#i've helped make hockey trade decisions with their management

[swifty-fox]

the issue with dating people YOU thought were really interesting is you forget that YOU YOURSELF have some absolute lore too

[larsnicklas]

Hello! I'm sort of new to hockey but not to team sports, and I wanted your opinion on panthers fans being annoyed at all the movements that are happening with FA. For example I've seen a lot of bother with Tarasenko leaving, but as helpful as he was to them during the playoffs what Detroit is giving him is way more than I would pay him if I was Zito too! And Zito has managed to keep a young core team with very talented players, and hopefully he will extend both Carter and Benny. Of course, it's sad seeing players go, and I don't necessarily agree with everything like 2M for Stenlund seemed doable, but Zito in particular seems to be very good at his job and he hasn't taken decisions that would make me untrustworthy of that. My other-sport team won everything possible and then instead of doing something like this they kept basically the whole winning team and it was wonderful but it has taken them over 10 years to recover from that. So I think you need to balance the fact that not every player was meant to stay and not every player can stay if you want to keep going ahead and not just like be happy with one Stanley Cup and start losing your stars to better offers.

Sorry about the super long message! Feel free to ignore, I just wanted to put it into words 💙

hiii! it is actually so funny bc you and the last anon talking about this sent in these asks like. minutes apart. kindred spirits LOL.

i think it's totally valid for cats fans to be upset and i get it like honestly stenny going was a shotgun to the chest... 23-24 cats penalty killers you will ALWAYS live in my heart.... but i think you have exactly the right of it! in the cats' case specifically, z.ito has done a very good job of securing his big boys to team-friendly contracts. it helps that there's an internal cap structure as well — nobody is going to sign for more than sasha at this particular juncture, and he is at a VERY manageable 10 mil aav. still, to lock up your top three forwards and your top defenseman, you have to be careful about the money you fling around for the depth guys. they could have technically afforded stenny, maybe, but probably not in a way that wouldn't push out multiple guys or force z.ito's hand on spencer k.night. and they certainly could not afford t.arasenko but it would be extremely funny to snag him back at the trade deadline for half salary retained etc.

i think the other thing too is that z.ito is not thinking just ahead to this coming year, but the one after that, where things can get a little hairy with 14 million still wrapped up in your goalies and ek, benny, swaggy all needing new contracts. but yeah, z.ito has earned a measure of trust from the fanbase, and he clearly has his sights on another run at the cup with this core. and just like you said, for continued success you absolutely do have to come to terms with the fact that not every guy can stay even if it stings to lose them!

and ofc no worries on the long message i love hearing people's thoughts on all the offseason movement!! :>