Armchair GM Thread

Since this armchair gm I'm gonna tell ya what I would do if I was the gm today. First I would of already talked to everyone of my players that had nmc and told them that were about to through a rebuild so if you wanna one day hoist the cup it's gonna have to be somewhere else and if you do decide to stay just know your minutes will be cut drastically for younger players because that's what rebuilding teams do. Then I would go talk to orielly and tell him I'm trading him for the best possible offer. My job as a gm is to build a contender not be friends. Then I would get new jersey on the phone and tell them I'll give them I want nemec for orielly but am willing to add a pick to make that happen even if it's Vegas or tampas 1st. Marchessault doesn't look like hes ok with losing and wouldn't want to be part of a rebuild so I would call la which is in need of a right shot goal scorer and would offer Marchessault and Vegas or tampas 1st for Clarke and a small add. In my hypothetical world new jersey and la agrees. So we now have a future defense of nemec Clarke Gibson Molendyk to build around. With making those moves we end up with a top 2 pick where we pick up Misa. Trade saros in the off-season for anything before his nmc hits. Next year we play our youth like I said and cut the minutes of all our vets maybe getting them frustrated where they will waive as well josi forsberg and stammer I'm looking at you. I also have 2 retention slots so I can retain to make the return even better. This will be a cap floor team so retention should matter the return for the future should. We end up with the top pick picking McKenna and now our future looks bright with nemec Clarke Molendyk Gibson Misa McKenna kemmel zhl Evangelista edstrom and sevechkov
 
Since this armchair gm I'm gonna tell ya what I would do if I was the gm today. First I would of already talked to everyone of my players that had nmc and told them that were about to through a rebuild so if you wanna one day hoist the cup it's gonna have to be somewhere else and if you do decide to stay just know your minutes will be cut drastically for younger players because that's what rebuilding teams do. Then I would go talk to orielly and tell him I'm trading him for the best possible offer. My job as a gm is to build a contender not be friends. Then I would get new jersey on the phone and tell them I'll give them I want nemec for orielly but am willing to add a pick to make that happen even if it's Vegas or tampas 1st. Marchessault doesn't look like hes ok with losing and wouldn't want to be part of a rebuild so I would call la which is in need of a right shot goal scorer and would offer Marchessault and Vegas or tampas 1st for Clarke and a small add. In my hypothetical world new jersey and la agrees. So we now have a future defense of nemec Clarke Gibson Molendyk to build around. With making those moves we end up with a top 2 pick where we pick up Misa. Trade saros in the off-season for anything before his nmc hits. Next year we play our youth like I said and cut the minutes of all our vets maybe getting them frustrated where they will waive as well josi forsberg and stammer I'm looking at you. I also have 2 retention slots so I can retain to make the return even better. This will be a cap floor team so retention should matter the return for the future should. We end up with the top pick picking McKenna and now our future looks bright with nemec Clarke Molendyk Gibson Misa McKenna kemmel zhl Evangelista edstrom and sevechkov
You left out the firing the coach part. None of what you wrote matters until Bruno sleeps with the fishes.
 
Since this armchair gm I'm gonna tell ya what I would do if I was the gm today. First I would of already talked to everyone of my players that had nmc and told them that were about to through a rebuild so if you wanna one day hoist the cup it's gonna have to be somewhere else and if you do decide to stay just know your minutes will be cut drastically for younger players because that's what rebuilding teams do. Then I would go talk to orielly and tell him I'm trading him for the best possible offer. My job as a gm is to build a contender not be friends. Then I would get new jersey on the phone and tell them I'll give them I want nemec for orielly but am willing to add a pick to make that happen even if it's Vegas or tampas 1st. Marchessault doesn't look like hes ok with losing and wouldn't want to be part of a rebuild so I would call la which is in need of a right shot goal scorer and would offer Marchessault and Vegas or tampas 1st for Clarke and a small add. In my hypothetical world new jersey and la agrees. So we now have a future defense of nemec Clarke Gibson Molendyk to build around. With making those moves we end up with a top 2 pick where we pick up Misa. Trade saros in the off-season for anything before his nmc hits. Next year we play our youth like I said and cut the minutes of all our vets maybe getting them frustrated where they will waive as well josi forsberg and stammer I'm looking at you. I also have 2 retention slots so I can retain to make the return even better. This will be a cap floor team so retention should matter the return for the future should. We end up with the top pick picking McKenna and now our future looks bright with nemec Clarke Molendyk Gibson Misa McKenna kemmel zhl Evangelista edstrom and sevechkov
This is the way. And exactly what I would be doing.
 
