Trouba is heading to abritration with the Jets, seeking $7M, Jets thinking more like $4M. Now comes the fun time when the team says "We wanna keep you, but here are all the reasons you suck and some kinda shitty players we would compare you to." I think he will get a decent award maybe $5.5M or $5.75M. Dumba, William Karlsson, Zucker, Stone, Montour and others may also be headed toward hearings. Karlsson is obviously the most interesting one on the list. I have some places suggesting that the Knights might propose some sort of "show me" deal for a one year but I think it would be in their interest to lock him up now. The award may be pretty high and that would set the bar high for next year. I do think he will regress a little in terms of scoring but even if he is a 30/30 guy with excellent defense, he'll be worth good money. Basing the award on his breakout season last year rather than a level-headed extrapolation of the next few seasons seems risky.

Erik Karlsson remains a Senator and if not for the dumpster fire going on up there I am sure that would be fine with him. I don't think the deal was anywhere near getting done at the deadline despite reports and vague but "firm" notions that the deal was going to be done by the end of a couple weekends ago. Part of it is that the teams with the most assets like Tampa and Dallas might have trouble re-signing him at roughly 10M AAV. Vegas could do it but they seem leery of the type of huge deals that have handcuffed teams like Chicago and Anaheim. I also feel like the Sens haven't defined their goals in the deal, they keep exploring in a million different directions. Pacioretty and Skinner remain on the trade market and it's not a coincidence. I feel like teams are waiting out the situation to see which guys moves first and then maybe try to swoop in on the second guy once the market is set and another suitor drops off. That seems kind of simplistic, they are both wingers (Skinner has also played some center) but are pretty different players. Still the market seems pretty tepid for both, which is unusual given that their salaries are not astronomical