He flourished and improved and is a Habs pick, albeit a 7th rounder but he deserves his accolades and his raise. I'm reluctant to give a guy in the bottom of the lineup 5 years and $$$$, I feel giving bottom 6 players money and terms is how we got into this mess.
Kapanen, Hage, Beck , Xhekaj and others will needs spots to play and you can't put them into the 2nd line right away... even Suzuki and Danault started on the 4th line... Gallagher and Anderson will be here for at least another 2 years and we all know Heinemen is a keeper so...
Our PK will be worse with him gone and that can be a bit demoralizing for the team but acquire picks and make the team better next year and have a rookie on ELC fill in and grow...
When we'll be ready to compete, you can acquire guys like him or Travis Moyen for a dime a dozen...
He's playing well in his contract year but he also has an history of concussion. I understand that this is his time to cash in and if I were his agent I would also advise him agaisnt the home town discount or shorter contract, so if a team wants a better PK before the playoffs and are ready to pay, you have to move on from him. It's a cap league and we aren't at the stage of our rebuild to sign guys like that long term i don't believe.