Player Discussion Alex DeBrincat

[DaveMatthew]

Remember when Karlsson sent out a farewell tweet in San Jose.

Right, and then San Jose made it worth his while and paid him $11.5M per season to stay. From what I remember, they made him the highest paid defenseman, and 2nd highest paid player, in the league?

What will it take to make it worth Debrincat's while? $8.5M per? $9M? You keep talking like he's signed... but he's not.

If you give him over $7.5M, something else has to give. You can't address goaltending. And if you don't give him that, he leaves, and while you can then address goaltending, you open up a hole in the top 6.

So what's better. Keep Debrincat or improve goaltending? We can't do both.

 

[PlayOn]

Because Debrincat will be overpaid as a 2nd line and 2nd PP player who has challenges defensively.

It’s ok to have overpaid players, as long as they are actually good. Every team has some. What he brings to the table makes it worth it even if we’d like his contract to be 1.5 million lower. Also think it might be a stretch to declare him a 2nd line player.

I’m not a fan of this team losing a legitimate top 6 forward just for the sake of cap space when our situation beyond next year is actually fine as the cap begins going up and we lose the dead cap. Yeah it would be nice to have more leeway to upgrade the team for next year but we don’t have gaping holes - our goaltending is our biggest question mark but Forsberg/Sogaard is not a terrible gamble to take.

 

[swiftwin]

People need to understand if we re-sign DeBrincat to an 8M deal, we have no money left over.

Would barely have enough to re-sign Pinto and Brannstrom on cheap short-term deals and fill out the rest of the roster with cheap depth paid around league minimum.

Would leave zero room to re-sign Hamonic and no room to add a competent goalie, which is kind of a necessity given Forsberg is hardly a proven #1 and is coming off multiple MCL tears.

Might be in the best interest of both parties to move him somewhere else.

This is what I got with a 21 man roster with Pinto @ 2.2x2, Brann @ 1.6 and Hamonic @ 1.3:

 

[Sun God Nika]

Ya none of us are professional body language readers and it could very well be early signs of Cat negotiating.

BUT. He does sound kind of non committal . How hard is it to say. "I absolutely love it here, and excited to see what we do next year! The contract stuff you will have to reach out to my agent for."

Especially considering the fact that he is still under team control.

 

[DaveMatthew]

This is what I got with a 21 man roster with Pinto @ 2.2x2, Brann @ 1.6 and Hamonic @ 1.3:
View attachment 688600

You're not making the playoffs with a Forsberg/Sogaard tandem.

 

[GCK]

DeBrincat was a big factor on the PP1 unit so not sure why he's going down to PP2. He had a down year and still led the team in assists, points, and 2nd in goals.

Yeah yeah Norris is coming back. Whatever. That doesn't automatically bump him down and he's excellent at entering the zone and making good plays on the PP. He keeps the play alive regularly where others cough it up.

His challenges defensively are being on the ice more than any other forward not named Tim and mostly with other players that have defensive issues. He is not bad but I guess if you just look at plus minus he belongs in the AHL

Norris is a better shooter so yeah I think Debrincat gets bumped. If you watch him play you see how he is pretty bad defensively.

 

[SlapJack]

Ya none of us are professional body language readers and it could very well be early signs of Cat negotiating.

BUT. He does sound kind of non committal . How hard is it to say. "I absolutely love it here, and excited to see what we do next year! The contract stuff you will have to reach out to my agent for."

Especially considering the fact that he is still under team control.

Sometimes we read too much into how people say things. He doesn't seem like an over the top personality. Alfie was the same; very direct but always calm and measured

 

[GCK]

This is what I got with a 21 man roster with Pinto @ 2.2x2, Brann @ 1.6 and Hamonic @ 1.3:
View attachment 688600

That’s not a playoff team

 

[SlapJack]

Norris is a better shooter so yeah I think Debrincat gets bumped. If you watch him play you see how he is pretty bad defensively.

I've seen him play

 

[swiftwin]

You're not making the playoffs with a Forsberg/Sogaard tandem.

Then move Joseph if you absolutely must get a veteran tandem goalie. Not DeBrincat.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

This is what I got with a 21 man roster with Pinto @ 2.2x2, Brann @ 1.6 and Hamonic @ 1.3:
View attachment 688600

2 line team gets killed on the road

 

[GCK]

Then move Joseph if you absolutely must get a veteran tandem goalie. Not DeBrincat.

Attach an our 2024 1st and you could move the 11M owing to Joseph.

I've seen him play

Then I can’t help you.

 

[swiftwin]

2 line team gets killed on the road

Better than a 1 line team, which is what we'll be if we move DeBrincat.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Better than a 1 line team, which is what we'll be if we move DeBrincat.

