Salary Cap: '24-'25 Salary Thread: Crosbicles Volume MMXXVI: Sid is Still Goat

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It doesn’t matter what they ultimately are at the NHL level…they should be given every opportunity to develop into top six scorers because we have a dearth of talent there and at least Koivunen and Broz have shown the ability to score at the AHL level…McG should be given the chance given his pedigree…I really hope he’s more than a bottom six plug, especially if Yager develops into a NHL center…
With our injury history they'd have plenty of top 6 opportunities as long as their on the roster. If Dubas follows through/is able to trade some of his picks and/or prospects, I'd be interested in something like this.
Rakell- Sid- Marner
McTavish- Malkin- Rust
(I don't think McTavish is available but someone like him. About 22 that can play center or wing and can take over when 71 retires.)
McRoarty- Broz- Tomasino
Pono/Lizzo- Lizzo/Pono- Acciari/Gruden

If Dubas can't acquire a young 22ish C, roll Koivunen and maybe re-sign Grizz instead of taking a measly 3rd. Or trade for a young top 4 D.
 
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would be highly interested in Clarke obv but also a unprotected ’26 1st

Not convinced that the Kings arent gonna have the wheels fall off at some point.
 
They should absolutely sell high on Rakell

Also get mid round picks/prospects for Bunting/Grz/Beauvillier/Heinen/Hayes/Acciari/Ned if possible

Nieto is just waiver fodder

Glass and Tomasino have shown enough and are young enough that they should stick around, Glass especially just needs to stay healthy and I think he can be an extremely competent 3rd line utility player in a year or two

Also think they keep Lizotte in the mix

For the offseason, would be fine with throwing a bag at Marner but bigger issue in my view is they need a 2C to help out Malkin and shift him to the wing, he is a negative there at this point
 
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I wouldn’t trade Rakell for a good teams 1st at this point. It needs to include a young guy who is already developed. I’m not trading Sids best winger for what could be Sam Poulin in 5 years.

Anyone not in the top 3 picks is going to be a lotto ticket. I'd be fine with a 1st for Rakell regardless if it's 10th or 20th overall.
 
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Turcotte+Greentree+Kirsanov and no picks would be kinda enticing as well from LA.

Anyone not in the top 3 picks is going to be a lotto ticket. I'd be fine with a 1st for Rakell regardless if it's 10th or 20th overall.
Yeah I’m ok with rolling the dice on a team like LA where they are old. Or Ottawa who is not super established. Protection would hopefully be whittled down to like top 3 or top 5.

I’d be happy taking that risk. They are saying 26 is a strong draft too. But take that with a grain of salt haha.
 
Turcotte+Greentree+Kirsanov and no picks would be kinda enticing as well from LA.


Yeah I’m ok with rolling the dice on a team like LA where they are old. Or Ottawa who is not super established. Protection would hopefully be whittled down to like top 3 or top 5.

I’d be happy taking that risk. They are saying 26 is a strong draft too. But take that with a grain of salt haha.
Turcotte + would be my second choice if Clarke is unavailable as well, fits in given his injury history

Just getting a mid round 2025 1st for Rakell would be a miss imo
 
-Buyout Jarry and Hayes
-Re-sign Glass ($2 million), Tomasino ($2 million), Hallander ($1 million), Ponomarev ($900k) and POJ ($1 million)

Rakell-Crosby-Rust
Bunting-Malkin-XXXX
Heinen-Glass-Tomasino
Hallander-Lizotte-Acciari
Ponomarev-Hayes

XXXX-Karlsson
POJ-Letang
Koly-Desharnais
Graves

Nedjelkovic-Blomqvist

You have $20 million in cap space with a $95.5 million cap if you do this, and I'd probably try to see if I can move Hayes by retaining another 50% on him for a draft pick to open up another $1.8 million. That's definitely enough money for Marner and probably enough money for Marner and Chychrun combined.

Barf let glass go. This team should be playing young players like Pono not blocking them. Waste of 2 million.
 
Anyone not in the top 3 picks is going to be a lotto ticket. I'd be fine with a 1st for Rakell regardless if it's 10th or 20th overall.
The evidence is pretty clear that the likelihood of getting a good player 20th overall is way lower than 4-10. Unless you have a *set* plan to flip that pick for a player it doesn’t make sense with what they want to do. You’re talking anout an asset that will only be relevant when Crosby retires if ever. That may be fine with some of the board, but that clearly isn’t in line with mgmt’s stated goals.
 