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  1. ROR for a Nemec/Mercer/Clarke type
  2. fire Bruno
  3. Use cap space this offseason to bring in a reclamation project with Zegras/EP40/Cozens
This is the simple, three-step plan to getting me off the "Fire Trotz" train.
My simple 3 step plan

1. Fire Bruno at the end of the season
2. Trade ROR for exactly what you said above
3. Trade Saros before the NMC and new contract kicks in
 
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I missed that we moved Jankowski for a late pick until I saw him dressed for the Canes .... another Trotz March 2024 extension gone. That makes six players with significant time on the Preds roster who were extended between March last year thru October that were traded or waived away ... Fabbro, Novak, Jankowski, Carrier, Tomasino, Parssinen ..... only two of them made it to New Years.

What is the plan, Barry? Based on the sign and dump moves it doesn't seem he has any more of a clue than we do.
 
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We are gonna end up for Tavares or some other patch job this off-season. Evangelista probably gets traded as well.. but only a couple months after he signs and extension.
 
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The team looks to be fairly set for next season already? Probably looking at 1 veteran UFA forward signed at least... whether that's the "xxx" winger below or they go for a center with Stamkos on the wing, either way. Of course the "kid line" listed below is liable to be broken up with guys sent back to Milwaukee or waived as well, who knows. D could certainly stand to be upgraded extensively as well, I'm sure Trotz will try, but he might have a harder time getting free agents to sign here than last time around. There's certainly plenty of Cap room there to chase some UFAs anyway. But it also looks like a great lineup for chasing McKenna...

2025-26 Nashville Predators

Forsberg ($8.5M) - Stamkos ($8M) - Marchessault ($5.5M)
Bunting ($4.5M) - O'Reilly ($4.5M) - xxx
Smith ($1M) - McCarron ($0.900M) - Sissons ($2.857M)
L'Heureux ($0.8633M) - Svechkov ($0.925M) - Evangelista (RFA ?$1M?)
Wiesblatt ($0.775M)

Josi ($9.059M) - Barron ($1.15M)
Skjei ($7M) - Blankenburg ($0.775M)
Lauzon ($2M) - Wilsby ($0.775M)
Stastney ($0.825M) - Oesterle ($0.775M)

Saros ($7.74M)
Annunen ($0.8375M)

Ekholm retention: $0.250M
Turris Buyout: $2M
Duchene Buyout: $6.5556M

TOTAL: $79.06243M
2025-26 NHL Cap: $95.5M
REMAINING CAP SPACE: $16.43757M
 
What a waste of money that line up is...
Don't worry, I'm expecting something more like...

2025-26 Nashville Predators

Forsberg ($8.5M) - Tavares (4x$8M UFA) - Marchessault ($5.5M)
Bunting ($4.5M) - O'Reilly ($4.5M) - Stamkos ($8M)
Smith ($1M) - McCarron ($0.900M) - Sissons ($2.857M)
Tanev (2x$2M) - Bjugstad (2x$2M) - Fischer (2x$1M)
Wiesblatt ($0.775M)

Josi ($9.059M) - Barron ($1.15M)
Skjei ($7M) - Savard (3x$3.5M)
Lauzon ($2M) - Blankenburg ($0.775M)
Stastney ($0.825M) - Wilsby ($0.775M)

Saros ($7.74M)
Annunen ($0.8375M)

Ekholm retention: $0.250M
Turris Buyout: $2M
Duchene Buyout: $6.5556M

TOTAL: $91.9991M
2025-26 NHL Cap: $95.5M
REMAINING CAP SPACE: $3.5M

... I'm not sure we can actually attract Tavares at a mere $8M, however... but we have room to bump that up to $10M... the rest of the guys we add will just be guys that nobody else really wants to pay more than league minimum, but are still old enough to bump most of our young players off the roster... guys like Tanev, Bjugstad, Fischer, Savard... not good enough that they can aspire to sign with contending teams, but serviceable veteran depth that can ensure we don't have to use any young forwards until they are severely overcooked...
:help:
 
Annunen is too young. Is there not an old as hell backup we can grab in free agency?

