True, but either way, you have someone making $8-$11M who won't be on this ice if your team needs a goal in the last minute of play. For now, there is nothing to complain about, they aren't good so accumulate good players, but if you have 3 D making a sizable portion of the cap, know that one is not playing on the last shift of an important game. Good teams probably care about that.
That seems like a very specific scenario to be worried about. What about the ability to roll either 1/3 or 2/3 of them for the other 59 minutes of the game? Doesn't that matter to you?
I don't think you understood my point -- I'm not comparing our defense to Toronto's.
I also don't think you have looked at the 4-year outlook of Buffalo's cap situation. Once you give contracts to Quinn, Peterka, UPL, Levi, Tuch, et al -- even at discounts to what I think they're worth -- you don't have enough space to sign Byram. So you have to sell off vet forwards and rely on rookie deals at forward to squeeze in 3 extremely expensive defensemen. I don't think it's agreat way to operate.
I know you'll say that Adams will somehow magically find a way to make it all work, but unless you crunch the 4-year numbers numbers yourself, I don't think you're appreciating how impossible that is.
I did understand your point. You were trying to compare Toronto's weak blue line to our group of forwards - using the arguement that they have four highly paid forwards & that we'll somehow end up in the same situation but reversed. Which is totally inaccurate.
And you don't have to patronise me. I'm as aware of cap implications as anyone can be, based on the evidence i see posted on this forum on a regular basis. None of us know
exactly where the cap will be in four years time - so there is obviously a lot of projection involved.
Firstly - i don't think Byram is a $10m/per player. I think a long term extension for him will come in at quite a bit less than that.
Secondly - you listed three forwards in addition to TT/Cozens who are already signed - not to mention the likes of Benson, Kulich, Savoie, Rosen etc. in the pipeline. If you are worried about paying your 7/8/9th forwards or backup goalie before paying your #3D - we're quite simply never going to agree on this as we have wildly different views regarding how a roster should be constructed.
But most importantly - i really don't think Adams makes this trade without viewing Byram as a long term piece. We always knew he was going to make a big move for a top 4 D who fit in with the rest of the core. Be it Chychrun or whoever else he's been heavily linked to. Byram is his guy.