Yeah, he's comments were way too specific to the discussions we've had recently about Chychrun.
Exactly. To clarify with a mini essay (particularly if Tripp reads us talking about this again):
I wouldn't entertain the thought if I believed it was very likely we'd re-sign both in the summer of 2024 (when we also have the contracts of Aho and Necas expiring no less). If we're gonna let one of Skjei or Pesce go based on our past history (we didn't re-sign Trocheck or Nino last summer and I thought we'd get 1 extended, and other examples), it wasn't a bad idea to get a long term replacement on a cap friendly contract with term, who is also younger and very good (Chychrun of course), while trying to package one of our current 2nd pairing defensemen in the summer for a top 6 forward which we missed out on this deadline. However, as 1-2 people on our board pointed out, there's no guarantee we'd be able to trade one of our defensemen even with how good they are. Who knows for sure what good top 6 forwards will actually be available to trade for this summer.
For what it's worth, I'd like Pesce to be a "forever Cane" too. We drafted him, and he's a RHD too. I also think Skjei-Pesce has been a great pairing in their history together, and Skjei broke his personal record for most goals in a season. Neither has had a lackluster season as a Cane. It's nothing against them. As was pointed out by somebody on our board, we've often had our best trades when we've traded a roster player(s), and we struggled to get a replacement for Pacioretty this deadline. If we had got Chychrun, I just thought there was a decent package for a top 6 forward with Skjei/Pesce +2024 1st round pick particularly with teams that have struggled defensively and might flame out early again in the playoffs (Toronto, Edmonton).
A lot of variables and different scenarios. If Ghost keeps being effective on the power play though, it's hard to be upset with us getting him instead. I just don't know if Ghost is gonna be anything more than a rental with his price (currently a 4 million dollar player), and I doubt we'd pay something like that for the third pairing on an extension. So, it currently seems at best, he'll be a good short term add.
I'm paraphrasing, but he said no offense to Chychrun, but he's glad we got Ghost instead of him. Chychrun would have costed a lot to get, and he complimented Ghost. What was the clincher for me that he's read our board recently, is he said he doesn't want to trade Skjei or Pesce, and he wants them to be forever Canes.
I think the Canes didn't want to come up empty handed waiting around on trying to get a star player like had just happened with Meier, and so they weren't gonna wait around hoping the price for Chychrun would drop as Ottawa did. If we had gotten the reduced price Ottawa had, I think it would've been very reasonable to have paid that price for Chychrun. Maybe it will work out better in the long run with us having our 2023 1st round pick, etc. available to trade at the draft for a top 6 forward instead of using them on Chychrun though.