Lil Sebastian Cossa
Opinions are share are my own personal opinions.
- Jul 6, 2012
- 11,436
- 7,446
Except that's not a thing.
We would have had 12-13 million if we did nothing. Had we not moved Datsyuk and had Stamkos would have wanted to come here, we would have done it, and figured out how to shed the cap after.
I can see why Holland didn't want to do that though. Yes... we could have signed and sorted out later... but we'd be dealing from a position of awful weakness. Instead of a pretty solid return on trading Datsyuk's dead cap... it would have been something like AA+ that was being rumored before the draft day trade happened. As opposed to being able to walk away from the table if the offer was terrible... we would have been forced into a move to get rid of that 7.5M at some point... when a team would have less inclination to make a move like that.
Doing it exactly as you say would have been possible... but it would have put the Wings in a position where it was an absolute must to clear Datsyuk's contract... and failing Arizona doing what they did at the draft, it was going to cost them a boatload. Even more so if they waited until it was dire straits for them to get cap compliant and Arizona was literally their only outlet for the deal.
So no, it wasn't a fact that they needed to move Datsyuk's money to chase Stamkos. But... you think they have no flexibility on the roster right now? They would have been forced into a truly awful move to become cap compliant. There would have been an enormous price to sign Stamkos and sort it out later even if it were technically possible to finagle it that way.