which means at least for now you probably can’t even pair him with Levshonov or Rinzel. And the part that bugs me is that a free agent in a year so it’s not like he’s on a good contract that was signed before the cap went out. He’ll have all the leverage in negotiations since the Hawks obviously have to extend him, so you’ll be giving him a huge overpay on the contract too.

Maybe none become elite players but they have a lot of forwards they are counting on to be good - Frondell, Kantserov, Nazar, Lardis, Moore + a veteran in Bertuzzi that has still been very useful. The problem is they are insisting on all these guys being centers, I’d rather that Frondell is paired up with Bedard. But if none of these guys turn into quality players to put alongside Bedard, then the whole thing is fucked anyway.