Funny you should say that. Seattle took Gourde over Palat in expansion last year. Yes Gourde had more term but he was paid more and he certainly isn’t better.
The point is that any unsigned highly coveted UFA at this point (less than 4 days from the opening of the market) is getting nudge nudge wink wink 'offers' from other teams. Palat's agent has a good idea who wants his client by now and he can use that in talks with Tampa. This 'tampering' is why every year we get dozens of signings within 10 minutes of the market opening.
There's no big deal. LeBrun wrote a tweet saying it appears Palat is going to the market on July 13. My point is that when you make it to this point, you basically are on the market already.
What?! Have you watched any hockey from this man over the last decade? He is a hot FA commodity because hea a f***ing swiss army knife of a forward that does all the shit work in the corners that big names don't always like to do. He can play with anyone, he can play nearly anywhere. Does he give you big regular season numbers? No, not really, but you can't argue with the man producing in the playoffs when it matters. You'd like to see him hit that 20 goal mark but most of the time hes the security blanket for Cooper. There aren't a ton of guys that Coop will throw into every situation, but Palat is one of them.
Assuming Copp gets $5.5 mil and Palat gets $6.5 mil we could easily fit both and not bat an eyelash. And that's including the up coming Dylan Larkin extension as well.
The Atlantic is going to be bonkers. Love the Wings rebuild and if Stevie Y signs these guys they'll be a lot better next year. Then the Sens are improving and the Leafs/Bolts/Panthers will be good. Going to be crazy.
When Stevie Y traded for Ville Husso and then signed him, That pretty much gave me an indication that he's going all in this year. Trying to make us more competitive and at least hopefully make us a bubble team.
