Around the League 36-But Who's Counting...

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Assuming you mean with max retention by Florida right?

Correct. $5m for 3 years of Bob isn't the first option I'd pick, but depending on his form I could certainly be convinced to take a first round pick to make him a part of a tandem at that number.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

Correct. $5m for 3 years of Bob isn't the first option I'd pick, but depending on his form I could certainly be convinced to take a first round pick to make him a part of a tandem at that number.

Honestly that's not a bad idea. We take on the rest of the Bob contract, but only at 50%. Even at that full retention, it's still a risk for us and 3 years is a lot of term. We'd still need a sweetener and Florida sadly has shit for assets. I'd do the full Bob contract for Anton Lundell. I'm sure Florida won't bite but I don't see other assets that move the needle there. I think Florida will end up buying him out at some point.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

2 things on Bob:
1. He has a full nmc. He may not agree to go anywhere.
2. After his signing bonus is given out in July, Arizona may be reasonably interested. 10 million cap hit for a 5 million goalie then 6.5 then 6. Again number 1 comes in.

Florida may be stuck riding out another year before his M-NTC kicks in. Then again bob can pick the 14 teams who wouldn’t be able to afford his cap hit.

Arizona has a goalie on 2 more years at 2.75 million so they could be a real player

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

2 things on Bob:
1. He has a full nmc. He may not agree to go anywhere.
2. After his signing bonus is given out in July, Arizona may be reasonably interested. 10 million cap hit for a 5 million goalie then 6.5 then 6. Again number 1 comes in.

Florida may be stuck riding out another year before his M-NTC kicks in. Then again bob can pick the 14 teams who wouldn’t be able to afford his cap hit.

Arizona has a goalie on 2 more years at 2.75 million so they could be a real player

I would bet the notion of playing for a team like Carolina in a platoon (with another Russian!) would be more interesting to Bob at this point in his career than going to Castoff Island in Arizona.

He has his NMC but if anything I’d think he’d use his NMC to stay away from the teams that are only using him as a paper asset and steer himself toward the teams that are willing to give him ice time.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

I would bet the notion of playing for a team like Carolina in a platoon (with another Russian!) would be more interesting to Bob at this point in his career than going to Castoff Island in Arizona.

He has his NMC but if anything I’d think he’d use his NMC to stay away from the teams that are only using him as a paper asset and steer himself toward the teams that are willing to give him ice time.

He would pay 103k less in taxes in Arizona vs here. Depends on what is more important to him. He could also say no all together so that he pays 500k less in taxes then decides where he could go with his 16 team ntc.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

In some ways, I feel bad for the current Florida management about the Bob situation. They did not sign that contract, as it was essentially a death-rattle move from a desperate and failing prior front office. The thing is, though, that Bob is still a very good goaltender, just not $10M/year good. Much like with Burns, if there was a retained-salary transaction that was suitable for both parties, I'd be totally fine with Bob at something like $5-6M a season to slowly groom Kochetkov into an NHL starter.

 

[SvechneJerk]

 

[Daeavorn]

That lines up very nicely with Ahos next contract. I hope those are close to accurate.

 

[HisIceness]

Expect a lot of money burned in regret once the cap goes up.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

We gotta get our boys locked up long term in the next year or two, especially Aho ASAP. Next offseason I would try to get the following guys extended at least:
- Aho
- Turbo
- Jarvis or Necas
- Pesce or Skjei

Staal I think we sign to a 3 year deal for relatively cheap midseason this year. Sounds like he wants to stay and for cheap enough there's no reason to let him go, just might have to drop his minutes a bit to make room for some of our younger centers like Drury, Pono, etc.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

We gotta get our boys locked up long term in the next year or two, especially Aho ASAP. Next offseason I would try to get the following guys extended at least:
- Aho
- Turbo
- Jarvis or Necas
- Pesce or Skjei

Staal I think we sign to a 3 year deal for relatively cheap midseason this year. Sounds like he wants to stay and for cheap enough there's no reason to let him go, just might have to drop his minutes a bit to make room for some of our younger centers like Drury, Pono, etc.

I question Turbo and Skjei. Turbo doesn’t like to work out and that will catch up to him as he gets older. I think we choose Pesce over Skjei just because of handness. LHD are cheaper and easier to find in UFA. Plus Skjei doesn’t do one thing particularly well. Skjei and Pesce re-signings will be dependent on the young players though. Morrow, Heimo, Bear, Coghlan, Nishikin, and Seeley. Who can do what at what levels and what kind of roster space do we have.

