You’re right on the 5 year, I often forget that.
But all I said was these are the best options out there for the RFA route, and my opinions on them. You also can still trade for their rights if their teams don’t want to pay, and that route or offer sheet, you can do it after the draft and not use your potential 2025 top10 pick. But if we end up with the 10th or 11th OA after the lottery, which is unfortunately still feasible at the moment, I’m going to see what I can do with it, because Carter Bear hopefully seeing NHL ice in 3-4 years doesn’t exactly excite me. If we slot up by standing position or trading up, that’s a different story, as McQueen, Desnoyers, and Frondell look plenty more attractive.
If a team is weighing options on those centers, then yes, it’s worth Sweeney exploring a trade. I wouldn’t do McTavish as I’ve mentioned based on the cost, but I would probe on Vilardi if available, and I would put Zachas name up there in a package 10/10 times for his rights before the offer sheet route if it came to that. Unfortunately, McTavish is more likely available if at all than Vilardi. It’s easy to say a team has cap space and will pay that no problem, but Swayman is too easy of a recent example of how negotiations can get weird and the limits can be tested. Mctavish is also behind Leo and Zegras in the pecking order, and Strome is still playing center often, so there are current reasons for them to explore as well.