but Pan will understand others gotta get paid too and will not press for much mo. Sounds like a reasonable fella.
up to a point on all sides it is.
Pan wants to come here partly b'c the environment and partly we suspect, b'c fan factor is enhanced if we are winning.
To begin upward trajectory and start winning, we need our prospects to work out and that is as to its own timetable.
But there must also be adequate player assets. While it is nice to get a guy on a hometown discount or discover a surprise [like Grabner was], basically there is a fixed amount of cap salary available for a limited number of guys. The mo paid per player the fewer total guys.
Of course, guys gotta get paid or they don't come over.
So the point is there is equilibrium as a force trying for balance.
Now Panarin can exacerbate things by saying he wants top top top dollar threatening he can get it elsewhere, or....
he can say, yeah, it's gotta be enough, close enough to top dollar that I am not underpaid, but it can be the bottom rung of what is acceptable range.
So if Pan can get more but takes 8, 8.5 per on a 4 year deal, that is still a win win and the 1.5 or so we save on him can be repurposed elsewhere.