A king's ransom = other guys we have to sign that take away cap space too.. not that simple
Same situation as JD. In an alternate universe we could have re-signed Drouin, imagine how that could have torpedoed our cup aspirations.
Instead we dealt him, got a good player in return, and with the extra cap space we re-signed McDonagh and brought in the right complimentary players.
It was way more complicated, but that move won us two cups. Signing Sergachev for 8.5 million is the exact same thing Montreal did in banking on significant improvement over time that never materialized.
I think way too many people here are handwaving the kind of investment we made on Sergachev for him not to produce.