cinchronicity
Registered User
The math really isn't that hard. Each of those 4 are / will be underpaid when their UFA year arrives (next year for LOC and Drouin.) With Mikko's raise, there is not room to give either Drouin or LOC even a $1M AAV raise next year. Mitts and Lehky will be impacted by Makar's future raise the season following their UFA year. Even with the cap increases, there will not be room for raises for Mitts and Lehky. Remembeer that both Georgie and Ritchie also expire in this interval as well.Drouin actually has north of +$35M of career earnings.
How do you equate giving Rantanen a $3M raise to "losing, LOC + Drouin + Mitts + Lehky"???
Obviously, any of this depends on the situations with Landy and Nuke. If neither return that generates about $4M AAV after replacement players.