Rumor: 2022-2022 Trade Rumors and Free Agency Part 14: Sakic goes back to bed

[Andrew Wiggin]

That bottom 6 is still ugly.
Do what you can to move out EJ & Compher. I think we will see guys like Maltsev, Ranta, Kaut (if he's still around) and OO get a shot at replacing guys like Sturm (if too expensive), Compher, Burakovsky, Helm and Cogliano, as well as minor signings for depth. If/when some of these guys aren't cutting it at that level, they will be replaced at the deadline for more established players. So realistically, I see the forwards looking something like this to start:

9296
Nuke - 2C via trade (Miller?) - Olausson
Lehkonen - Newhook - XX (compher replacement)
Ranta - Maltsev/Sturm - LOC

I think if we insulate OO he could hold his own as a trigger man in the top 6. We will see though.

I have a very bad feeling that Compher and Johnson are not going anywhere next year and are seen as overall positives for the team unfortunately. I pray I'm wrong. I would either want them to slot Rantanen at 2C or bring in someone that might score up in our system like Copp, similar to how Kadri was able to.

Nichuskin $5.2M x 6 (Between Coleman and Danault, I highly doubt he'd get more than Danault unless he shows really well in the playoffs)
Lehkonen $3.2M x 4 (Not sure he gets $4M without some additional scoring)
Kuemper $5.6 x 5 (Maybe a slight discount from the typical 6x6)
Sturm $1.8M x 2
Copp $5.4M x 6 (similar to Danault last year)
Manson $4M x 4

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichuskin - Copp - XXX
Lehkonen - Newhook - JT Compher
Maltsev - Sturm - O'Connor
Aube-Kubel/Kaut/Bowers/Cogliano

Toews - Makar
Byram - Manson
Johnson - Johnson
MacDermid

Kuemper
Francouz

I do think Girard gets Barried out if Byram shows health and capability in the playoffs as they will need the cap room to adequately fill the top 6 RW spot.

 

[Avsboy]

I could see Copp fitting in nicely. It's slim pickings at forward and especially center in the FA crop.

2024 NHL Free Agents

Tracking the status and signings of all NHL free agents.

www.spotrac.com

 

[Richard88]

I have a very bad feeling that Compher and Johnson are not going anywhere next year and are seen as overall positives for the team unfortunately. I pray I'm wrong. I would either want them to slot Rantanen at 2C or bring in someone that might score up in our system like Copp, similar to how Kadri was able to.

Nichuskin $5.2M x 6 (Between Coleman and Danault, I highly doubt he'd get more than Danault unless he shows really well in the playoffs)
Lehkonen $3.2M x 4 (Not sure he gets $4M without some additional scoring)
Kuemper $5.6 x 5 (Maybe a slight discount from the typical 6x6)
Sturm $1.8M x 2
Copp $5.4M x 6 (similar to Danault last year)
Manson $4M x 4

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichuskin - Copp - XXX
Lehkonen - Newhook - JT Compher
Maltsev - Sturm - O'Connor
Aube-Kubel/Kaut/Bowers/Cogliano

Toews - Makar
Byram - Manson
Johnson - Johnson
MacDermid

Kuemper
Francouz

I do think Girard gets Barried out if Byram shows health and capability in the playoffs as they will need the cap room to adequately fill the top 6 RW spot.

If we sign Copp I think Newhook would take the 2RW spot, with Sturm at 3C and Maltsev 4C. Doing that would probably preclude having to trade Girard. Then you look to add a scoring winger at the deadline.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

If we sign Copp I think Newhook would take the 2RW spot, with Sturm at 3C and Maltsev 4C. Doing that would probably preclude having to trade Girard. Then you look to add a scoring winger at the deadline.

Well if they do that I think it's Newhook on the left and Nichuskin on the right since he has already been played on both sides.

 

[Balthazar]

I don't want Newhook at 2C next year. Not with another season of cheap Mackinnon.

