Speculation: Armchair GM Thread

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Plus, we did Duchene pretty dirty (at least by his telling) so its a bit nonsensical to now worry about it. Also, I'm not convinced that an inability to sign marquee free agents wouldn't actually be a good thing given how all those signings have gone for us.
And also, with the projected Cap increases, the "cuffs are off" to some extent... fewer teams will be as hardpressed (at least for a little while) in terms of hanging onto any potentially marquee free agents.

That or, these marquee guys will draw such astronomical new salaries that your point again comes up as to how wise it really would be to sign those new ground-breaking contracts. Marner and Rantanen are the two potential marquee guys still on the docket for this July. Not sure they will remain so. But anyway, if you have to sign these guys at 7x$15-16M... that's getting a little steep for guys who still aren't really franchise players. Save for the lottery of circumstance in landing on the teams they landed on, I'm not sure they are much better than Forsberg, for example... so justifying massive ground-breaking contracts for them is a bit of a dicey proposition.

Until everything gets back to a Cap log-jam, of course, which probably won't take too long. But it may be better to wait for that dust to settle than to be the first ones jumping with both feet into a salary paradigm shift.
 
One guy I wouldn't mind bringing home is Seth Jones. Always loved his game and he still looked really good especially early on in Columbus. In CHI, not so much but who does in that dumpster fire.

Obviously carrying a hefty salary but has a lot of years left and he's not that old. Would be a good replacement for Josi, too.

Josi - Jones
Skjei - Barron
Molendyk - Lauzon
Wilsby

Suddenly, you're looking at a pretty decent group of defensemen. No more Schenns or Blankenburgs.
 
One guy I wouldn't mind bringing home is Seth Jones. Always loved his game and he still looked really good especially early on in Columbus. In CHI, not so much but who does in that dumpster fire.

Obviously carrying a hefty salary but has a lot of years left and he's not that old. Would be a good replacement for Josi, too.

Josi - Jones
Skjei - Barron
Molendyk - Lauzon
Wilsby

Suddenly, you're looking at a pretty decent group of defensemen. No more Schenns or Blankenburgs.
Why do we want to keep adding expensive players who are on the wrong side of 30? In any case, he's actively trying to get out of his dumpster fire team so not sure why he'd want to go to another dumpster fire.
 
One guy I wouldn't mind bringing home is Seth Jones. Always loved his game and he still looked really good especially early on in Columbus. In CHI, not so much but who does in that dumpster fire.

Obviously carrying a hefty salary but has a lot of years left and he's not that old. Would be a good replacement for Josi, too.

Josi - Jones
Skjei - Barron
Molendyk - Lauzon
Wilsby

Suddenly, you're looking at a pretty decent group of defensemen. No more Schenns or Blankenburgs.
Maybe I'm not watching the current version of Jones closely enough, but if he's getting moved with retention, my ears would also be perking up.

I mean, here's a RD with size who would slot very nicely onto that 1st pair. The wrong side of 30? Well, he just turned 30. So with 5 years left on his contract, he doesn't finish at quite as geriatric an age as a lot of our guys do.

I also don't think we would need quite the magnitude of retention to make a deal work as some other interested teams do? Let's say $2M retention. Get him at $7.5M? He's still averaging over 24 minutes a night as an NHL #1D, 26 pts in 40 games on the shittiest of shitty teams. Like I said, I'm not watching him, but I haven't heard that he's slowed or "broken" or whatnot? Maybe he's not quite the superstar Norris-candidate that some hoped he would be. But we've got a $7M Cap hit on Brady Skjei, and that seems to be around "the going rate" for competent #2/3 D these days? :dunno:

Why do we want to keep adding expensive players who are on the wrong side of 30? In any case, he's actively trying to get out of his dumpster fire team so not sure why he'd want to go to another dumpster fire.
He probably has a soft spot for Dallas, as a hometown team. And he has a full NMC. So he might get to broker his own deal to some extent.
 
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Florida is in a position I think Trotz should keep an eye on. Sam Bennet is going to be a free agent at the end of the season. If Florida decides to pay him to keep him then that would put Anton Lundell in a position to be stuck as their 3rd line center again next year. Lundell is going to be a solid top 6 center in this league. Trotz should seriously look at trying to get one of those two players if possible, Bennet through free agency or Lundell through a trade if they do re-sign Bennet. That would solve part of the center problem for the organization.
 
There are people that think Schenn is a good add for a Cup run.

It would be cool to downgrade our pairings a few more notches as well. It not like they bother to actually defend much anyway. :naughty:
 
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One guy I wouldn't mind bringing home is Seth Jones. Always loved his game and he still looked really good especially early on in Columbus. In CHI, not so much but who does in that dumpster fire.

Obviously carrying a hefty salary but has a lot of years left and he's not that old. Would be a good replacement for Josi, too.

Josi - Jones
Skjei - Barron
Molendyk - Lauzon
Wilsby

Suddenly, you're looking at a pretty decent group of defensemen. No more Schenns or Blankenburgs.
I don't think bringing in Jones would be a smart play. The building a team through free agency and trades has to stop. Trotz has to sell off what he can at the deadline and then more in the off-season and possibly build around Misa and McKenna. E
 
I don't think bringing in Jones would be a smart play. The building a team through free agency and trades has to stop. Trotz has to sell off what he can at the deadline and then more in the off-season and possibly build around Misa and McKenna. E
Do you honestly think he's going to go scorched earth? Besides, you can only buyout and retain on so many contracts at any one time.

The more likely scenario with the cap going up is Trotz pushes his shiny new stack of chips into the middle of the table for someone like Giroux for 7 years and a NMC.
 
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I am consuming hockey, rumors like their candy:

The four names I am seeing, always are NyQvist, O’Reilly, Schenn and McCarron

Nyqvist , I would take a first next year. The team has a ton of 2005 pics. I would love to see them pick up a few next year.

I may be wrong on this, but I see it’s either an O’Reilly or Sissons situation. The team has a lot of lower end center depth and if the Preds pick with their good pick, they’re going to get a prospect top six center
(unless they win the lottery and pick number one then they get an extra extra left-handed defenseman.) I’d be in the idea of moving Sissions for a first and a mid round pick in 26. I think both have a lot more value than we think.

McCarron, like whatever man take give us a mid round pick with good or take him and a pic and we move up a round.

The media is focusing on Schenn and his brother. This honestly sounds like a two way Toronto deal. The media is pushing this and it sounds like the team is trying to get both to fit both their needs. If you ask any of us a mid brown pick in 2025 we’re happy but it sounds like one of those deals where the GM trade a first for Schenn. Kinda like when Poile traded a first for Gaustead. If it’s Toronto, they do not Have their first this year or next year, but they do have their first in 2027. I could be patient I’ll take a first in 2027.
 
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I suspect Nyquist pulls a 2nd from someone, Schenn a mid round pick and McCarron like a 6th.

ROR and Sissons are the ones I think that could really pull something if made available. Those are the kinds of depth guys GM's crave at the deadline.
 
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I suspect Nyquist pulls a 2nd from someone, Schenn a mid round pick and McCarron like a 6th.

ROR and Sissons are the ones I think that could really pull something if made available. Those are the kinds of depth guys GM's crave at the deadline.
Exactly my thoughts. Would love to see Nyquist grab a 1st though but will be happy with a 2nd.
 

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