I'm still in the camp that if we can't resign him, we need to move both Tarasenko and ROR for major futures packages at the TDL unless we look like we're the best team in the West.
That is just an unrealistic expectation/hope/standard in the real-world. The gap between #1 and the other contenders is almost always
very slim in the NHL and there is enough randomness/luck in a 7 game series that the best looking team doesn't reliably emerge from the Conference. I'm all for becoming deadline sellers if we don't look like we are among the top few contenders, but if we are positioned similar to last year then you can't sell at the deadline without major backlash from the fanbase at large.
We gave the 119 point Avs their only tough series before the Final and that was with a very banged up D group. That series got away from us in games 3 and 4 when we were missing two of our starting LD and then lost our red hot goalie early in a game that we were leading 1-0. All of a sudden, we had $15.775M missing from the lineup and all of it was concentrated to defense/goaltending. Husso was shaky, he allowed 9 goals over 2 games, we went on tilt chasing Kadri around and suddenly we were in a 3-1 hole. I firmly believe that we win at least one of those two home games if Binner hadn't gotten hurt. He was absolutely dialed in and Husso let in a number of very stoppable pucks.
We would have lost that series more often than not, but we were very capable of beating that team. They lost more pieces than us this summer. If we look like a lock to clear 100 points and have played the top teams in the conference competitively, then you can't become sellers. I'd support selling ROR and Tarasenko if we're looking like a 95-100 point team that will get into the playoffs but have little chance to contend. That is still a pretty hard sell to the fanbase, but it is one that most fans would buy.
In a hard cap league with as much parity and randomness as the NHL, you can't sell the present for the future if you're "only" the 3rd-8th best team in the league.