This year is our best shot at the cup but next year we still have a decent shot...but we'll need a real 2C.

 

[dahrougem2]

I would guess Sakic might roll with MacKinnon/Newhook/Sturm down the middle next season, with Landeskog/Rantanen/Nichushkin/Lehkonen/Compher and one more winger in the top-9.

Is it perfect? No. But I don't see Sakic shelling out big dollars and term for Andrew Copp.

 

[Hasbro]

I don’t know why anyone thinks trading EJ is a viable move. The going rate for dumping that kind of contract is a 1st and we have people bitching about paying that for the guy with .925. His salary slot opens for one year and then it has to go to MacKinnon’s raise and Salic probably made EJ some promises in exchange for waiving his NTC ion the expansion draft.

He’s on the roster or LTIRetired next season.

 

[Hasbro]

6' 3" ?

190cm!

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I would just buyout EJ personally.


Saves us $4M this year and then only a $2M penalty the year after.


Right now we have 27.5M in cap space for next year. If we buyout EJ and then trade JTC for a draft pick in the summer, you're looking at 35M in space.


With 5 Forwards(Landy/Mack/Mikko/LOC/Newhook), 4D(Makar/Girard/Toews/Byram), and 1G(Francouz) signed.



The good news is we wouldn't have to spend a lot of money on Defense and the top line forwards are taken care of as well.

 

[Hasbro]

I do think Girard gets Barried out if Byram shows health and capability in the playoffs as they will need the cap room to adequately fill the top 6 RW spot.

‘23 Off season.

 

[Richard88]

I would just buyout EJ personally.


Saves us $4M this year and then only a $2M penalty the year after.


Right now we have 27.5M in cap space for next year. If we buyout EJ and then trade JTC for a draft pick in the summer, you're looking at 35M in space.


With 5 Forwards(Landy/Mack/Mikko/LOC/Newhook), 4D(Makar/Girard/Toews/Byram), and 1G(Francouz) signed.



The good news is we wouldn't have to spend a lot of money on Defense and the top line forwards are taken care of as well.

I don't necessarily disagree with that approach, but having a lot of capspace available doesn't guarantee that there will be good UFA's available who are worth splurging on. Buying out EJ and trading JTC would be pointless unless there's a good player or two willing to sign in Colorado who that capspace can be used on.

Which begs the question, if you have $35m in capspace, how are you spending it?

I'd hazard a guess that your plan would be something along the lines of re-signing Nichuskin (~$5m); Kuemper (~$6m); Lehkonen (~$3.5m); Manson (~$4m); and Sturm (~$2.5m), along with Maltsev, Helm/Cogliano, MacDermid, NAK, a 6D, and a 7D (~$1m each), which amounts to ~$27m.

As shown in the roster below that leaves ~$8m for two middle 6 forwards, which I suppose could for example be Burakovsky (~$6m) or Copp (~$5m), along with a rookie (eg. Olausson/Ranta/Kaut) so as to leave ~$1m+ to account for bonuses and/or cap accrual for the trade deadline.

The tricky part there is that ~$6m+ needs to be freed up again in 2023, but maybe that's a can you kick down the road and decide on who to trade in 2023 out of Girard or Burakovsky (if he's re-signed without NTC). Alternatively you simply do another trade like the Saad rental for one year to fill that 2RW spot for 2022/23 only.

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichuskin ---- Newhook -- XXXX
Lehkonen ------- Sturm ---- XXXX
Helm/Cogliano - Maltsev - O'Connor
NAK, MacDermid

Toews - Makar
Girard - Manson
Byram - $1m 6D
$1m 7D

Kuemper
Francouz

 

[Richard88]

Further to my post above, I wonder if De Brusk or Kubalik wouldn't be smart targets in the off-season if capspace permits.

DeBrusk is cost-controlled at $4m x 2, and Kubalik is an RFA this off-season coming off a down year so shouldn't be too difficult to extend to a similar 2-3 year deal.

