Rumor: 2022-2023 Trade Rumors and Free Agency: Let’s Run it Back!

[Peter Peckerwood]

The cupboard is bare!

PS. You consistently have some of the best written posts on the board—very big fan of reading your contributions. Perhaps because of the otherwise high quality of your posts, it really bugs me to see you misspell Nichushkin every time. The middle syllable is "Choosh" and not "Choos."

Do you remember the dark times when Mr. 88 wasn't posting at all and we were rudderless with cap numbers; projected rosters and good insights??? Let's forgive and be thankful.

 

[The Merchant]

 

[Richard88]

They could easily afford him/make room for him. Ditto Palat, I think Palat just wants an uncomfortable number from Tampa. Its smart from Tampa to not give him 6+ if that's what he is asking. Especially if they think they can get the younger and better Nichushkin for 6+ instead.


They have about $5.75M in space right now.... But simply moving Killorn would given them even more space. Not a hard move for them to make if they really wanted too. And they've certainly shown to be a franchise willing to do what it takes.

Palat at age 31 is primed for a big payday and his best years are behind him so that probably won't be a player Sakic goes after in UFA even if Nichushkin walks.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

After reading that, there's no way I sign him. They acknowledge in the article that his knee isn't good, but blamed his labored skating on not being able to train right last year. Pouting about not feeling wanted? Get out of here with that mess. The Pens offered him 3 × $6M, and he went weeks before coming back with the 4 × $6M demand. If he wants 4 × $6M from the Pens, what's he gonna want as a UFA? Plus, he's 36 with a bum knee.

 

[Richard88]

After reading that, there's no way I sign him. They acknowledge in the article that his knee isn't good, but blamed his labored skating on not being able to train right last year. Pouting about not feeling wanted? Get out of here with that mess. The Pens offered him 3 × $6M, and he went weeks before coming back with the 4 × $6M demand. If he wants 4 × $6M from the Pens, what's he gonna want as a UFA? Plus, he's 36 with a bum knee.

FSG have a history of being extremely calculated and ruthless when necessary when it comes to contracts. At Liverpool for example they sanctioned the sales of Suarez and Coutinho and also released club icon Steven Gerrard instead of letting him retire at the club on a legacy contract. They also just won a staring competition with Mohamed Salah who was one year away from free agency. Needless to say I doubt they'll cave much when it comes to Malkin, especially if they think there are doubts about his knee.

As to your point though, I agree the AVS probably won't touch Malkin unless it's like a 1 year deal.

 

[ndmd99]

 

[Balthazar]

Bad for the Preds but they had no choice I guess.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

 

[Richard88]

Below is a list of remaining free agent goaltenders (from the main boards).

Edmonton, Toronto, Washington, and Buffalo are still on the market for a starter, and the options are pretty dire to say the least. It puts into perspective how good it is that Sakic has already sorted the goalie position.

It would obviously be great if Sakic can get a pick for Kuemper's rights, but for that to happen Kuemper has to play ball and be willing to sign before UFA. If you're his agent though you're probably advising him to wait to encourage a bidding war.

If anyone were to trade for him without having a pre-agreed contract they'll also weaken their negotiation position in talks with Kuemper as they'll already be partly invested and thus give his agent more leverage.

The biggest winners here will obviously be Kuemper and Campbell. It's a bit of a lose-lose for those teams looking for a starter though: either they have no good starter, or they sign one of these guys and are stuck with their contracts. Alternatively they pay a big price in a trade for Gibson/Varlamov/etc, but those are risky too considering the prices needed to get them.

