Rumor: 2023-24 Trade Rumors and Free Agency: Season Thread

[BobRossColton]

1st
Girard
Ritchie

Lindholm
One of their minor Dmen

Resign Lindholm 6x8

Use Behrens to get another #4,5, 6

 

[John Mandalorian]

He’d be an obvious one but will cost to get rid of… and your basically then running 3/6 on the defense at or near league minimum… that bottom 4 would be brutal

Manson’s injuries kind of makes that moot.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Manson. Duh.

I mean you'd have to be okay with paying to get rid of him.

 

[henchman21]

Manson’s injuries kind of makes that moot.

Manson in general means the bottom 4 would be bad... the cap situation gets even tighter if you have to carry extras as well. Basically, the Avs can't afford a 9m player without 3 contracts going out. It would hurt the already fragile depth.

 

[Mighty Makar]

Lindholm will cost too much to keep. Let’s try Kadri? I wonder if the Flames are willing to retain for 6 years. Ahha

 

[dahrougem2]

I think we're going to see the Avs moving on from Manson, Girard, and Johansen next offseason with an outside possibility at Nichushkin.

They'll 100% be banking on the arrival of Kovalenko and the "continued" progression of Foudy if he ever gets healthy as NHL contributors in 24-25, with an outside possibility at Ritchie.

I also think the Avs are going to give Caleb Jones every opportunity to show his worth this season to see if he can "replace" Girard/JMFJ as a good skating PK guy on the 3rd pairing.

We'll see how things go. Obviously, moves to be made to fit Landeskog + depth pieces under the cap and still contend.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Manson in general means the bottom 4 would be bad... the cap situation gets even tighter if you have to carry extras as well. Basically, the Avs can't afford a 9m player without 3 contracts going out. It would hurt the already fragile depth.

The point being, you had Manson penciled in at 4.5. When he’s injured, which is often, you’re kind of playing with league minimum guys trying to cover for his absence anyway.

 

[henchman21]

The point being, you had Manson penciled in at 4.5. When he’s injured, which is often, you’re kind of playing with league minimum guys trying to cover for his absence anyway.

I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm simply stating that the Avs can't really afford a $9m guy with out major changes and more hits to the depth. Not matter how you slice it, you'd need RyJo, G, and one other contract ~4+m to be gone and those guys replaced mostly by near league minimum guys. Many of the current depth players, for all of their faults, are still leagues better than minimum guys.

Manson being injured would potentially be a bit of a buffer and good thing though. Could LTIR for a while and gain some breathing room.

 

[henchman21]

I think we're going to see the Avs moving on from Manson, Girard, and Johansen next offseason with an outside possibility at Nichushkin.

They'll 100% be banking on the arrival of Kovalenko and the "continued" progression of Foudy if he ever gets healthy as NHL contributors in 24-25, with an outside possibility at Ritchie.

I also think the Avs are going to give Caleb Jones every opportunity to show his worth this season to see if he can "replace" Girard/JMFJ as a good skating PK guy on the 3rd pairing.

We'll see how things go. Obviously, moves to be made to fit Landeskog + depth pieces under the cap and still contend.

It'll probably be something like that. There will be a pretty large reliance on cheap players and hoping guys translate well. My bet is that Ritchie will be give every opportunity to have a NHL spot and the Avs will try the Johnston route of development with him. Such is the cycle of a late window team.

Of note, the reliance on the ELCs will bring along with it some risk of bonuses. I see guys like Pavel, Kovalenko, and Ritchie all having a 10 game or so games played bonus and then Ritchie having a couple extras in the ~275-325k range. So potentially around or just short of a half mil of exposure there.

 

[dahrougem2]

It'll probably be something like that. There will be a pretty large reliance on cheap players and hoping guys translate well. My bet is that Ritchie will be give every opportunity to have a NHL spot and the Avs will try the Johnston route of development with him. Such is the cycle of a late window team.

Of note, the reliance on the ELCs will bring along with it some risk of bonuses. I see guys like Pavel, Kovalenko, and Ritchie all having a 10 game or so games played bonus and then Ritchie having a couple extras in the ~275-325k range. So potentially around or just short of a half mil of exposure there.

I think the 4th line next season will be Pavel - Foudy - O'Connor if the Avs are looking to go cheap. 3rd defense pairing might also be Jones - Malinski who only see 12-14 minutes per night. Prosvetov will likely return as the backup as well for 1M or less.

