I can't really see any of this type of stuff happening. No sign and trade. No getting big contracts or established players in return.
The way things have gone, I'm fully expecting one of two courses of action from JT and Brisson:
1) He's an upstanding guy and let's the Isles know by June 15th that he is hitting the UFA market, no matter WHAT the Isles offer.
2) He makes use of his 100% right to listen to any and all NYI offers, respond to none of them, then hit the UFA market having let the NYI know that he's still considering their offers.
Thus, the entire onus is on management.
If this management's CHIEF concern was putting the club on the path to winning a championship, the current situation would not exist, because JT's party would have been informed last July 1st that it is on the clock. It would have received an offer, told it's negotiable, but tagged with a deadline for a "YES" or "NO", with no answer = "Not ready to resign".
Instead, the club went from decision maker to gambler and is now sitting around powerless to do more than make offers.
JT doesn't even owe it to the team to respond or actually negotiate. We can only HOPE that his character gives the team options.
What I find particularly disparaging is that Tavares was, or is, a HUGE asset! This management decided not to treat him as such. I thought, for example, that Winnipeg would have been a wonderful destination for him at the trade deadline, a place where he could have played for a cup and a team that is full of prospect riches, which could have paid the NYI very fairly, if not handsomely. Heck, such a move wouldn't have even had to meant that JT wouldn't resign with the NYI.
JT wasn't available, so Winnipeg grabbed Stastny instead. Hasn't been a bad move for Winnipeg.
Stastny is a class below Tavares and it still gave St. Louis 1st rounder, conditional 4th rounder (2020), and Providence forward Erik Foley.
What could Tavares have raked in?
Now NYI management has little wiggle room. Even if JT says "Not resigning. Am hitting the market." in a timely manner, what kind of conditional draft picks can Snow pick up just for his rights to negotiate? And if JT wants to test the market, why do a sign and trade??? He has no motivation for that.
Fans in Islanderville have ALL agreed that about the worst possible scenario is that Tavares simply walks. No compensation. No answer as to how to fill that void. Just plain walks into the sunset and the NYI have to create another plan.
Actually, that scenario could be made even worse if it sets in AND Garth Snow keeps his job.