Keep him. 7.5 is fair for an elite 2way defensive minded player. That's just where these contracts are going. Those guys are pretty rare and needed for a championship caliber team as well. And I just don't trust that MacK or Duchene will ever be a top notch defender. They might be average or even above average one day, but teams need that center/line that can straight shutdown the opponents best line. RoR , Lando and MacK, especially once MacK's 2way game comes around and he becomes better/more consistent offensively is a damn good 2way shutdown line.
Scoring top6 center
2way elite defensive top6 center
True #1 Dman
Good #2 complimentary to #1 creating a great top pair
High end goalie (or at least ne that steps their game up in playoffs)
All are just as important as the next in order to have a championship caliber team. And all we are missing is the #2 guy along with depth (but that's not really about individuals, but more as a group) Trading RoR MIGHT fill the #2 hole, but it WILL create another. We would then be lacking the much needed 2way elite defensive center.
The only way we come out of this for the better (imo) is if we swap ROR's 7.5mil salary for another 1st, a young player with upside and anything else is gravy. Then go out and sign Sekera to 6-6.5mil.
We've seen before (Stastny left, Iginla brought in) that Sakic/Roy won't sit on a boatload of cash or let a player leaving create a big void. I think if ROR is traded elsewhere, Sakic/Roy will be all in on getting a replacement player for the salary figure they were willing to commit to ROR.
That replacement player isn't going to be worth what they are willing to pay RoR (6.5 apparently). So we save 1million on the cap. Yay, now we have a borderline tweener making 6.5million as our 2C. Awesome
I would much rather have RoR, who is a legit top6 player and one of the best defensive minded 2way players in the game, make 7.5 (fair for his role and where contracts are going) than overpay for one of these lesser guys who ideally are 3rd line players. We can save that million dollars somewhere else. This whole idea that it's ok to overpay for a player as long as they fit the cap structure is hurting the team. This is why we are at the cap and not even a playoff team. We are paying Stuart like a middle pair guy, but he should be used on the 3rd only (and PK of course). We are paying Berra fairly for a good proven backup, but he isn't really proven at all and the jury is out on if he can be a good backup. We can find a 4th line grinder/agitator for a million or less, but instead we give McLeod 30% more than that. If we sign Vermette/Soderberg they too should only make about 5million (fair for a great 3C), but we're talking 6.5 for them. And then our top6 really isn't even good enough to be a contender.