Johansen I think is getting bought out, while Manson gets traded attached to a draft pick for nothing in return and Girard is moved for futures.

You still IMO have to move a guy like Nichushkin. Though I could see the Avs moving Lehkonen and saying Kovalenko will do what he does for 1/4 the price.

 

[henchman21]

I think the 4th line next season will be Pavel - Foudy - O'Connor if the Avs are looking to go cheap. 3rd defense pairing might also be Jones - Malinski who only see 12-14 minutes per night. Prosvetov will likely return as the backup as well for 1M or less.

Johansen I think is getting bought out, while Manson gets traded attached to a draft pick for nothing in return and Girard is moved for futures.

You still IMO have to move a guy like Nichushkin. Though I could see the Avs moving Lehkonen and saying Kovalenko will do what he does for 1/4 the price.

It all sounds reasonable to me. The RyJo buyout would be a tough pill.. that's $2m against the cap for 2 years, but on the flip, they likely to have to spend assets to drop Manson too.

I'd guess they'd try to find another vet like Cogs for the 4th line, but as the season progresses both Pavel and Foudy likely get runs. I'd expect LOC on the 3rd line though. I don't see how the Avs really escape that. If they keep all the wings and health permits, maybe.. but two fairly large ifs.

Nuke is probably the best candidate to move out of the bigger contracts. He's injured a good amount, his a prime risk for regression, but he's still enough of a name and stats guy that you can get something out of him... the problem is though, he has a full NMC until July 2025. That could complicate things a lot. Whereas Lehky's NTC opens up this summer to 19 teams.

No matter what though, there is going to have to be a few moves to even ice a roster. To improve with a decently paid player, there might have to be 4+ moves.

 

[Pokecheque]

That's all on Kadri and his agent , he won the cup and wanted to cash in and he did ... now he's paying the price. All he had to do was to be reasonnable in his demands back then and both Him and Avs would have won. Now Both parties are in a situation where they are not confortable with what they have. All Kadri had to do back then, was to take shorter deal and the Avs wouldnt be looking for a 2C , win win .

If anyone else was in Naz’s shoes they’d opt for the payday too. Avs made their choice when they chose to re-up Manson, which IMO is a worse contract dollar-for-dollar.

Trade Girard, get rid of MacDermid etc.. should free up enough cap space to resign Lindholm 7x7 and never worry about 2C again

1. That won't be nearly enough to sign him.
2. You'll have to move more than G to fit him under the cap with Toews' extension kicking in and Landeskog returning.

 

[dahrougem2]

Nazem Kadri saw the Flames' best player ask out and still signed there for huge money and term.

If they rebuild, nobody is taking him on unless the Flames retain in a big way. He's going to have to suffer through that. It was his choice.

 

[Mighty Makar]

Would the Flames retain $1M-$2M on Kadri?

 

[henchman21]

If anyone else was in Naz’s shoes they’d opt for the payday too. Avs made their choice when they chose to re-up Manson, which IMO is a worse contract dollar-for-dollar.


1. That won't be nearly enough to sign him.
2. You'll have to move more than G to fit him under the cap with Toews' extension kicking in and Landeskog returning.

People either forget this or are simply ignoring it. It may not be the right move, but surely Landy is going to attempt to play next season and the Avs have to plan their cap situation around that.

Nazem Kadri saw the Flames' best player ask out and still signed there for huge money and term.

If they rebuild, nobody is taking him on unless the Flames retain in a big way. He's going to have to suffer through that. It was his choice.

Kadri also would have been sold on the Flames electing to go with a 'win-now' package instead of a futures. He surely knew the risk, but getting more and being promised it would be competitive is simply not being realized. I don't blame him for not wanting to be in a rebuild... but I also don't feel sorry for him either.

Would the Flames retain $1M-$2M on Kadri?

I'd say the odds are very low... 6 seasons is an awfully long time and there is buyout risk to future cap situations.

 

[Pokecheque]

Kadri also would have been sold on the Flames electing to go with a 'win-now' package instead of a futures. He surely knew the risk, but getting more and being promised it would be competitive is simply not being realized. I don't blame him for not wanting to be in a rebuild... but I also don't feel sorry for him either.

Agreed.

 

[Balthazar]

Kadri scored his 3rd goal of the season last night. RyJo has 5.

