GDT: The 2022 NHL Free Agent Frenzy | July 13th, 2022 | 12:00 PM EST

[HoseEmDown]

Palat scoring rank amongst lightning forwards the past 5 seasons: 8th, 9th, 6th, 2nd, 5th. He's a complimentary winger on the wrong side of 30. For 6M we got Namestnikov, Cole and Fluery and filled out the roster with NHL quality depth not unproven rookies. I'm sure on some nights we'll miss Palat but that contract isn't going to age well. Plus not committing to him allows us to commit to the better bolt in Killorn.

 

[Stammertime91]

Optimistic take:

Cirelli and Bogo get back by Christmas and we roll into the trade deadline looking for a bump going into the playoffs.

Who do we target?

Nobody. This is where you lick your wounds like in 2016-2017 and just play the hand you're dealt. You make the playoffs, great. If not, a lot of contracts roll off and start anew.

The hope is that "depth" reveals itself from a callup or someone vying for a spot out of camp. If Koepke, Perbix, Fortier, or someone under the radar makes an impact, you could have 2-3 ELCs on the 2023-2024 team and that helps. It could also make someone like Colton expendable at that time who is probably going to fetch near the 3M mark if he repeats production like this regular season.

So, roll the dice and allow Myers and Foote to prove their worth. Bring up Perbix if it's that bad with them. Bring up Koepke or Fortier for Cirelli and just play. All we have to do is clinch.

 

[J T Money]

The depth we’ll have for new core’s runs will be Hedman, Stamkos and Kucherov