the problem with the restricted route is that EVERYONE has money now because of the cap going up. if you want a guy like knies or miller youre going to have to offer them a deal where you part with a first round pick next year. otherwise the other team will just match it. do you want to part with the #10 pick in the draft? maybe they should considering two of the things they desperately need RIGHT NOW are a 23-25 year old good defenseman to pair with seider or edvinsson and a big strong winger who plays physical and score.
one would hope after years of accumulating multiple second rounders we would have one of those, but alas, we still wait on cross hanas, dylan james, dmitriy buchelnikov, william wallinder, etc...
back to rfas...so many other teams in the wings' position are flush with cap space now and can offer more money, montreal, philly, columbus, etc.
as stanley keeps snidely pointing out, some of those second and third round picks yzerman accumulated are going to have to hit NEXT YEAR. the timeline for those guys to be nhlers is next season. the timeline for them to be stars is passed, but they can still become quality nhlers.
heck, dennis cholowski is still in the nhl so why are we letting jeff petry and justin holl block buium and wallinder? unless theyre not actually good...