G Kuemper - Colorado
G Campbell - Toronto
G Holtby - Dallas
G Greiss - Detroit
G Halak - Vancouver
G Jones - Philadelphia
G Comrie - Winnipeg
G Lankinen - Chicago
G Rittich - Nashville
G Tokarski - Buffalo
G Lindgren - St. Louis
G Subban - Buffalo
G Hellberg - Detroit
G Sateri - Arizona
G Hutchinson - Toronto
G Pickard - Detroit
G Domingue - Pittsburgh
G Berube - Columbus
G Hammond - New Jersey
G Gillies - New Jersey
G Kinkaid - NY Rangers
G Lagace - Tampa Bay
G Grosenick - Boston
G Delia - Chicago
G Stalock - San Jose
G Dell - Buffalo
G Schneider - NY Islanders
G McIntyre - Minnesota
G Lyon - Carolina
G Copley - Washington
G Huska - NY Rangers
G Gibson - Florida
G Sparks - Los Angeles
G Bibeau - Seattle
G Appleby - NY Islanders
G Houser - Buffalo
G Booth - Boston
G Johnson - Columbus

 

[LOFIN]

Edmonton, Toronto, Washington, Buffalo, and NJ are still on the market for a starter, and the options are pretty dire to say the least.

Are they though? I would imagine they are going to run with Vanecek and Blackwood. Not saying it's a wise choise but that's what it seems to me. If they move out Blackwood then obviously everything changes.

But yeah. Edmonton, Toronto and Washington. Basically two UFA goalies. One of these teams is going to have go for the trade option and call Anaheim, Minnesota or NYI.

 

[Richard88]

Are they though? I would imagine they are going to run with Vanecek and Blackwood. Not saying it's a wise choise but that's what it seems to me. If they move out Blackwood then obviously everything changes.

But yeah. Edmonton, Toronto and Washington. Basically two UFA goalies. One of these teams is going to have go for the trade option and call Anaheim, Minnesota or NYI.

Oh yeah sorry I forgot about that Vanecek trade. Will edit the post to remove NJ.

The smart move for these teams seems to be to trade for Varlamov, as that would save them the assets it would take to get Gibson, and the big money/term to sign Kuemper or Campbell.

Varlamov and Gibson's NTC's complicate things though, especially for Edmonton who both goalies have already blocked trades to in the recent past iirc. Ken Holland's basically has to get Kuemper or Campbell, or try to pry Talbot out of Guerin's "IDGAF" hands.

Safe to say Kuemper's agent has these GM's in a very vulnerable position.

 

[hughdreamz]

Come on dominos, start to fall

 

[CalderKing21]

Yup. A year on from now, we are basically going to have 45% of our cap tied to 4 players (MacK, Landeskog, Makar, Rantanen). We really have to start being careful with every contract after that. Is Nuke worth 6m if he continues to play like this season? Absolutely. Is he worth that if he plays like he did during his first 2 years here? No. Can't afford it if he won't hit 0,5PPG, not even with the other intangibles he provides.

If his number starts with a 6 I'm going to be torn. If it's around 5 it's good. Under 5, it's a great deal.

I don’t think we have to worry about his scoring falling off. He’s likely to take on a larger role in the offense with Kadri gone and us breaking in some newer forwards that will take time to make more robust offensive contributions.

 

[Balthazar]

I'm having a hard time to believe that we'll sign a 2C during free agent frenzy. Sakic doesn't pay through the nose and hand max term contracts to UFA's unless your name is Landeskog (and even then it wasn't easy). He's not going to give 6-7 years to guys like Copp or Trocheck but other teams will.

There's another plan to replace Kadri and we just don't know it yet.

 

[CalderKing21]

I'm having a hard time to believe that we'll sign a 2C during free agent frenzy. Sakic doesn't pay through the nose and hand max term contracts to UFA's unless your name is Landeskog (and even then it wasn't easy). He's not going to give 6-7 years to guys like Copp or Trocheck but other teams will.

There's another plan to replace Kadri and we just don't know it yet.

Wasn’t he willing to pay out the noae for Panarin and the Rangers just outbid us?