Anyone not in the top 3 picks is going to be a lotto ticket. I'd be fine with a 1st for Rakell regardless if it's 10th or 20th overall.
I think around 8 but there's clearly two/three tiers.

Schaefer, Hagens, Misa, Martone (likely in that order).

McQueen, Frondell, Desnoyers, Eklund

That said I think the gap between Eklund and Misa is fairly decent. After 8-10, you're right you're getting a McGroarty/Yager and then it's up in the air about future impact.

We need NYR to continue to suck so we have two unprotected 1sts in the draft next year. Then we need to continue to root for the demise of NYR.
 
Ponomarev needs to not be awful in the NHL before I just gift him a spot.

Benching him as the 13th forward is about the worse thing you can do for him then. A whole 6 career games tells you absolutely nothing.

That's just awful player development. They need spots for players to compete. If you don't bring in glass then Poulin and Pono actually get time this year to see what you have in them.
 
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Looking at LA, I think about all we are looking at for Rakell would be a 1st. I'd be fine with a 2026 1st. The only prospect they have that I see being part of a discussion is Jakub Dvorak. 2nd round pick dman. Big dude who is not overly flashy. I would say closer to the Orpik/Dumo/Petts mold. Not a super exciting prospect but everyone else sucks or is too good realistically let go (Brandt, Greentreen, etc).

Dvorak+2025 1st for Rakell+...something small? Poulin or Shea or a 4th.
 
Speaking of LA and Rakell, I think the issue with targeting any young players with LA is that they're either too good to trade for Rakell (Clarke, Byfield and Laferriere) or they're not super appealing due to red flags they have (Turcotte and Spence). I think something like Moore and a 2026 1st is the most realistic package you'd get from LA for Rakell.

Benching him as the 13th forward is about the worse thing you can do for him then. A whole 6 career games tells you absolutely nothing.

That's just awful player development. They need spots for players to compete. If you don't bring in glass then Poulin and Pono actually get time this year to see what you have in them.

Glass is a 25 year old bottom-6 center who's bland but effective in the role. Throwing him aside to try Poulin there, who's not much younger and has performed far worse than Glass has, is silly.

Again, young players shouldn't just be gifted spots just because they're young guys. I'm not throwing aside effective and fairly young pieces just for the sake of throwing them aside. If you can get something worthwhile in a trade for him, then sure move on from him.
 
Benching him as the 13th forward is about the worse thing you can do for him then. A whole 6 career games tells you absolutely nothing.

That's just awful player development. They need spots for players to compete. If you don't bring in glass then Poulin and Pono actually get time this year to see what you have in them.
I don't think the FO is looking at "development" solely as "play in the NHL when young and learn". I think they think being in the AHL on a loaded team getting top line minutes is quite valuable, which it is. Given that the Pens aren't going to be making any noise, you may as well let WBS go for it because lord knows it's been a hot minute for them and Wheeling. Winning and building confidence as a top line player > slugging it out in the NHL on the 3rd/4th line for 9min. I believe this is why we saw Imama and not one of the younger studs like Pono.

I will say though, I agree that we certainly need to get him more games. 100% and I think that will manifest after the TDL unless we take a contract back for extra value, which would be fine by me as well. It just means next year you are a little more "ride or die" with him when it comes to building the roster and filling it out. But I mean, we still have Heinen, Lizotte, Acciari, Hayes, and (IMHO) Glass next year so the spots are already thin. I would hope Dubas goes on a cleaning spree and moves a couple guys out.

My hope would be Sullivan can recalibrate the system and strategy a bit to accommodate these new kids and actually have a plan to work them into the lineup.

The one complete wild card at the moment is Hallander. I have no idea if we are going to get Poulin 2.0 or Hagelin/Hornqvist (meaning an effective top 6 player).
 
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Speaking of LA and Rakell, I think the issue with targeting any young players with LA is that they're either too good to trade for Rakell (Clarke, Byfield and Laferriere) or they're not super appealing due to red flags they have (Turcotte and Spence). I think something like Moore and a 2026 1st is the most realistic package you'd get from LA for Rakell.

It sucks Fiala is producing. Rakell for Fiala would've been such a win for us.
 
I also don't know why people ignore that injuries happen and even the 13th forward on the Penguins would get a boatload of ice time. The Penguins have 14 forwards who have played in at least 25 games this year, and that's while the team has been generally healthy for the most part. Even as a 13th forward, Ponomarev would likely still be playing in about 40-50 games next year. And that's assuming he wouldn't play well enough to displace someone in the top-12 and the Penguins wouldn't sell off some of their older guys in the top-12 to open up a spot for him.
 

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