It seems like the expectations are always low, and that there's always an excuse that more is coming down the road.
Like last year was "next year Holland will finally have cap space, so just wait until then"
And today you're like "it's only the first day of free agency, off season's not over!"
It's not like all the free agents are almost all signed, and pretty much nothing big happens after for the rest of the summer usually...
I predict first day of the season when we're still running this lineup, you'll be "we can still bolster our roster during the season!"
Meh, objectively some of the moves in a vacuum arent great and leave some value on the table.
- Hyman 2 years too many. AAV seems to be market based on the shit Granlund, Danny, Goodrow and Coleman signed for.
- Keith 5.5 is too much, needed some retention there, but plugs are being signed to 2-3m and Jones must have comprimising photos of Bowman. Larsson at 4x4 looks good, but he honestly lost a bunch of money signing early.
- Bear trade is fine.
- Barrie contract is extremely good.
- Ryan signing is totally fine and cheap. Hes better than the corpse of Kyle Turris and the scrambled egg of Khaira.
- Ceci contract is 1 year too long. AAV seems market given that Forbort and Hammer got 3m, poolman got 2.5 (lmao atrocious). Pens and Sens fans seem happy with the player when you arent plugging him into a big role - Leafs fans are beside themselves talking shit, just like they were with Barrie (massive grain of salt required). Hammer is a better PK, but shit at EV defense compared to ceci.
Savard would have been nicer, but seems to have wanted to stay out east. Suter probably went to Dallas because he's being paid a shitload of annual money combining the 4 year contract and the buyout - so no state tax is a legit advantage for him personally.
Goalies are all messed up. Seattle took Grub and sold their insurance back to Washington. Mrazek at 3.8 was a disappointing miss but a Wings fan mentioned that Holland treated him like utter shit back in the day, so we likely never had a chance. Holland doesn't seem to trust Ned, didn't take him last year for free and wasn't in on him this year. We missed out Kuemp because Sakic had a stroke and the board should be thanking their guardian angel we didn't beat that horrendous offer.
In a vacuum there was definitely additional value missed and other than Barrie and Ryan, we could have maximized more. That said, we are 100% a better team so far. We still need a damn goalie badly and I'm not sure we are "contending" but I expect this team to win some playoff games. A goalie would make me quite optimistic.