If we go with either of those teams, I expect a 8-12th overall pick. I expect nothing better then that with us picking up more players for the 35+ crowd like Savard or Tavares. Slightly better than gutter but not near enough to be considered a serious team. Old as hell and slow
 
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Annunen is too young. Is there not an old as hell backup we can grab in free agency?

If we go with either of those teams, I expect a 8-12th overall pick. I expect nothing better then that with us picking up more players for the 35+ crowd like Savard or Tavares. Slightly better than gutter but not near enough to be considered a serious team. Old as hell and slow
There's Fleury if you really want to go as old as possible... :D

Or I guess he already said he's retiring? Well, Andersen, Allen, Rittich back... yeah, there are plenty of 30+ backups out there. Annunen hasn't seemed to pick up any of the usual ire for being young. Maybe because he came from outside the organization? He has been good enough. Always hard to tell with our D and how rarely a backup plays behind Saros, of course.

I can definitely imagine old and slow guys who can't get deals from contending teams seeing Nashville as a nice comfy retirement home... :help:
 
I think Tavares will extend in Toronto. Him leaving would leave too big of a hole in their middle-lane especially given how injury-prone Matthew is.

Marner's a different story. They've got their 1W in Nylander who's just as good as Marner, if not better. Knies also looks like a real player and is going to get PAID. They're already paying Nylander top-dollar, so it would be hard to see (though not impossible given it's Toronto) to see them pay 30-35 mil to three wingers.

Also, if they flame out again they CANNOT run it back anymore with that core. I'll stay in my prediction and say that Marner will be a Pred come summertime. He's money-driven and we're pretty much the only team left in the no-state tax states that has cap remaining.

That being said, if we do land Marner, get Misa/Frondell/Hagens from the draft and do SOMETHING about the defense, I'm going to start being cautiously optimistic again. Oh, and if we can just give Svechkov, L'Heureux and Evangelista proper roles on the team next year and room to grow.
 
Hmm, probably half the teams in the league have Cap room to sign Marner at the level of Rantanen, including the Leafs. So I won't count on him coming here. He can certainly find a better landing spot for competitiveness and endorsements and so on elsewhere, plus the extra year if he stays in Toronto.

Tavares is more like the Stamkos situation. One imagines he'll just stay put so he doesn't have to change bedsheets or whatever. But at what discount? And he's already going through some kind of huge tax investigation there. If the Leafs have to choose between Marner and Tavares, they aren't going to choose Tavares.

Anyway, with so many teams sitting on mountains of newfound Cap space, I don't see us being considered much of a landing spot. Except for guys looking for a cushy retirement home where they get the summers off and have guaranteed icetime to go with their fat paychecks. It's almost a catch-22... anybody who wants to come here is probably not somebody we should actually want. :help:
 
Hmm, probably half the teams in the league have Cap room to sign Marner at the level of Rantanen, including the Leafs. So I won't count on him coming here. He can certainly find a better landing spot for competitiveness and endorsements and so on elsewhere, plus the extra year if he stays in Toronto.

That's not quite what I meant. What I meant was Marner is a money-driven player and will look to maximize his earnings on his next deal. Tennessee is a state with no-state income tax so that automatically makes it appealing for Marner. Especially when you compare the earnings for a 7-year-period.

Also, I keep coming back to the fact that ROR tried to talk Trotz into trading for Marner when he was reportedly available. Trotz apparently tried to acquire him but couldn't come into agreement on the price. I don't think they've forgotten Marner completely, and all the talk of "trying to be competitive next year" makes me believe they'll try to sign him over the summer.
 
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