He signed here in a summer where we finished 10th in the West, so it's not like he knew we were going to win a cup. The contract day finished with three offers. 7m a year from San Jose (a cup contender) 7.4 from us, and 8 from Atlanta, so it's dumb to think we could have gotten him for less, and the "we are gong to win a cup" bargaining chip doesn't exist when you fail to make the playoffs.
and me saying "we don't win a cup without him" didn't mean assisting on Kane's Game 6 OT goal, it was more that we were down 2-1 to Nashville in the first round, and then Soup came back from his shoulder injury. We moved Buff off the D, and back to the wing, and he played over 20 min a night on the blueline going forward.