Continually letting high level players walk in free agency is going to end up burning us. Look at Columbus. Breadman, Bob, and multiple other players walked and now they are right back at the bottom 1/2 of the league. We can't let Schwartz, Pietro, Tarasenko all walk for absolutely nothing. And I fully believe if Tarasenko's trade request is still out there, Army will do everything possible to get it done for Tarasenko.
I don't think that the amount of UFAs we have previously let walk has an impact on whether we should let another walk. You have to look at how your organization is currently equipped to absorb the loss. I also don't think the Columbus comparison is all that relevant because those two guys were basically responsible for all of that team's success.
Panarin is a better player than anyone we let walk by a wide margin. He's a 90+ point forward that was in his prime when he walked. Bob's impact as a Blue Jacket was also bigger than any of the guys we let walk. He was a 2 time Vezina winner with a career .921 over 7 years with Columbus. Columbus was never a very good team and these two essentially carried them. They were a sub-100 point team bacl-to-back years with those two guys as the clear most important players. Moreover, Columbus has a host of other issues besides letting both of their best 2 players walk. That year, they also traded a 1st and a couple mid-level prospects for a rental Duchene. They traded Duclair and two 2nds for a rental Dzingel. They went completely all in for that 2018/19 season as a 98 point team. They gave up a 1st, two 2nds, a young forward and a couple prospects for rentals that walked on top of letting Bob/Panarin walk. That's a ton of turnover in one summer, yet the next year they only dropped 4 points in the standings (98 points to a 94 point pace). Then Murray walked after the 2020 season (traded his rights for a 5th), they made no meaningful acquisitions, PL Dubois got disgruntled and was traded at the start of the 2021 shortened season. It was all of this that left them terrible last season and triggered the rebuild. They let way more top end (and total) talent walk out the door, actively mortgaged the future to acquire some of those rentals, did basically nothing to bring in meaningful replacements and they were worse than us to begin with.
Contrast that to our situation where we let Schwartz walk and immediately got a "free" asset in Saad to replace him for less than what Schwartz had been making. We have traded a few futures assets in the last couple years, but we've locked up the guys we acquired with them. Eddy and a recent 1st (Bokk) turned in to Faulk, who was immediately locked into the organization. Say what you will about the contract, but he is absolutely a #3 D man at worst. We moved a 2nd and a promising young forward (Blais) for Buch who was immediately locked up for 4 years. His contract looks like a bargain and he is a legit top line forward. WhenPetro walked, we promptly went out and acquired Krug. Again, say what you will about the contract but he was a "free" asset to pick up and he is a damn good offensive blueliner. If you're ignoring the freed up cap space when talking about letting guys walk, then you also have to think about signed UFAs as free pickups.
This is the "in and out" major balance sheet since the Cup:
Out: Petro, Bo, Eddy, Dunn, Schwartz, Steen, Blais, Sanford, Allen, Bokk, 2nd round pick, 2nd round pick, 4th round pick
In: Faulk, Krug, Scandella, Buch, Saad, Brown, 3rd round pick, 4th round pick
That is a fairly well-balanced sheet. There is a clear loss of value to the D, but it isn't a
massive drop off. Buch+Saad is a very clear upgrade over the forward losses and we lost a good backup to make room for an internal option. The draft pick/prospect loss is noticeable, but we didn't give up a single high-value asset. We kept our 2 bests prospects (Kyrou/Thomas) and kept all our 1st rounders. There was no futures mortgage like Columbus and we recouped a lot of value unlike Columbus. Army has done a masterful job at choosing the right prospects to keep, developing mid-level prospects into useful assets and locking up the players we trade for. 5 years of ROR for assets all deemed non-essential. 3 years (plus another 8) of Schenn for a couple 1sts (one acquired by trading our own rental) and a salary dump. 8 years of Faulk for Bokk and Eddy.
You can't just look at the 2-3 guys we have let walk for nothing. You have to balance them against the other moves we have made to gain organizational value. Vova being the 3rd UFA to walk means nothing on its own. It only matters how well the organization is positioned to absorb that loss. We've built a damn good forward group and by 2023 I am confident that Kyrou and Buch will both be more valuable wingers moving forward than Tarasenko. Thomas and ROR should both be more valuable centers and Saad/Schenn should both be good middle 6 contributors. Letting him walk doesn't create nearly the hole that Panarin left in Columbus. It would put us n position where we are replacing our 5th most valuable forward.