The benefit there is that they could fill a 2nd line wing spot for a year, and then if capspace is tight in 2023 you can flip them to regain some of the assets used to acquire them this off-season (if not for more if they have a good season, which is entirely possible playing on a good offensive team). That would at least be smarter asset management than burning assets on a rental forward like we did with Saad.

 

[Bender]

Kuemper is a no win to me unless he’s willing to take a discount.

If he plays well in playoffs he’ll price himself out of here

If he sucks why re-sign him?

I don't necessarily agree with that. First of all, not everyone is Philipp Grubauer all too willing to go to a tire fire as long as he maximizes his bank account. I wonder if he'd make the same choice if he had a do-over? It's going to be a long-ass contract - enjoy it, dumbass!

Secondly, using Grubauer as the example - if Kuemper hits UFA, I don't see him making $7-8 per year. Grubauer put up stellar numbers with the Avs only to suck donkey balls this year. Other teams will certainly have taken notice.

Even when Markstrom was a UFA just 2 years ago, he was probably the only viable goaltender on the market and he settled for a 6x6 contract.

I think Kuemper could do a lot worse than playing for a team like the Avs for the next 4-5 years at a fair contract amount which should probably be between $5.5M and $6.5M per year depending on how it goes in the post-season.

Too many GM's desperate for a starting goalie. Edmonton and NJ to name a few.

Yeah but despite what their fans might think - not everyone is desparate to hit Free Agency just so they can sign with the Oilers so that they need to stand on their head to win because no one on that team plays defense and everybody knows it. If I'm DK, I'm like - yeah, no thanks.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I don't necessarily disagree with that approach, but having a lot of capspace available doesn't guarantee that there will be good UFA's available who are worth splurging on. Buying out EJ and trading JTC would be pointless unless there's a good player or two willing to sign in Colorado who that capspace can be used on.

Which begs the question, if you have $35m in capspace, how are you spending it?

I'd hazard a guess that your plan would be something along the lines of re-signing Nichuskin (~$5m); Kuemper (~$6m); Lehkonen (~$3.5m); Manson (~$4m); and Sturm (~$2.5m), along with Maltsev, Helm/Cogliano, MacDermid, NAK, a 6D, and a 7D (~$1m each), which amounts to ~$27m.

As shown in the roster below that leaves ~$8m for two middle 6 forwards, which I suppose could for example be Burakovsky (~$6m) or Copp (~$5m), along with a rookie (eg. Olausson/Ranta/Kaut) so as to leave ~$1m+ to account for bonuses and/or cap accrual for the trade deadline.

The tricky part there is that ~$6m+ needs to be freed up again in 2023, but maybe that's a can you kick down the road and decide on who to trade in 2023 out of Girard or Burakovsky (if he's re-signed without NTC). Alternatively you simply do another trade like the Saad rental for one year to fill that 2RW spot for 2022/23 only.

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichuskin ---- Newhook -- XXXX
Lehkonen ------- Sturm ---- XXXX
Helm/Cogliano - Maltsev - O'Connor
NAK, MacDermid

Toews - Makar
Girard - Manson
Byram - $1m 6D
$1m 7D

Kuemper
Francouz

Easy no to 3 of the bolded. Well, easy for two of them anyway. Not a chance am I giving Sturm $2.5M to be our 4C, and not a chance am I giving Manson $4M to be our 5/6D. If Sturm asks for that money I just move on from him and use Maltsev as the 4C next year. IMO Newhook needs to be the 3C again next year, he's not ready to be a 2C yet.

I also dont think I would give Kuemper 6M, but I dont think he gets that much anyways. Not unless he has a crazy playoffs.



Manson in particular is such a monumental waste of money. We dont need another Dman making $4M when we already have Toews/Makar/Girard/Byram on the Defense. I'd much rather just bring back JJ at 800k again over paying Manson $4M, that's just paying way too much for a Dman that we dont really need.



