One of the most telling things about a player is looking at how opposing fans feel when the player leaves their old team. Do you think Boston fans reading our comments about Zacha will be excited or nervous about adding that player?
All I see is Tampa fans cringing at management and complaining about how it should have been Killorn or someone else getting shipped out. This team just went to three strait Cups and all they're talking about is how much it stings to lose him.
It's definitely an overpay but we can afford to overpay a guy or two. Not every contract needs to be optimal lol. We have zero bad contracts and you need to pay good players. I'd rather have Palat than not have Palat, so pay him.
Even after this signing we have 46M in cap space next summer. Take a deep breath and relax.
He's very good on the cycle (which we need), has positional versatility (always a plus), veteran presence (good for a young team), Cup experience (which we don't have). He is a legit 2nd liner who will should give us at least 3-4 years of quality, and then who cares after that point. It's easy to dump guys in todays NHL.
This move makes us a bit better today and the cap effects are really not that big of a deal in the long term.