I don't think it's reasonable to expect this team to be a contender by next season, and I don't think it's reasonable to expect Giroux to think we'll be cup contenders.
It's all well and good to hope he takes a discount, it's happened with other players so it's not completely impossible, but there's a lot going against us, we lost Alfie to Detroit trying to get a hometown discount,
Could it happen, sure. But should we expect it to happen? Absolutely not. If it does we should count our blessings
We lost Alfredsson because Eugene Melnyk reneged on a handshake agreement that was made between Alfredsson and Murray when he signed his previous contract, and likely did so in a "Eugene Melnyk way" that pissed a lot of people off.
Nobody is suggesting we should *expect* a discount. But it's certainly a possibility, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to reason why Giroux could consider it.
I mean, if Ottawa offers $3M and Anaheim offers $5M? You think he's packing his bags to go? Now if Florida offers 5, that's a different story. But chances are, if he wants to jump on board a true "contender", they'll need a discount too. It's not like those teams have tons of cap to spend on 38 year olds. So why not take one here instead? Try and finish what you started.
So in your fantasy world, how does the conversation go
Hey G, you know that treatment plan we agreed on in consultation with the doctor that allowed you to avoid surgery and return to play after xmas? Yeah, were going to need to change that to spinal surgery so we can go ahead and make a trade. Oh, you don't want surgery, ok well I guess you can just sit out extra long and pretend to be hurt...
Yeah, that's real plausible.
What I said was if he is hindered by his back after returning to the point that a buyout is actually a reasonable option to explore, he could then go the surgery route in the offseason and block a buyout, saving himself over a million dollars and dealing with the issue that hindered his olay, note the "if". The point was in order for a buyout to make sense, his recovery would have to see a set back an if that's the case he has a means to both block a buyout and deal with his health.
The difference here is I'm coming from the perspective of in the event something happens, then he could take reasonable actions, you're coming from the land of fantasy where we can just talk him into going on LTIR so we can acquire a player regardless of his actual medical situation.
It would go something like this: "Hey G, you know that back injury you have that's kept you out for a month and a half already? We think it's best to be extra cautious. We're serious about making a playoff run this season, and we think we have a great shot at getting there. So why don't we prioritize getting you 100% healthy and ready to go for when the puck drops in April? We don't want to hit any setbacks that jeopardize having you available then, or in an even worse scenario, have you jeopardize your summer of training and start of next year. You're an important vet that we'll need to count on when the stakes get high. Let's extend the rehab program by 8 weeks to really be sure we've got you at full strength and up to speed."
Of course, he could still say no. Maybe they had that conversation and he did indeed say no. Or maybe they don't think there's anything they could use the LTIR money on that's better than Perron returning so they didn't even broach the topic. That'd be a perfectly reasonable position to have.
And FYI, it's a month past Christmas. If he doesn't play this weekend, there'll be just 36 games left in the year. It's not November anymore.
Also, a buyout may be a route to explore even if he comes back with no back issues. He may just fall off a cliff. It happens to players his age. He had 0 points in 9 games with no back injury. We won't know what he is until he plays. He may be everything we wanted. Or he may be someone who we don't want back.