 

[Richard88]

I'm having a hard time to believe that we'll sign a 2C during free agent frenzy. Sakic doesn't pay through the nose and hand max term contracts to UFA's unless your name is Landeskog (and even then it wasn't easy). He's not going to give 6-7 years to guys like Copp or Trocheck but other teams will.

There's another plan to replace Kadri and we just don't know it yet.

Sakic hasn't signed big UFA's lately, but he did at least try with Panarin for example. The key was that he was responsible about it, offering only a 4 year deal at the highest value and a lower AAV for more term.

Copp is asking for $5.5m x7 but that could simply be his agent setting an anchor for negotiation talks. If he would come down to like $5m x6 maybe that's low enough for Sakic to bite.

It seems unlikely that Copp would take a paycut when he'll be a hot commodity in UFA though, and Sakic doesn't tend to pay market rate to UFA's. The trade route seems like the most likely avenue at this point.

Btw Forsberg at $8.5mx8 makes Landeskog's contract look even better.

 

[LOFIN]

Wasn’t he willing to pay out the noae for Panarin and the Rangers just outbid us?

Panarin has denied it in later interviews, but there were rumours that it was basically his GF saying we're going to NY. Panarin was interested in Colorado, MacK actually called him to convince him something of that accord. But one important thing here is that Sakic was willing to do a short but rich contract. Sakic offered something like 13m for two years or something like that. Obviously 7x11,643 beats that...

EDIT: @Richard88 probably has the more accurate numbers for Panarin, 4 years?

 

[Foppberg]

I'm having a hard time to believe that we'll sign a 2C during free agent frenzy. Sakic doesn't pay through the nose and hand max term contracts to UFA's unless your name is Landeskog (and even then it wasn't easy). He's not going to give 6-7 years to guys like Copp or Trocheck but other teams will.

There's another plan to replace Kadri and we just don't know it yet.

Two names that immediately jump out to me are Schmaltz and Gourde.

 

[hughdreamz]

Two names that immediately jump out to me are Schmaltz and Gourde.

Schiefele

 

[Balthazar]

With Panarin we offered a slightly higher AAV in exchange for much shorter term (he was never going to accept that anyway). Regardless, it's out of the question now because we don't have enough cap space to do that with Trocheck or Copp.

 

[Richard88]

Panarin has denied it in later interviews, but there were rumours that it was basically his GF saying we're going to NY. Panarin was interested in Colorado, MacK actually called him to convince him something of that accord. But one important thing here is that Sakic was willing to do a short but rich contract. Sakic offered something like 13m for two years or something like that. Obviously 7x11,643 beats that...

EDIT: @Richard88 probably has the more accurate numbers for Panarin, 4 years?

Iirc it was 4 years X $12.5m, and 7 years X $11.6m (basically matching the deal he got with NYR).

 

[Foppberg]

Schiefele

Not sure we have the assets for that. He'd be more expensive than Miller.

 

[Balthazar]

Two names that immediately jump out to me are Schmaltz and Gourde.

Don't think Seattle is interested in moving Gourde and not sure Schmaltz is reliable enough to be a 2C on a Stanley cup team.

 

[Hasbro]

Come on dominos, start to fall

I mean their pizza is shitty, but it would hurt a lot of franchisees.

With Panarin we offered a slightly higher AAV in exchange for much shorter term (he was never going to accept that anyway). Regardless, it's out of the question now because we don't have enough cap space to do that with Trocheck or Copp.

It would take dumping JTC.

 

[CalderKing21]

Panarin has denied it in later interviews, but there were rumours that it was basically his GF saying we're going to NY. Panarin was interested in Colorado, MacK actually called him to convince him something of that accord. But one important thing here is that Sakic was willing to do a short but rich contract. Sakic offered something like 13m for two years or something like that. Obviously 7x11,643 beats that...

EDIT: @Richard88 probably has the more accurate numbers for Panarin, 4 years?

I remember it being like 2 separate offers, one for more aav and one for more term.