That's just it though, very little in the way of rumored or confirmed that they've attempted, so it's just pointing to the unknown as proof, which is not proof. A small littering of known attempts over the years isn't quite enough. There's Toffoli who we were apparently second fiddle to while being a last place team still rebuilding fighting with the cup finalist for rights. Dadonov was a consolation prize to Toffoli, but he was still a UFA that chose the destination, so that supports that it's possible more than the opposite. Clarkson years ago for the same scenario of us losing out to the Leafs. I can't recall pretty much anything else in semi recent years.
The team was either struggling to keep the players they did have under their tight budget, or trying to stay at or below the floor in real spending during lean years. It's just not a team with the financial flexibility to get involved other than very odd years where things line up. How many years during Alfie and Karlsson's tenures were we obviously missing 1-2 important pieces in a top 4 D or top 6 F and we heard from Murray about budget, budget, budget. Surely they would have attempted to fill those holes had they had the finances, even if it were Dadonov like fall back options.
