No they don’t. Those contracts are the root of all problems with the team.
It’s like saying during the Burke years “Just gotta let the Kessel trade go.” Or during the Ferguson years “Sure. We’ve had like 2 1st round picks over the last ten years. But just let it go.” Or with the Jays a few years ago “Sure, we have no pitching depth. But just let it go.”
How can we let it the **** go? It’s the SPECIFIC problem facing the team.
It's literally not. And those examples aren't remotely the same. For example, the Kessel trade? You could still have fixed the issue by rebuilding the team the proper way. But nope, Burke was focused on rebuilding quickly. Hence, no quality centers or defensemen or goaltenders.
With the current team, you're literally complaining about giving our star core players an extra 3-4 million per year IN TOTAL. That problem is EASILY solvable IF we get into any issues. People around the forum have consistently shown everyone here mock lineups that show we can easily afford this team.
It's the beauty of developing players in-house, something I guess some folks here aren't too familiar/fond of because we've been garbage at it since all of time before 2015. When the time arises, Kapanen, Johnsson, Kerfoot, Ceci will all be gone one by one and replaced by the likes of Mikheyev, Engvall, Bracco, Korkshov, Timashov, Brooks, Sandin, Lilijegren, etc. And once those guys needs pay increases, THOSE guys will be ALSO replaced by the likes of Roberston, SDA, Hollowell, etc. Continuous cycle.
It's a complete myth that we're in 'cap-hell'. 'Cap-hell' is when you have a bunch of unmovable contracts given to garbage or old players. We have ZERO of those.
