The point of all those stats for some players is to get that fat payday.
That's part of it, sure, but plenty of players do care about their legacies and counting stats contribute to that. So does winning though and we are easily a top 7 or so team in that aspect, and none of the others that high could really afford Mikko. Staying here really makes the most sense on paper if the offer is truly that high. Can have his cake and eat it too with massive $ on a perennial contender, not to mention the Finns here. If he walks, so be it, terrible to give away Necas for 3 months of a superstar player but if we truly are offering that much then there's nothing we could do. Except not make the trade in the first place without an extension in place...
This all it will prove is that Rantenan didn't want to be here for that money. Guentzel may have stayed if they put that amount out front we don't know now way or another on that. We know Ghost choose to come back, Orlov asked to be here, Aho, Slavin, Jarvis, Svech, and to a lessor extent Kooch choose to be here long term.
If he wasn't getting looks you'd have more of a point here but he's getting looks and opportunities. He's just not finishing them. So a lot of this frustration is his own doing. That being said I'm giving him a pass in that regard to an extent due to the chaos of the trade.
I can agree that maybe there would have been a better use of Necas in the scenario that Rantanen leaves. Now, they did seemingly try a lot of different avenues for those solutions in the offseason, but couldn't make the trades work, couldn't get Necas to agree long term in certain destinations, etc.
Which is why the swing is to attempt to sign Rantanen. Rantanen signed long-term costs a lot more than Necas+Drury+pick.
Knowing the cap is going from $88M this season to:
Personally, I would be pained knowing we chose not to pursue Elias Pettersson, who would come in with 7 years remaining on his deal so we could pursue Rantanen, so if he walks, it adds a lot of salt to that wound. Do I think Rantanen is better than EP? Sure. Would I have rather traded Necas for an extended EP if Rants walks? Absolutely.
I agree that a star center would be our best focus but I don't think EP is that guy. I mean he panic signed his contract so he wouldn't get traded here. He doesn't seem to be too mentally tough and if we're going to spend that type of money for a high end center, forgive the saying but I want somebody with that dawg in him.
The issue is EP also came with quite a bit of risk. He's been struggling badly and does have a big contract too. I'd be more concerned about EP's play on the ice than I have been with Rants' so far, largely because EP has been inconsistent in the past and never even reached the height that Rantanen has. Before the trade Rantanen has had incredibly consistent elite production year to year his entire career with an upward trajectory. EP has gone up and down. I agree I'd rather have EP than 3 months of Rantanen, obviously. But I prefer an extended Rants so I can't fault the front office for trying to make that work over EP.
yep, a ton of Florida fans were ready to fire Bob out of a cannon into the sun for years... until they finally started to make some progress in the playoffs with him in net. Even until last year they still hated that contract.