If it were me I'd do this:

- Kuemper(At 4x5M, if he wants more then that I'd wait him out and see what the market is going to look like on UFA day just like we did with Grubauer).
- Nuke 6x4.5M
- Lehkonen 4x3.5M
- Jack Johnson 1x800k
- MacDermid 2x900k
- Maltsev 1x900k
- NAK 1x1.0M
- Cogliano 1x800k



Landy - Mack - Mikko
Nuke - ???? - ????
Lehks - Newhook - ????
LOC - Maltsev - NAK
Cogliano



Toews - Makar
Byram - Girard
Johnson - ????
MacDermid



Kuemper
Francouz



With that roster, assuming EJ is bought out and JTC is traded for a draft pick, we'd have 18M in cap space, with basically needing to sign a #5/6D, two top 6 forwards, and a 3rd liner. If it were truly up to me, I'd go after Colin Blackwell for ~2.5M, Trocheck for ~5.5M, a Dman like De Haan or Braun for ~2M,

Then you're left with ~8M in space for the last Top 6 forward spot, they could make a big trade and try to swing someone like Patty Kane, or make a slightly smaller trade for say Miller/Garland/Boeser or whoever it is Vancouver is going to wind up trading, and bank a nice chunk of cap space to be aggressive again at the deadline. The thing I like most about Trocheck and why I'd be hard after him is he's a real solid two-way player and if/when Newhook shows that he is ready to move up to the 2C spot, Trocheck transitions down to become an elite 3C for us and keeps the strength of the center position going forward.


That's what I'd look to do as of right now anyway. I wouldn't be bringing back Manson at all, not unless he really wants to take a sub 3M discount to be a 3rd pairing guy for us. And I dont think Sturm should be the plan for the 3C spot at all.

 

[Bender]

Wanting and getting are two different things... that said, he turned down a 4 year 2.75m per deal from Minnesota. He clearly has his eyes on more.

Then he should definitely fire his agent IF that's true.

Going into the insane cap hell that Bill Guerin and the wild are about to enter, offering $2.75M per year for a player with a career high of 17 points who had been playing on their 4th line is downright irresponsible.

I like Sturm just fine but to demand #3C money, you have to actually play as a #3C succesfully at some point in your career. Even Jay Beagle had a 30 point season before getting "Jay Beagle money"... and most people thought it was hilarious when Benning did that.

The actual retail price on Sturm is $1.25 - $2M per year. He may end up getting more from a stupid team but I'll be surprised if the Avs go higher than $2M. In the end, I won't be surprised if he's a straight up rental for the Avs.

 

[Balthazar]

Sakic made sure over the past few years that most of the contracts that he signed won't get past Mack's current contract. I just don't see him buying out EJ and taking the 2M cap penalty on year 1 of Mack's new contract.

This is just one of the reasons why he won't do it.

Like someone else said earlier in this thread, either EJ is on LTIR next year or he's playing at full cap hit. His 6M is securing Mack's raise the following year anyway.

 

[SaltySkywalker]

I could see Copp fitting in nicely. It's slim pickings at forward and especially center in the FA crop.

2024 NHL Free Agents

Tracking the status and signings of all NHL free agents.

www.spotrac.com

With his early success with NYR, I see him re-signing there.

 

[SaltySkywalker]

Then he should definitely fire his agent IF that's true.

Going into the insane cap hell that Bill Guerin and the wild are about to enter, offering $2.75M per year for a player with a career high of 17 points who had been playing on their 4th line is downright irresponsible.

I like Sturm just fine but to demand #3C money, you have to actually play as a #3C succesfully at some point in your career. Even Jay Beagle had a 30 point season before getting "Jay Beagle money"... and most people thought it was hilarious when Benning did that.

The actual retail price on Sturm is $1.25 - $2M per year. He may end up getting more from a stupid team but I'll be surprised if the Avs go higher than $2M. In the end, I won't be surprised if he's a straight up rental for the Avs.

