AROUND THE LEAGUE - 26-27

[donlever]

Let's put it this way Tciso.

Devils top 6:

Timo Meier Nico Hischier Dawson Mercier

Jesper Bratt Jack Hughes Evangelista

Not bad.

...moves Anthony Mantha/Connor Brown to 3rd/4th line where they belong.

56 points in 81 games for Evangelista on a pretty below average Preds team and he's in a contract year and just turned 24 early this year.

[Lancer]

Not a bad haul for a 2nd-rd pick, but as been mentioned elsewhere, 1st-round pucks don’t have the cachet they used to these days. Unless teams get lucky, if they’re picking outside the top-ten the player they pick is most likely going to fill a support role vice play a key/core spot on the roster. The line between a late-1st and a 2nd-rd pick is thin these days.

It also help trade value-wise that Evangelista is on the younger side of 25.

[UWSaint]

Minten signs 7x7.2AAV.

Seems like its a good time to be high potential and modest success. In the flat cap era, there was a mutual interest in potential + more than modest success to hook up on long terms deals. But today, those players want shorter deals to really cash in, and modest success means that you've established a floor and that floor is a good bet to be at or around market when that cap goes up another 30% in three years. So the risk is lower, and the potential for striking it rich remains.