Duncan Keith was not the reason we got to the WCF, the pair of 2PPG centers were, and actually was a large reason we lost 2 of the games vs LA. Only game where he was a driving force of a win was that 2nd game vs Calgary which was the more lopsided of the two series. As for the flat cap, every team and GM had to deal with that. That's why there's been so many of these good cheap RFAs that weren't qualified in recent years across the board like Dylan Strome. If AA came in and played at the level of a good 2nd line winger he would've been qualified even with the flat cap and we would've made budget cuts elsewhere to make him fit, but he came in and played horribly. As for Nurse, the entire thing could've been avoided if we just didn't bridge him straight to UFA and gave him a long term deal at the end of 2020 like he originally wanted, but instead we just had to hand Kassian that 3.2 mil.
Hyman I'll eat crow on. I thought he'd be a 5.5 million dollar value player the first 3 or 4 years and then a millstone at the end, but this year he's playing like an 8 million dollar value player which can make up for the likely fall off towards the end. Kane was a good pickup but it was a once in a lifetime gift that involved Kane forging a vaccine card+his ex wife going off the deep end. Ditching Kassian wouldn't have been necessary if we just didn't extend him to that albatross in the first place.
