the window is closed then
I've been very vocal about that opinion for over a year now. The window closed when they let Kadri walk. They committed to a shorter window with Toews, but then let their similarly aged second line center walk - which f***ed their shorter window.
Man if Drouin walks, goddamn that hurts the top six so much.
XXX - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Lehkonen - Mitts - XXX
With very little money to fill the holes. I actually think Landeskog is doing the team a disservice by not choosing to LTIRetire. They need his 7 million right now for a top six winger way more than they need a hobbled third liner.
Seriously f*** Nuke, man. He leaves a huge hole in the lineup while simultaneously cutting 6 million right off the cap. It's remarkable how much a single player has f***ed the team not just two postseason runs in a row but going forward.
Still pondering this, haven't done a lot of investigation on the details yet, but right now I'm thinking you
have to buyout Nuke's contract. The buyout penalties in 2027-2030 are significant, but by then this team isn't competing for shit anyway. If I'm doing this right, buying him out clears over 5 million the next two years. You could keep Drouin with that cap savings.
EDIT: And I just remembered Rantanen is going to chase 13+ million after next season lol. Avs should very seriously consider trading Rantanen this summer while they can get value for him.