Nice shallow comeback

 

[DaveMatthew]

Then move Joseph if you absolutely must get a veteran tandem goalie. Not DeBrincat.

Nobody is taking the remaining ~$9M on Joseph's deal without a significant sweetener. It cost us a 2nd to move the $2.5M left on Zaitsev's contract. It cost Vancouver a 2nd to move the $5.95M left on Jason Dickinson's deal.

Joseph is "better" than Zaitsev, but worse than Dickinson, and has an extra year and $3M more owed.

He's probably unmoveable unless we add another 2nd + 3rd/4th. A new owner's best bet would be a buyout. A buyout would open up ~$1.7M in cap space, but would bring us to ~$6.3M of dead money (Murray, Del Zotto, White, Ryan, Joseph) next year.

 

[swiftwin]

Nice shallow comeback

You know it's true.

It's completely insane that your solution to "lack of depth" up front is to remove even more depth up front.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

You know it's true.

It's completely insane that your solution to "lack of depth" up front is to remove even more depth up front.

You're response has a lack of depth

 

[swiftwin]

You're response has a lack of depth

no u

 

[GCK]

Better than a 1 line team, which is what we'll be if we move DeBrincat.

You are right. All the great teams were built from the top 6 in.

 

[SlapJack]

Attach an our 2024 1st and you could move the 11M owing to Joseph.


Then I can’t help you.

Yeah don't need your help, especially when your solution is giving away a 1st rounder to alleviate one season of minor cap issues.

 

[DaveMatthew]

Better than a 1 line team, which is what we'll be if we move DeBrincat.

I hope we're not a 1 line team considering we'll be paying Norris $8M and Batherson $5M to play on the 2nd line...

 

[GCK]

Yeah don't need your help, especially when your solution is giving away a 1st rounder to alleviate one season of minor cap issues.

I’m not the one thinking moving Joseph is possible, I’m merely telling you want it would likely cost.

 

[Samsquanch]

Seriously. Y'all are acting like a psycho girlfriend who's been dumped too many times and is now trying to be the dumper instead of the dumpee at the tiniest hint of uncertainty.

I swear, we do this every single time we have a pending free agent. We went through the same shit when Tkachuk and Norris were RFAs.

Word. I listened to his interview at lunch while I ate my delicous porchetta sandwich. And I came away feeling very full, but also completely content and happy with the answers from Debrincat. It was actually nice and felt honest and from the heart.

And I had no feeling of drama, or felt any different about how negotiations will go. It sounded like a coached answer to me on resigning tho, I dunno? Maybe the porchetta endorphin rush was clouding my brain.

3pm at work my Leafs "friend" comes into my office and giddly asks me "did you hear about DeBrincat??????".

I'm totally confused and respond no, thinking something new has obviously happened. And he goes ahead and lets me know that he's on his way out of Otttawa - lmfao based on the same interview I just heard .

Ok then.

 

[Hale The Villain]

This is what I got with a 21 man roster with Pinto @ 2.2x2, Brann @ 1.6 and Hamonic @ 1.3:
View attachment 688600

You're missing a 13th forward, which would put that team over the cap.

I'm also very skeptical that Hamonic would sign for anywhere close to 1.3M.

I think he'll probably cost 2-3M on a short-term deal at least.

But the biggest problem with that is penciling in Sogaard as the backup. It's just not a smart idea to do that with Forsberg coming off multiple MCL tears. It's asking for a bottom 10 finish.

Yeah don't need your help, especially when your solution is giving away a 1st rounder to alleviate one season of minor cap issues.

We're going to be in cap trouble after next season too, unless the cap jumps significantly.

Our 5M in dead cap comes off the books after next season, but Sanderson is going to need a long-term extension, which will probably cost 8M at least given how he's developing.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Nobody is taking the remaining ~$9M on Joseph's deal without a significant sweetener. It cost us a 2nd to move the $2.5M left on Zaitsev's contract. It cost Vancouver a 2nd to move the $5.95M left on Jason Dickinson's deal.

Joseph is "better" than Zaitsev, but worse than Dickinson, and has an extra year and $3M more owed.

He's probably unmoveable unless we add another 2nd + 3rd/4th. A new owner's best bet would be a buyout. A buyout would open up ~$1.7M in cap space, but would bring us to ~$6.3M of dead money (Murray, Del Zotto, White, Ryan, Joseph) next year.

Yeah dude has ZERO even strength goals this year. No team is taking on his contract without multiple quality picks coming back.

Buyout is an option but when you consider a replacement 4th liner will make around 0.8-1M, there's only 0.5-1M in cap savings for next season.