I’ve said they should do it and haven’t agreed with any argument made against it. He is a devastatingly bad player when not on the top line…a place he can’t keep up with anymore. His skating and effort aren’t going to get better. He’s a one man power play destroyer who no one will stop playing on the power play. You’re paying him 9 million dollars to actively hurt the third line at this point. No 2.5 million dollar cap hit four to six years away is worth burning another year on this. And the other three years you give me cap back to stop playing him? Jesus can I buy him out twice?
Yeah the players like him. Cool. He’s the oldest player in the room doesn’t play with any details, avoids contact to allow easy plays against, blind passes us out of the offensive zone and adds negatives all over the ice. Guess what? Them liking him and looking up to him is a bad thing.