For those that they did NOT acquire, the only one that came at a reasonable price was Ryan Murray. If he wanted Colorado, can you really blame him? AS for Suter and Goligovski, were you really willing to pay those prices/term?
Agreed. Suter and Goligoski priced themselves out our means. I felt McCabe did as well.
Yes, Suter not finding intrinsic value in sticking with Parise and returning to Trotz disappointed me, but he got some good change and term to sign in Dallas. I'd actually say Dallas is overdoing it, but they clearly felt that was necessary in order to get him down to Texas.
Murray was really the guy who I felt was most "realistic". I thought he'd be a real nice all-round stopgap as we continue to groom Bolduc and Salo, with perhaps Vande Sompel or Rajaniemi entering the conversation in the next two summers. He could solve a few issues.
Anyone else that we did NOT get, that you are upset about based on the cost?
Others I felt might have come into consideration here were Edler, Cole, and Kulikov. I thought of them as Murray-style possibilities.
I even thought a platoon addition of former NJD 1st rounder John Merrill with the somewhat unknown commodity of Mikko Lehtonen may be a path worth taking in light of Greene's age as well.
These guys are all off the market.
But I would like to point out once again that my initial post today regarding my disappointment in seeing Murray off the market, and concerns about this team moving more assets to find our Leddy replacement, was less about missing out on players XX, YY, and ZZ, and much more about the notion that perhaps all our inactivity is due not so much to Lou's modi operandi or holding cards close to the vest, but rather that Pelech's situation is handicapping our organization much more than anticipated.
And when you see what Jones and Werenski and Hamilton have been getting, well, it wouldn't be surprising if Pelech's camp has pushed a few unexpected buttons over the past 7-10 days.
That too would go a long ways in explaining the inactivity to date.
Will that prove to be the wrench thrown into the gears that forces this team to have to find alternative solutions?
I'd like to say we'll find out soon enough, but...