[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I'm certainly no expert, but from what I understand they DID burn a year of his ELC and a year that he would have been protected from the expansion draft by activating him now.

That said, I think it's a bit overblown in terms of how much it matters. He's clearly a guy they're hoping will be a key cog in the future, so they'll ideally get him locked up early. (In fact, I've read some analysis that suggests that burning a year of his ELC will help the team get a better long-term deal since there will be less of a track record for his agent to use in bargaining.)

As for exposing him to the expansion draft, the key thing to keep in mind is that it's less about exposing HIM as it is exposing an extra PLAYER. There's no way they'd actually expose Makar himself, but protecting him might force them to expose another player like Girard or Barrie. Even so, if Makar is as good as we hope he is, we won't care about them near as much.

Anyway, I'm not an expert, but that's the gist of what the talking heads are saying around here about it. And regardless, if he hopes us win a playoff series or two this year, it'll be well worth it.

Bingo.