Kin
New member
Peter D. said:My thinking is, and it may just be wishful, is that if Stamkos indeed opts to become a free agent, the Leafs will be at or near the top of his list of teams to sign with. And with that being the case, why would the Leafs burn up any assets when he is going to make zero difference this year and can be had with a simple blank cheque a few months later.
I think sometimes we present the way free agents make decisions as entirely too simple a dichotomy. We either say "Well, Player A wants to be a Duck or Blue and that's that" or we say "He'll just go to whoever offers him more money" with very little in-between.
I think there's far more of a grey area. I think a lot of guys get convinced to go somewhere or they have a preference of where to go but it's not their only issue.
So Stamkos might very well favour the Leafs but that doesn't mean that he'd definitely sign with them or wouldn't be swayed by a significantly higher offer(unless you'd be willing to give Stamkos whatever he wanted).
So the reason you'd spend those assets is because it lets you negotiate against yourself and only yourself. If that means you don't get drawn into a bidding war then the thinking is that the players you're trading might very well be worth the 2 million or so you might save in cap space.