darko
Registered User
- Feb 16, 2009
- 70,269
- 7,797
Letpairing thing-pairing caliber defenseman walk because we had to overpay a declining middle-pairing defenseman is a potentially franchise-crippling move. Not only is our defense average at best, even when fully healthy, but our cap situation for the upcoming seasons looks dire.
When I wanted to give Strålman a 4 year $12M extension in the 2013 offseason everyone called it an overpayment. We could've gotten him for as little as $3.5M/year even in Jan/Feb of 2014. With the going-rates of UFA defensemen at the moment I'd say Strålman still would be a steal at $5M/year.
The Girardi/Strålman/Boyle/Klein situation is a MAJOR ****up from Sather that shouldn't just be shrugged off.
Bit early calling Stralsy a 1st pairing D-man. Lets see if he can keep it up an entire season. Last season we had people on here questioning if he was a legit top-4.
Definitely a mistake in letting him go.