danielpalfredsson
youtube dot com /watch?v=CdqMZ_s7Y6k
- Aug 14, 2013
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Basically, spin our wheels with guys like Zibanejad for the next half dozen years or try to make something happen for the next 3 years.
I think this is a bit of a misconception with this trade. Despite being younger, would Ottawa have been able to keep Zibanejad long term?
Looking at Ottawa's salary structure before this trade, in the next few years one of the younger players is going to have to go. There isn't enough cap space let alone salary room to keep everybody. Zibanejad will have arbitration rights after his current contract expires and will only have 3 RFA years left. With this in mind, would Ottawa really be in a position to commit 5+ long term to Zibanejad next year? Or would they possibly get taken to arbitration and try to get him as cheap as possible in the short term while ignoring the long term consequences of losing him? If they sign him long term for 5+, which of Hoffman, Stone, Ceci, etc gets moved to make room? Will the return be better than Brassard?
I'm not saying for sure Zibanejad wouldn't have been locked up long term, but I think the idea that Ottawa traded 6-8 years of Zibanejad for 3 of Brassard is probably not true when you look at Ottawa's salary structure.
This isn't to say the Rangers won't be signing Zibanejad long term. So it is something that feeds into the win-win nature of the deal. Where being a cap team, if the are able to dump Nash or buy Nash out, the Rangers could probably fit in Zibanejad long term for a similar cap hit to what Brassard had. Where as I am not so sure Ottawa would have been able to sign him long term, and Brassard is cheaper dollar wise than Zibanejad should be.