Yes... but it means they would have the choice between lets say Jost and Compher. Lets say god forbid Jost breaks out. Now we lose a more valuable guy that we would have been able to protect if we didn't use that slot on Makar.
Yes... but it means they would have the choice between lets say Jost and Compher. Lets say god forbid Jost breaks out. Now we lose a more valuable guy that we would have been able to protect if we didn't use that slot on Makar.
The point is why would we not give ourselves the option to choose? We can minimize the damage that way. Why lose a potential top six guy when we can atleast the better player and force them to take a third liner.
It's too early to worry about our teams future? Thats a horrible piece of logic. Sorry for picking on your posts but I strongly disagree. We should prepare to put our squad in the best situation. A couple of meaningless games for Makar isnt worth sacrificing a potential top sixer or top 4 dman.I think nobody here will be happy if Kerfoot is still on the team in 2021.
Look, I typed out a whole response running different protection scenarios, and all it did was reinforce my belief that it's too early to think about. No matter how I slice and dice this team up, somehow, a good young player is exposed unless all of our prospects fail, especially if we land the UFA top sixer that everybody wants this summer. That's with and without Makar being eligible to protect.
It's not worth worrying about this far in advance. You put together the best team you can long term, and live with losing a player you like.
The best way to prepare for the expansion draft by my reckoning is to not sign any big UFAs this summer, because they would need protecting. Are you seriously prepared to pass up a chance to help secondary scoring just because we may lose a slightly better player two years from now? That's awful team management to be so scared of an expansion draft that you don't upgrade your team now.
Do yourself a favor and try running potential protection scenarios in your head. Unless our prospects regress to third liners, we will not have enough protection slots to avoid losing a top sixer or top 4 D. The rules are kind of designed for that. Unless we pay even more assets to Seattle to not take one of them, we're going to lose a good player.
Kaut won't need protection unless he plays more than 9 games in the NHL.
I still feel like your missing the point but at this point we've taken up too much space getting no where. Not having to protect Makar gives us an extra player we can protect right?
No you can bring UFAs in until then and when the tie comes you can decide if you want to protect them or not depending of your other assets at the time. What you don't do is give a handful of games to a kid - that will most likely not have a major impact on the team during the playoffs due to limited playing time - which is a move that will most likely force you to expose another very good piece.
If EJ won’t waive then we buy him out unless he ages much better than expect
I can't speak for everybody but IMO we all agree with this. We all know we will lose somebody good. How good is the question. I think the disagreement is only with Makar. Why play him a few games (with limited ice time most likely) just to expose a better player? Sign UFA(s) and make trades if they make sense regardless of the XD (you can always keep it in mind though). Then when the time comes you decide if they are worth protecting over one of our existing player.
