Speculation: 2017-18 Roster Discussion - Part 2

[Five Alarm Fire]

Shatty doesn't want to be here

Also I don't think we can afford him AND marleau

EDIT: plus you forgot Adam Erne, just move gourde to RW and put erne on 4LW

EDIT2: Why Sustr? I'd much rather use Koekkoek or Sergachev

Just because he didn't sign an extension at the deadline doesn't mean he doesn't want to be here. If I was a player, I would want to have as much control as possible over my landing destination. He will hold a lot of power as a FA. I still think (hope) that New York is the favorite, but Yzerman has to think he has a good chance.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

We aren't Chicago, LA or the Rangers who have an old roster with a weak prospect pool. Those teams are in a win now mode. We have a roster with a nice blend of ages plus a top 15, maybe 10 with Sergachev, pool.

We don't have to make moves to win now, while we don't have to sell anything to restock. We can be patient with the roster since it's proven they can go far and if they are close add pieces as needed. We also can wait a year when we should add anothed good defender, Sergachev, more depth forwards, Cirelli, Stephens and Jospeph, while hopefully having Koekkoek or Dotchin prove they're legit top 4 defenders.

Ok, we agree that it's not time to sell the future to win now. However, I think we both agree that we can't look past another season because we ARE in our cup window.

With that said, I believe it is the GMs duty to do whatever he can to improve the current roster to win a cup this season WITHOUT destroying our farm.

I think Yzerman is trying to do that but I worry a bit about our current situation today.


Btw...nothing will make me happier than to be wrong!

 

[LightningStrikes]

Shatty doesn't want to be here

Shattenkirk didn't want to come at the deadline when we were decimated by injuries missing our best player and icing half an AHL team. Players want to win the Cup too. Greenlight a trade to a legitimate contender, pick your preferred destination as UFA after. Understandable IMO. Honestly, I think his plan was to play for a contender (maybe win a Cup) and cash in after the playoffs. Backfired though, as he couldn't perform up to expectation during the playoffs. But that doesn't mean that he's all of a sudden a bad player now. All of HFBoards was drooling over the prospect of acquiring him at the TDL.
Things are different now, Tampa might be more attractive now with Stamkos returning and a GM obviously willing to spend money after losing a lot of dead weight. Meanwhile Shattenkirk's stock might have fallen a bit after the playoffs and they might settle for a deal working for both sides.

Also I don't think we can afford him AND marleau

Why can't we afford both? Marleau is 35+. Most of his contract will consist of bonuses.

EDIT: plus you forgot Adam Erne, just move gourde to RW and put erne on 4LW

That'll work.

EDIT2: Why Sustr? I'd much rather use Koekkoek or Sergachev

I have recently learned that Sustr has improved a lot so why not.

 

[The Macho King]

TBF - I don't think antyhign came out that suggested the proposed deal for Shatty was at the deadline. Rumblings of Tampa in on Shatty started in like December, I want to say.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Agree with the sentiment and about Marleau. Disagree about Shattenkirk and your defensive pairings. I feel like giving Shattenkirk the money he wants will come back to haunt us, and rather quickly. Marleau on the other hand I'd pay his current price, he would thrive in our system and in the east. Also, I don't want Stralman on the left. Other than that I agree. I have a feeling we are in on a big name. Possibly Marleau, but I'm hoping, hoping and hoping some more it's Kovalchuk.

I'd be so happy if Kovy was headed to Tampa. He's my favorite non-Lightning player AINEC.

 

[More 2004]

How is adding Shattenkirk not a huge upgrade over Garrison who was expected to anchor the 2nd PP? Pair him with Stralman and you've got yourself a well balanced and potent 2nd pairing for ES.

How is Marleau not a tremendous fit for us? At 37 he is nowhere near slowing down. 25 and 27 goals in his past two seasons. Would bring leadership to this young team, guide some of the youngsters and give us scoring depth. Plus he's one of the few available that are able to keep up with our speed.

Signing these two alone is such a big improvement to our roster compared to last season. We (hopefully) will have more than a handful of games of Stamkos on the roster.
In addition we have Callahan coming back, hope dies last but he should be a serviceable depth player who will chip in the occasional goal and give us a bruiser in front of the net and at the very least will improve our penalty kill.
We have some kids potentially making the jump (Sergachev, Erne, Howden, Raddysh, Peca, Hajek...), we have kids ready to take the next step (Dotchin, Koekkoek, Namestnikov, Gourde...).

We had extremely bad luck with injuries. Especially with several roster players missing games at the same time.

Marleau - Stamkos - Kucherov
Palat - Johnson - Point
Killorn - Namestnikov - Callahan
Gourde - Dumont - Brown

Hedman - Dotchin
Stralman - Shattenkirk
Sustr - Coburn


How is that not an improvement? And we have the cap space to make it happen.

I think getting rid of Garrison who had only one year left is sending a strong message that we'll not be quiet when free agent frenzy starts. We're in win-now mode. Stamkos, Hedman and Kucherov are in their prime. What do you want to save money for? Why not invest now.

I like that roster for next season (save Sustr). My worry is the term on Shattenkirks deal. Given his playing style we will regret this deal in 4-5 years no doubt. Cost of signing a UFA? Sure.. but I'd rather explore trade options for a borderline top 4 with offensive upside and less term.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

Hjalmarsson is intriguing. Not the PP point we need but is a hell of a defenseman. $4.1m cap hit.

Looks like it could be a cap dump.

