Salary Cap: '24-'25 Salary Thread: Crosbicles Volume MMXXV - Poolman and Poolparty?!?

[HandshakeLine]

There is no quick return to contention: that's the reason we're in this mess. We don't have a foundation to contend with. If we did, then sure, holding on to Rackell or whoever makes some sense. But we don't and the pieces we do have make no sense with what the team is trying to do. EK65 shouldn't even be here, even if we were contending, since Sullivan doesn't want to use him in a way that is actually useful.

I still maintain that if we had one or two young (I don't mean 27+ here) pieces to build around, you could hope for a quick turn around, but we do not have those pieces yet. So in order to actually do something worthwhile, we need to find a way to get those. Otherwise, we're just swindling ourselves.

But lastly, even if we started the rebuild now, if properly done, we shouldn't be waiting 10 years to make it to the playoffs. That's simply ridiculous.

I mean, let's be honest, we're essentially throwing everything at the wall just to prop Sid up as a PPG player, we don't have anywhere near enough talent to realistically build around.

 

[cygnus47]

For me it just depends on the return. I'm not getting rid of him just to do it. There's no point in that.

As above it's really just about the return for me. I'm not in favor of just nuking the entire roster for scraps. If Rakell brings back good assets then great, move him. If he doesn't, there's really no point in getting rid of him just to do it.

Same thing with Karlsson.

That's assuming the goal is "contend again asap". If Dubas pivots from that to "f*** all of this" then sure trade everyone for whatever . But I'm assuming as long as Sid is still here that the goal is a quick return to contention and not a 10 year plan.

IMO Dubas is just toeing the company line to keep gate revenue up. The second we admit we’re tanking no one will watch the games for a good couple years. We’ll be back to student rush to get up to 50% attendance and FSG will get all huffy about it.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

You work to move anybody with any value to A. make the team as bad as possible to chase legit franchise pillars like McKenna and Dupont, B. accrue as much draft capital and young players as possible, and C. free up cap to take on bad contracts for even more assets. The goal is to be as bad as possible over the next few years to try and hit it big in the draft.

Like HSL said; there's no easy way out of this. There's no cutting corners. This team's just gonna have to rely on smart moves, drafting, development, and of course a buncha luck.

And, as always, fire Sullivan. The guy cannot be around to influence draft picks or be responsible for molding the game of the next crop of foundational prospects. I hope that when the team parts ways, they don't do the dumbest shit and keep him around as the GM. Genuinely worried about that.

 

[HandshakeLine]

And for clarity, I think you don’t need a Sid/Geno generational caliber guy to build around, either. But if you don’t have that guy, the quality of the supporting cast and coaching needs to be higher which requires much better management and vision from the front office than we’ve seen.

It’s not impossible by any means but it’s not easy and I remain thus far unconvinced that Dubas can make those moves. But I hope I’m wrong.