If your pay was raised to $125, then your pay is now $125. so i would expect that to be coming in the mail every week.
the analogy ends there though, as there will be one day where you pay will go back down to 100, and even further below that eventually.
was the 125 a one time mistake by your company? maybe, and i understand your hesitation - maybe he needs to play at 125 for a bit longer for you to buy in. that's understandable. i was just pointing out that, hopefully you are open minded enough to realize when that point is (for you, subjectively)
I'm very very open to being proved wrong with athletes especially if I hated a player before they came to my team. I've been proved right like when we signed Horton and proved so very wrong when we got Dubi. I only get to see at most 10 Toronto games a year and the rest are nightly highlights and leafs fans assessments. So for years I have seen and been told 2C and at some times I have seen 3C (Not as often that bad though to be honest) but mostly I've felt low tier 2C. Last year that was not even close to how he played. The problem with that is this year also happened to be the year they started the year with 3 extremely high talent rookies and the 2nd year after Babcock had time with his team to get them into his style. So how much of that was a factor in his numbers rising? Did he just need better coaching and players or did those players and coach make him better. Was it just those specific players/coach or would he play just as well with other good young players and with any other good coach.
My opinion of him for my team is I'd accept him on my team if they felt like he would be a fit as a 2C here BUT only for the right price. The unknowns outweigh the known to give up to much value. He is also young enough and on a contract that if he can repeatedly produce what he did last year that value would be really high and he is on a team to where that's likely more valuable to them then it would be to trade.
So in that case again it doesn't make much sense for TOR to trade Kadri unless they think Nylander or Marner moves to 2C (Nylander more likely I'd assume) and they don't want to pay over 5mil for a 3C. I have had very little watchings of the Russian D you guys got last year to have a long term opinion of the guy. From what I've seen and based on what I've read TOR fans saying trying to weed through the over hype he's a solid 4. Gardiner had a excellent year through me watching last year but before that he has been pretty average. I'd say he's very dependable but nothing extraordinary. He's like the dependable top 4 that every team has that fans if other teams never name because he doesn't stand out but he's important to what you want to accomplish. Kinda like a few of my CBJ guys but a little lower in the rankings IMO. And Reilly again IMO is the most overrated D in the league as far as fan praise goes but that's only because you guys have the loudest fan base haha. Nothing rude or attacking there it's just like all sports the most popular teams often have a player or 2 that is pretty good but simce he's on the team with the most fans that player gets way over hyped. To me that's Reilly. I'd rather have guys like Trouba, Lindholm, Murray, etc from that draft. The only thing keeping Murrays career numbers less then Reillys is his injuries. SOOOO that long opinion was to state you guys have a few ok D but could surely use another. You know who is available? The guy drafted ahead of Reilly and who started all key defensive roles on a team thwy played together on by Reillys own coach. He's a 24yo who has played 2/3 D every year but 1 and is a shut down monster. Along with him you can have a 1st in a deep draft or Milano, a 21yo extremely creative winger who just lead his AHL team in points last year and now has the 200ft game to go with his creativity. He has been NHL ready for 2 years but stuck behind Saad, Foligno, Hartnell, and Jenner. You can't blame a kid for his team not playing him over 4 NHL guys who have all scored 30 goals in there careers.
Those are 2 great pieces for Kadri, that's almost the same deal fans/Team have been making for Duchene so it's not a low ball. Duchene is going to be more valued then Kadri (at least by non Canadian citizen fans) and we would still likely pay this because he is a little more defensive minded and the Jackets are a very 2way oriented team.
Also note I promise I'm not trying to neg or degrade any players to make my player sound better. I'm just saying my honest thoughts based on my viewings and opinions I have seen leafs fans have heavily weighing opinions BEFORE this year for players like Kadri and Gardiner because I trust say a 5 year history of play more then 1 year. This goes for my Murray opinion as well. 1 year with rough stats because talent pushes him down to playing with a euro rookie on his offside doesn't make him a 3rd pairing. He's been a 2/3 his entire career. This year he never played PP as to previous years getting good time even playing top pair some times. So again just my opinions and I understand many TOR fans will disagree.
The deal is still throw out is:
Kadri for Murray + Milano or 1st
Again this is very close to what we would offer for Duchene.