Saad isn't going to be worth 10 Mil.
Saad is a great attribute having player and excellent two way, but no that's an outlandish leap. He's a complementary top line player at this point. He has never shown the proof that he could be a "franchise" player who creates the dominance and force on a line, ala Kane who can make a line out of average producers offensively great.
There's a slim chance he could develop to it, a very slim chance but guys who are worth 10 Mil are guys like Toews/Kane/Stamkos who by the time they are 19, they can do MORE than what Saad was able to do as a 22 year old NHLer.
Not everybody is physically mature enough to do that at 19. I was 5'11" and 140 lbs. I still had 7 inches and 80 lbs to grow. Many taller guys are like that and need an extra year or 3 to grow into body. So you are still looking for that emerging talent and 22 just means upside and value. Particularly when you have a trajectory of development it looks like the best is yet to come. Its a good question if he can do without Toews. Ok...but that question is worth the risk to teams who haven't won a cup in 20 years. They would probably pay more than 6.5 just to find out, indeed, they are going to pay a 3C, a 40 point wing, and 6.5
The reason Saad is so valuable is because he has been rapidly improving and now it looks like he might just become dominant. He is certainly the type of speed other teams are looking at the finals and saying fuck me how do we catch up to those guys.
He has won 2 cups, he just won, and his offer sheet is a RFA. He has a ton of value. Obviously the Hawks hate to do this.
But after getting nothing for Sharp and looking at the center depth I think Bowman was backed into a corner and was looking at no money for years and no draft picks and no centers. He already lost Ladd and others, Frolik is scoring bunches elsewhere.
We already has the Saad/Sharp issue on this team in that there most productive slot was the same. We now have an incredibly dynamic roster full of intriguing line pairings.
Its my opinion that Teuvo will never have the lower body strength and is too good of a wing to play at center. Dano has lower body strength. He has the round ass of a hockey player, a center, like Toews. He is strong at 20, which means he is going to be our own little Odysseus. Thats gonna be my nickname for that fool. If Anisimov doesn't work with Kane for some reason, Teuvo/Dano are both much more in the playmaking Richards mold and should work. We can always just move Kane up to that first line and rock.
