from Adam Proteau of The Hockey News,

The angst-riddled cries have grown louder and louder and have come from all over the hockey map as we’ve gotten closer to the expiry of the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement. No, I’m not referring to the league’s looming labor war – I’m talking about the increasingly nervous Nellies in Montreal, Colorado, Winnipeg, New York, Washington and elsewhere who have burgeoning young restricted free agents still without a new contract as Saturday’s CBA deadline approaches.

In Montreal, certain Canadiens fans are getting itchy seeing up-and-coming defenseman P.K. Subban stew on the sidelines. Some Stars fans in Dallas are wondering why star left winger Jamie Benn isn’t under contract yet. There are furrowed brows in Colorado over Ryan O’Reilly, in Winnipeg over Evander Kane, in Manhattan over Michael Del Zotto and in Washington over John Carlson.

To be sure, all the aforementioned names are crucial components of their teams. However, to argue that GMs of those teams are making a heinous error by not locking up their cornerstones to long-term contract extensions is nonsense. This is one of the options available to team ownership and management under the current CBA and you can certainly understand why teams would choose to take advantage of it.

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