Can we calm the f*** down with bringing him back? He's not good and not the player you remember. We dodged a bullet, if anything.

 

[MacKaRant]

Landy 7.0 - MacK 12.6 - Rants 9.25
Lehky 4.5 - Lindholm 9.0 - Nuke 6.125
Wood 2.5 - Colton 4.0 - LOC 1.05
____-____-____

Toews 7.25 - Makar 9.0
Byram 3.85 - Manson 4.5
___-___

George 3.5
____

That's 84.125m on a cap of 87.5 (at the high end). League minimum is 775k and 6 spots is 4.65m... so that would be a cap hit of 88.775m. You gotta cut one more guy (not LOC) and replace cheaply.

Yeah, this goes to show that Lindholm at 9M is not the way. You need value contracts to succeed in a salary cap world, and Lindholm at 9M is just not it. There is no salary cap efficiency to that contract even in year one, much less the last half of the contract. We really need for a draft pick to hit big or somehow acquire a young center prospect that another team has given up on prematurely.

Also, side note, if the lineup above doesn't work for next season without more cuts, where does that leave us for 2025-26 with the Rantanen and Byram extensions due?

 

[AvalancheSpeedsters]

Would the Flames retain $1M-$2M on Kadri?

If they are desperate to reset their team yes . Their management would , the ownership i’m not so sure

 

[Ararana]

Kadri scored his 3rd goal of the season last night. RyJo has 5.

Can we calm the f*** down with bringing him back? He's not good and not the player you remember. We didged a bullet, if anything.

Yeah, RyJo's 1 5v5 point is wildly reassuring...

 

[henchman21]

Kadri scored his 3rd goal of the season last night. RyJo has 5.

Can we calm the f*** down with bringing him back? He's not good and not the player you remember. We didged a bullet, if anything.

He's the player he was for the first two seasons tho.

You're cherry picking some stats though. Kadri does only have 3 goals, but he also has 6 assists. Only 1G and 1A are on the power play. 1G 5A are 5v5 and 1 ENG. Ryan Johansen has 5G and 1A for 6 points... how he is getting those is vastly different though. RyJo also has 1ENG. 3G and 1A are on the powerplay which points to just 1G 5v5. Which is the main issue here. Kadri would very likely produce in a similar manner to RyJo on the powerplay while actually having some production 5v5. Now the difference won't be this drastic all season... but I'd say odds are very high Kadri end up with a lot more 5v5 points than RyJo. And that is really what the Avs are lacking more than anything else... 5v5 production.

Also, side note, if the lineup above doesn't work for next season without more cuts, where does that leave us for 2025-26 with the Rantanen and Byram extensions due?

The answer is in an even worse spot. The cap issues simply don't improve over the next few seasons and after that we are relying on the CBA negotiations to improve the situation (while the RSO somehow doesn't blow up). That doesn't mean thing are impossible, but odds are some hard decisions are coming down the pipeline.

 

[Pokecheque]

Kadri scored his 3rd goal of the season last night. RyJo has 5.

Can we calm the f*** down with bringing him back? He's not good and not the player you remember. We didged a bullet, if anything.

To be clear, I'm not clamoring for Naz to come back. I wouldn't scoff at the idea either if there was a way to bring him back and not completely wreck the cap situation worse than it already is.

Also, Naz would likely have a more than 3 goals if he were still in Colorado. Calgary doesn't have anything remotely resembling Cale Makar (even the hobbled version we've watched this season), they also don't have a Rants or a MacKinnon either.

In any event, I'm not holding my breath for the Avs to swing some huge deal. They just have to find a way to make this mix of players work somehow. If it fails, they'll make whatever moves they gotta make in the offseason.

 

[henchman21]

In any event, I'm not holding my breath for the Avs to swing some huge deal. They just have to find a way to make this mix of players work somehow. If it fails, they'll make whatever moves they gotta make in the offseason.

100% agree. There really isn't much that can be tweaked right now. They have to live and die a bit by the risks they have taken. At the deadline they might be able to tweak on the fringes, but we are looking more at a middle 6 wing and bottom pairing defensemen as the higher impact. I'd also think they will grab a 2G by the deadline as insurance.

 

[The Abusement Park]

CBJ player on waivers??? CMac frothing at the mouth right now.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

CBJ player on waivers??? CMac frothing at the mouth right now.

Will be an Av this time tomorrow