Quote:
Originally Posted by Lafleurs Guy
If we're not contenders though, why bother with FAs and tie ourselves to a guy like McCabe or Madden for another few years. All this does is lock us in with more mediocre players for the future. I think it makes sense to wait and see how we do with what we have.
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It's only 1 year. And having these players out of the gate has at least some potential to contribute towards rather we are or are not "contenders" (with a very broad definition of that term). That is, if we get significant players going down early in the season (e.g. Markov), then having an experienced replacement ready to step in immediately could be worth a point or three in the standings. The races are tight, and points lost in October and November could come back to haunt the team.
There are "what ifs" involved with signing players now too, but to me, it's the better path. Possbily those players add little or nothing. Possibly they help. But the thing is, there's no harm in having them either. There's no real downside. Maybe you can trade them (or others) away at the deadline for assets. Maybe you can't. If you have them on the right terms, you've still got $3M in cap space and can still get Iginla or whoever anyway.
Whereas if you just sit on the cap space, you've got
nothing but what-ifs. Unless you own the team. (Not saying that's not a significant factor, just that as a fan it's not one that really satisfies me).