I thought Santini would take Lovejoy's spot after he was gone, but I think the staff liked Carrick's offense more. Plus Santini looked pretty bad all the way back in the preseason, so I can't really blame them for preferring Carrick.
I'd be perfectly fine never seeing either of them again though.
Carrick is WAY better than Santini, but I don't really wanna see him again either.
It's nothing personal against him, I just feel he's very expendable and not needed and we need to upgrade anyway. He's like 25 and has already been on 4 NHL teams. He's NHL caliber, but he's also expendable. Probably just a #5 guy at the very best. I also think his offensive production he had with us was pretty fluky. I don't expect it to be nearly replicated if he's here going forward.
I'd be shocked to see all 3 of Santini, Mueller and Carrick on the roster to start this year. I think at least one of them will be and there's a good chance two of them will be, but I think it's already a foregone conclusion that at least one of them is gone.
Even though he's far and away clearly the worst of that crew, I think Santini has the best chance of the three of them to start out on the team to begin the year, if not only because he's under contract and the other two are not, if I'm not mistaken. I know Mueller isn't. Neither is Carrick, I'm pretty sure. I don't think Santini will be in the opening night lineup (unless there's injuries), but I think he'll be on the opening night roster.
Mueller will probably be Beau Bennetted and Carrick may or may not be David Warsofsky'd, as RFA aged players who will not be tendered and be permitted to become UFA.
