It is not the end of the world if we re-sign these guys.
We will be graduating off some other veterans in the next 1-2 years.
However, It is probably a better long term move to trade them.
But if the best offer for Jensen is a 3rd round pick... and the best offer for Nyquist is a 3rd round pick... Ya don't trade them just to get 3rd rounders... who cares about 3rd round picks.
I do have an issue in resigning either Nyquist and Jensen, however not Howard.
Reasons:
Nyquist will guaranteed get at least a 5-6 year deal at 6+ million per, with full NTC. While I like Gus, I very much think, we will see the 40 ish point player we have seen in the previous seasons, and not perform like he has this year. Wish I am wrong, but have a very big feeling I am not.
Jensen, has gotten a much higher reputation this season than he should have, just by not being as bad as expected, rather than he was so good, he earned it. With that, he is going to get much more money than he should get, and for more years. I would be surprised to see him get 4 years at 3.5 per, and I being very honest wouldn't give him more than 1-2 years at less than 2 million per season. There are much better UFA d-men out there than Nick Jensen and he doesn't help improve us in any way.
Howard is at most getting a 2 year deal and reasonable money, and the UFA goalies out there aren't any better, unless you want to ridiculously overpay Bobrovsky who has been largely average at best this year, and has poor playoff performances than this. That, and we legit have no one else that is likely ever to play more than 20 NHL games at most, as I don't see much from any of our goalie prospects.
Bottomline, we need to get whatever we can for Jensen, even if it is only a 4th rounder, as he is depth at best, and Nyquist should get us at worst a 2nd plus a decent to ok prospect and hopefully frees us of giving him a dumb contract. We aren't getting a 1st for Howard, but I don't think a late 1st is a ridiculous asking price for Nyquist. I think honestly Pittsburgh would look good with him, as Gus doesn't have to be first tier scoring their, and has 2 high qaulity centers there he could play with.