I wonder if it's one of those cases where he asks for the moon simply because he really doesn't want to play/re-sign in Minny. If he loves COL, I wonder if his demands aren't lowered a bit.

 

[CobraAcesS]

I don't necessarily agree with that. First of all, not everyone is Philipp Grubauer all too willing to go to a tire fire as long as he maximizes his bank account. I wonder if he'd make the same choice if he had a do-over? It's going to be a long-ass contract - enjoy it, dumbass!

Secondly, using Grubauer as the example - if Kuemper hits UFA, I don't see him making $7-8 per year. Grubauer put up stellar numbers with the Avs only to suck donkey balls this year. Other teams will certainly have taken notice.

Even when Markstrom was a UFA just 2 years ago, he was probably the only viable goaltender on the market and he settled for a 6x6 contract.

I think Kuemper could do a lot worse than playing for a team like the Avs for the next 4-5 years at a fair contract amount which should probably be between $5.5M and $6.5M per year depending on how it goes in the post-season.


Yeah but despite what their fans might think - not everyone is desparate to hit Free Agency just so they can sign with the Oilers so that they need to stand on their head to win because no one on that team plays defense and everybody knows it. If I'm DK, I'm like - yeah, no thanks.

Lmao, feel the same way about Groooob. Hated him, liked him, now justification for hating him confirmed.

 

[Richard Doll]

I don't want Newhook at 2C next year. Not with another season of cheap Mackinnon.

This year is our best shot at the cup but next year we still have a decent shot...but we'll need a real 2C.

We are already going to have to find money to resign some guys, plus raises will kick in for Landy and Makar (might already be paying some of that this year, not sure).

 

[The Kingslayer]

I would guess Sakic might roll with MacKinnon/Newhook/Sturm down the middle next season, with Landeskog/Rantanen/Nichushkin/Lehkonen/Compher and one more winger in the top-9.

Is it perfect? No. But I don't see Sakic shelling out big dollars and term for Andrew Copp.

Im not comfortable with the idea of Newhook at 2C. Not yet anyways.

 

[AvsCOL]

Im not comfortable with the idea of Newhook at 2C. Not yet anyways.

Agreed. Going from Kadri to Newhook would be a massive downgrade, and Sturm at 3C maybe just as much a downgrade too. If the Avs don’t re-sign Kadri, they need to bring another 2C in.

 

[Gruyeriev]

With his early success with NYR, I see him re-signing there.

You might be right. I can’t help feeling like this year is like our first year with Roy as coach. Meaning they are headed for a let down the next few years because I don’t think they are as good as they appear to be this year.

 

[Pokecheque]

You might be right. I can’t help feeling like this year is like our first year with Roy as coach. Meaning they are headed for a let down the next few years because I don’t think they are as good as they appear to be this year.

So long as they don't do anything dumb like Sakic and Roy did in that absolutely DISASTROUS 2014 offseason, they should be fine. Much as I have slagged the Rangers for their moves in the last calendar year or so, I actually liked Drury's deadline. He addressed some urgent needs without giving up any real sizable futures. Still think the Boosh trade was dumb (mainly because another Eastern team just handed a phenomenal two-way talent to the Blues for NOTHING) but they haven't made any huge mistakes...yet.

 

[Gruyeriev]

So long as they don't do anything dumb like Sakic and Roy did in that absolutely DISASTROUS 2014 offseason, they should be fine. Much as I have slagged the Rangers for their moves in the last calendar year or so, I actually liked Drury's deadline. He addressed some urgent needs without giving up any real sizable futures. Still think the Boosh trade was dumb (mainly because another Eastern team just handed a phenomenal two-way talent to the Blues for NOTHING) but they haven't made any huge mistakes...yet.

True. I was thinking more like regression from their players not off-season moves. Only time will tell. they certainly have been fortunate with their goaltending.(I don’t mean luck but going from Hank to Igor is pretty fortunate to not have to worry about the position)