oh right he has a few more seasons. he's a keeper then imo, unless we can get a nice overpayment.
MON has two more years for Tatar at only 4.8 Cap because Vegas is paying 500K of his 5.3M contract until the end of it! Tatar's case, other than that he is younger than Petry (28 VS 31) isn't very different the the veteran D when it comes to having ways of establishing an even higher trade value with a contender this season.
By holding 2.4M from Tatar's remaining Cap hit for two more years after this one. MON would be providing a contender with a veteran top-6 scorer, realistically good for 25 goals and 50 points, playing a two-way game, capable of displaying some speed and good for three cracks at a Cup for next to nothing at 2.4M towards that team's Cap.
How much more valuable would that be for a Cap-strapped team with star youngsters paid through the roof (TOR, EDM, etc.)?
If EDM is in the playoff hunt at the trade deadline, given their precarious Cap situation going forward, just how valuable would Tatar be for them as a speedy veteran scoring winger that can process the game at high speed alongside McDavid?
Would Tatar at 2,4M and Kulak not be worth the more expensive Nurse and a late 1st rounder? I'd consider giving Mete instead if they added a second rounder and a third rounder. Then, I'd really try to land Gardiner as a UFA.
In the short term, the D could look like this:
Gardiner - Weber
Nurse - Petry
Kulak - Juulsen
Fleury
while Brook played big minutes in Laval and romaine played an expanded role in the KH: for CSKA Moscow.
In two years, the D could be:
Gardiner - Weber
Nurse - Petry
Romanov - Brook
Juulsen, Fleury
and perhaps we could trade Juulsen as part of a package to upgrade our forward situation.
IMO, a D like the last one projected just above has three sets of puck-moving Ds with a more offensive element and a more defensive element on each pairing to complement the Ds.