Seems like the Neal/Lucic trade to me. Matheson could be a good turn around story. He’s definitely got a lot of talent. Hornqvist is old. Both teams probably happy to make the deal.
Difference is there was actually a role for Lucic to fill here, albeit at about 3x what it should cost, and Neal was addition via subtraction
Don’t see a role for Matheson in Pitt and Hornqvist was a proven success there
My only thought is that they want cost-control above all else in Florida. We saw this with other contracts done early in RFA status for guys like Trocheck, Barkov, and even Bjugstad. It's great if the player pans out as expected, and Matheson seemed to have a strong early showing with room for development. But then he stalled and regressed, and hasn't come close to being a top defender since.
It's the gamble of paying young talent before they drive their own price up with production. Had Matheson panned out as expected, he likely would have commanded 6-7 million/year easily. Instead, he's more of an albatross contract.
Yeah, thinking about it, it’s the same as the Rasmus deal, isn’t it. Which we all applauded.
just an awful deal for Pittsburgh. Feels like Rutherford is just making moves for the sake of making moves ... have fun with that anchor of a contract.
