This will make trade talks better with Seattle who is watching very closely.He has been buzzing as of late but he still needs to go in the off season
TJ's contract is in no way a sunk cost. Not in cap terms and not in real dollar terms. If it was a sunk cost it wouldn't matter if he stays because by definition a sunk cost represents dollars already spent that cannot be recovered. But those dollars haven't been spent yet and that is the entire reason they need to get rid of him, so as to not spend dollars. That is, to recover future obligated dollars and then not spend them. The opposite of a sunk cost.None of those are gonna be an outcome for TJ. He's a better hockey player than an AHLer would be, so he'll be in the NHL. The contract (or at at best, the buyout) is a sunk cost. He only got sent down in hopes that someone else wanted his contract (and later, for one game, for technical LTIR reasons).
There are three possibilities: 1) Tampa trades him to someone else who will pay him to play, 2) Tampa can't trade him and continues to pay him and play him, or 3) Tampa can't move him, buys him out, and some other NHL team signs him for much less than $4.5m to play for them.
(I suppose there's a 1a) where we trade him with retention but that feels really unlikely.)
In any case, Europe is definitely off the table, and the A just isn't worth it because all we'd do is save $1m of his cap hit while needing to replace him with a guy on a minimum contract (in other words, we'd be swapping TJ for some guy who would otherwise be in the AHL, all just to save $300k in cap space).
I still remember that almost 3 on 5 short handed goal against the Rangers in 2015. First penalty expired just as the puck left his stick so it technically wasn't, but it was always a 3 on 5 in my heart.Johnson was a huge part in turning around this franchise. Good luck in Chicago to one of my favourite players of all time
Only 1 from the Top Gun lineOnly 2 members of the triplets line remain, goodbye TyJo