Most teams probably also have 7 forwards they want to protect and don't have the extra slots.
Considering the avs we're looking for the dman as the biggest piece, it might've been harder to also move a roster forward because those players might've had too much value.
What we do know is that the movement at the deadline was very lacklustre. It's been said that the ED played a role. As did the stagnant cap.
I don't think these things have zero factor but it's been trumped up way too much from the media as an excuse. A million things are always supposed to happen at the next checkpoint and then they don't. It's as much of a ploy to keep them relevant as anything.
If anything, as I said the other day, it's that adding vets doesn't move the needle like it used to and teams value their futures more. Everyone said this draft sucks, picks are going to go like candy and what two firsts moved and by the two teams with the best record in the league, which project to be pick #30 and #31?
A few moves were obviously expansion related but as a reason for not bringing in pending UFAs? That's completely irrelevant to expansion. I could see teams holding on to a few marginal guys with term to satisfy the requirements so that should have made the market thinner on those who were available.
But specifically to Duchene, a team is not going to bring him in because they have to keep their 7th best forward? Or not like they couldn't put a marginal forward in the deal? If it's that critical I can see them wait until after the XD but I don't think it's what's holding up a deal.
We could see a team that acquires one of the big UFA d-mem (Alzer/Shattenkirk/Kulikov/whoever else ends up getting overpaid this summer suddenly) feel like they can part with a top 4 d roster/prospect after injecting a shiny new UFA. We know the Rangers are where Shattenkirk is going to go, and I don't see them as afit for Duchene.
The problem with this scenario is that the teams with the most interest in Duchene (NYI, Montreal, Ottawa) probably arent going to be chasing UFA defencemen like Alzner and Kulikov. Oh well.
Problem with that is that's after the draft. Not that it would be a giant problem to get all 2018 picks but the excuse for nothing happening after July 1 is that all the money is dried up and it's the flat cap blah blah.
And right, if teams could find a replacement top 4 D lying around then the Avs could too and then they wouldn't have to make this sort of deal. There's a slim few that have a surplus but they have other issues to work through.