Hedman - XXXXXX
Hjalmarsson - Stralman
Coburn - Serge/Koek/Dotch

 

[Cmac66]

Agree with the sentiment and about Marleau. Disagree about Shattenkirk and your defensive pairings. I feel like giving Shattenkirk the money he wants will come back to haunt us, and rather quickly. Marleau on the other hand I'd pay his current price, he would thrive in our system and in the east. Also, I don't want Stralman on the left. Other than that I agree. I have a feeling we are in on a big name. Possibly Marleau, but I'm hoping, hoping and hoping some more it's Kovalchuk.

I agree with Marleau being a big name signing for us, however, Don't think we need Shattenkirk would rather us trade for Brodin, dumba ETC

 

[The Macho King]

Hjalmarsson is intriguing. Not the PP point we need but is a hell of a RHD. $4.1m cap hit.

Looks like it could be a cap dump.

Hedman - Hjalmarsson

I would be all over Hammer. Although he shoots left, and I think he was LD in Chicago for a lot of years until Seabrook fell off a cliff.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

I would be all over Hammer. Although he shoots left, and I think he was LD in Chicago for a lot of years until Seabrook fell off a cliff.

You're right. We should be able to fit him in either side.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Hey Kovalchuk can play D too. Kill two birds with one stone!

 

[The Macho King]

Hey Kovalchuk can play D too. Kill two birds with one stone!

Honestly - him, Kucherov, and Stamkos. Three killer shots on one squad.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Honestly - him, Kucherov, and Stamkos. Three killer shots on one squad.

OMG that line... please Steve, make it happen!

Plus he plays like 30 minutes a game like it's nothing.

 

[More 2004]

I'd be so happy if Kovy was headed to Tampa. He's my favorite non-Lightning player AINEC.

Him with Kuch would be quite the spectacle.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

Ef' it! Let's just double down on offense:

Killorn - Stammer - Kucherov
Palat - Johnson - Radulov/Kovalchuck

 

[RegularSznAllStars]

Everyone who wants shattenkirk is out of their mind. I would rather do nothing than sign him. This is literally another Callahan contract, why do we want that? You want to pay him 7m for two years? Sure go for it. But the six or seven years he is going to sign for is insane.

 

[Todd1a]

Everyone who wants shattenkirk is out of their mind. I would rather do nothing than sign him. This is literally another Callahan contract, why do we want that? You want to pay him 7m for two years? Sure go for it. But the six or seven years he is going to sign for is insane.

Yzerman with cap space scares me to death i don't trust him with it incoming matt carle or Ryan Callahan contracts again! Please stop while your a head yzerman.

 

[Leonardo87]

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Kovalchuk would actually be an interesting addition... come on Y, give it a try!

 

[HoseEmDown]

Everyone who wants shattenkirk is out of their mind. I would rather do nothing than sign him. This is literally another Callahan contract, why do we want that? You want to pay him 7m for two years? Sure go for it. But the six or seven years he is going to sign for is insane.

If he gets hurt than sure it's another Callahan contract, if he's healthy it's not. He's a bit old to get a 7 year deal but you have to offer that if you want him. We should want him because he's the main thing this team has been missing in a long time. The next two years we have no issue with his caphit, year 3 gets dicey with Kucherov and Point up but 8.2 comes off in Coburn and Stralman. After that Callahan is up and Carle buyout so that's 7.6 which will be less than what he makes. This is nobody needing a big deal after Kucherov so we should be alright with the cap.

 

[Rschmitz]

Ef' it! Let's just double down on offense:

Killorn - Stammer - Kucherov
Palat - Johnson - Radulov/Kovalchuck

Radulov apparently wants 6x7

Let's violently scratch him off our list

 

[VoluntaryDom]

Honestly - him, Kucherov, and Stamkos. Three killer shots on one squad.

And 1 other winger (Palat) who can play!

 

[Todd1a]

Radulov apparently wants 6x7

Let's violently scratch him off our list

Removed along with shattenkirk and his 7 year deal ! Gm's have to take a stand and stop giving out stupid contracts to 30 year old guys

 

[Volodya Krutov]

How is adding Shattenkirk not a huge upgrade over Garrison who was expected to anchor the 2nd PP? Pair him with Stralman and you've got yourself a well balanced and potent 2nd pairing for ES.

How is Marleau not a tremendous fit for us? At 37 he is nowhere near slowing down. 25 and 27 goals in his past two seasons. Would bring leadership to this young team, guide some of the youngsters and give us scoring depth. Plus he's one of the few available that are able to keep up with our speed.

Signing these two alone is such a big improvement to our roster compared to last season. We (hopefully) will have more than a handful of games of Stamkos on the roster.
In addition we have Callahan coming back, hope dies last but he should be a serviceable depth player who will chip in the occasional goal and give us a bruiser in front of the net and at the very least will improve our penalty kill.
We have some kids potentially making the jump (Sergachev, Erne, Howden, Raddysh, Peca, Hajek...), we have kids ready to take the next step (Dotchin, Koekkoek, Namestnikov, Gourde...).

We had extremely bad luck with injuries. Especially with several roster players missing games at the same time.

Marleau - Stamkos - Kucherov
Palat - Johnson - Point
Killorn - Namestnikov - Callahan
Gourde - Dumont - Brown

Hedman - Dotchin
Stralman - Shattenkirk
Sustr - Coburn

Even with Marleau, you know from the get go that the bottom 6 lines are going to kill this team once the tough gets going, there's still and again zero scoring depth. We have three players in the bottom 6, namely Namestnikov, Callahan and Brown who have a combined total of 22 points in 110 playoffs games all together. That's an average of 0.2 point per game. Shattenkirk is a luxury we can't afford at this point.

 

[These Are The Days]

The difference between guys like Kovalchuk and Radulov is thatthey're actually worth the money they are asking for because they are fantastic players. Shattenkirk is average at best but can convince teams to pay out the nose because he's the ONLY option on the market