I don't know if I entirely agree on the PP part. I definitely think he'd be an upgrade on Gus on PP2. I don't think he is supplanting anyone on PP1 but he should be on PP2 in my opinion. One could maybe argue minute usage but its not like PP2 really racks up the minutes. I don't think Stevie would ever significantly handcuff his team, but will he play some cap management games absolutely. Like our PP was probably a bit better with Ghost on PP one last year than having Seider, but I also think there was a game plan to bringing in a PPQB in the year Seiders contract was going to expire after.
With that said I could see Yzerman pushing to sign him long term this season for something just south of Seider versus his team saying nah we'll wait with the cap going up. With Ray, Larkin, and Seider we were in rush to sign them. We had no big deals on the books, the cap was largely static, and we didn't need to gamble. With Ed we are starting to potentially stick our toe into that playoff contention window (at least by summer 26), we already have 3 larger contracts on the books, and now the Cap is set to explode. I could see Stevie breaking from his typical mold and pushing for an extension this summer.