Im confused on what youre saying here KJ. Youre not talking about moving brass and klein, right? Or are you just talking where all 4 would fall depth chart wise?
I also disagreed that Stastny is better than Thornton. I'll give you Spezza and Kesler because I dont see their bodies and production holding up. Stastny is going to cost a pretty penny and Thornton would end up costing less AAV wise. Plus Thornton is the better point producer. I guess I'm just not sold on Stastny.
If they let Stralman walk and sign Dan Boyle on the cheap. They could possibly afford Stastny. Re-sign Poo. Trade Dorsett. Re-sign Dom Moore, Carcillo, boyle/winnik.
Kreider-Stastny-Nash
Hagelin-Stepan-MSL
Poo-Brassard-Zucc
Boyle/Winnik-Moore-Carcillo
McDonagh-Girardi
Klein-Staal
Moore-D.Boyle
I'm saying that replacing Brassard with Stastny and Klein with Boyle and keeping them in those positions could yield 50+ more points in a single season, for us.
I'm not advocating for either. I'm just saying that if those are the types of moves this FO makes this offseason, they'd be vast improvements to the team, offensively.
Defensively, Stastny is not worse than Brassard, and Boyle has never been worse than Klein minus this last year where he actually played like a defensive vegetable.
If, for example, those moves happened... to fit everyone under the cap there would need to be quite a bit of rookies playing... which in no way shape or form is ideal. But it is possible.
There are 3 glaring holes on this team. 1 - Lack of offense from the blue line 2 - Lack of a dominant 2c 3 - lack of size.
Given our cap situation, not all 3 of those will be fixed.
Over the last week, I have looked at a moderate change of roster, 80%... giving up Staal in place of the 2c and keeping as many of our current others as possible. Last night I looked at what it would be like to keep 90% of our current core guys, and swapping out Dorsett with Winnik and Klein with Boyle, adding size and blue line offense but not addressing the 2c option. Today, I'm saying that the team could improve the blueline and 2c but not improve size or even be able to keep too much of the roster.
There are alternatives, pros and cons to each.
CAPGEEK.COM ARMCHAIR GM ROSTER
CapGeek Armchair GM Roster
FORWARDS
Chris Kreider ($2.250m) / Derek Stepan ($3.075m) / Mats Zuccarello ($4.150m)
Jesper Fast ($0.805m) / Paul Stastny ($7.000m) / Rick Nash ($7.800m)
Carl Hagelin ($2.250m) / J.T. Miller ($0.894m) / Martin St. Louis ($5.625m)
Daniel Winnik ($1.800m) / Dominic Moore ($1.500m) / Oscar Lindberg ($0.675m)
DEFENSEMEN
Dan Girardi ($5.500m) / Ryan McDonagh ($4.700m)
Marc Staal ($3.975m) / Anton Stralman ($4.000m)
Conor Allen ($0.925m) / Dan Boyle ($3.800m)
GOALTENDERS
Henrik Lundqvist ($8.500m)
Cameron Talbot ($0.563m)
BUYOUTS
Wade Redden ($0.000m)
Brad Richards ($0.000m)
BONUS OVERAGE
$0
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CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(estimations for 2014-15)
SALARY CAP: $71,100,000; CAP PAYROLL: $69,786,667; BONUSES: $1,380,000
CAP SPACE (20-man roster): $1,313,333
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Personally... I don't want Stastny. I think ROR is the best we can hope for, minus some sort of move for a young C and some more young unproven talent coming our way.
I'd prefer to keep at least 80% of our current roster, as well. The above armchair GM is just to show that you can add in both Boyle and Stastny, while losing a lot of your current players.
Personally, I'd love to give Staal's spot to Allen and appraise him over the course of 30-45 games. In place of Staal, I'd love to get our future 2c: ROR, Granlund (highly unlikely), or someone else. After that, I'm in favor of keeping as much of the roster we went to the SCF with as possible. Boyle, the Moore's, even Poo.
But if we got Stastny... I don't think it wold be the end of the world, especially not over the next 3-4 years. Historically he has a much higher ceiling than Brass.