I fully expect us to get ahead of Aho and try to re-sign him this off-season. Although Montreal fans think he is a O.S candidate so we may be screwed.
We may approach Jarvis but its in his best interest to wait. Necas will likely be a waiting game. We would want to wait if he has a great season and he would want to wait if he had a decent/ good season.

 

[FlyingSquirrels]

I question Turbo and Skjei. Turbo doesn’t like to work out and that will catch up to him as he gets older. I think we choose Pesce over Skjei just because of handness. LHD are cheaper and easier to find in UFA. Plus Skjei doesn’t do one thing particularly well. Skjei and Pesce re-signings will be dependent on the young players though. Morrow, Heimo, Bear, Coghlan, Nishikin, and Seeley. Who can do what at what levels and what kind of roster space do we have.

I fully expect us to get ahead of Aho and try to re-sign him this off-season. Although Montreal fans think he is a O.S candidate so we may be screwed.
We may approach Jarvis but its in his best interest to wait. Necas will likely be a waiting game. We would want to wait if he has a great season and he would want to wait if he had a decent/ good season.

You can't offer sheet pending UFA's.

 

[MinJaBen]

You can't offer sheet pending UFA's.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

You can't offer sheet pending UFA's.

We know this but Montreal fans are bad with jokes

 

[A Star is Burns]

We gotta get our boys locked up long term in the next year or two, especially Aho ASAP. Next offseason I would try to get the following guys extended at least:
- Aho
- Turbo
- Jarvis or Necas
- Pesce or Skjei

Staal I think we sign to a 3 year deal for relatively cheap midseason this year. Sounds like he wants to stay and for cheap enough there's no reason to let him go, just might have to drop his minutes a bit to make room for some of our younger centers like Drury, Pono, etc.

-Aho - Of course, you try to sign him as soon as you can. We'll see just how quickly he's willing to sign or if he wants to push for leverage.
-Turbo - I'd consider moving on after this contract unless we get him at a steal again or it's a requirement to having Aho signed.
-Jarvis - We'll see how the season goes, but I agree he's likely to be a strong candidate to lock up as long as we can.
-Necas - I still have high hopes for him, but I don't know that he's a guy I'd rush to sign even if he has a good season. I'd be more willing to slow play it with him and move him out for other assets if his ask is too high.
-Pesce - I love Pesce, but I've always had a feeling he won't age that great. He might also be looking to squeeze a lot out of his next contract and it might be wise to let him move on to the highest bidder.
-Skjei - I'd be fine with keeping him around barring some slip in play, but I also don't know that I'd commit a ton more to him than the contract he's already on. I feel like he could be a slightly easier sign though.
-Staal - If he wants to commit to three years at a reasonable rate, I guess that's okay, but I'd heavily prefer 2 or really year to year. He likely will be an easy enough sign.

I wouldn't be in a rush for most of them unless you just get awesome deals. But it will be very interesting to see how it plays out.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

I question Turbo and Skjei. Turbo doesn’t like to work out and that will catch up to him as he gets older. I think we choose Pesce over Skjei just because of handness. LHD are cheaper and easier to find in UFA. Plus Skjei doesn’t do one thing particularly well. Skjei and Pesce re-signings will be dependent on the young players though. Morrow, Heimo, Bear, Coghlan, Nishikin, and Seeley. Who can do what at what levels and what kind of roster space do we have.

I fully expect us to get ahead of Aho and try to re-sign him this off-season. Although Montreal fans think he is a O.S candidate so we may be screwed.
We may approach Jarvis but its in his best interest to wait. Necas will likely be a waiting game. We would want to wait if he has a great season and he would want to wait if he had a decent/ good season.

Fair concern with Turbo but I think he's going to be content staying here for another team friendly deal and probably for more like 4 years which wouldn't be too bad. Also I think we'll need to keep him to help keep Aho.

I would absolutely choose Pesce over Skjei, and yes it can be somewhat dependent on how our prospects develop. I said Pesce or Skjei because I do know we are not keeping both longer term, and there is a chance Pesce tries to get a massive contract that we aren't willing to pay. In which case it would stink to lose both Skjei and Pesce, however if Seeley/Nikishin/Morrow are looking like they could step into our top 4 in a couple years then I'd be fine letting them both walk if we need to.

Jarvis/Necas, my thought is it will be very important for this team to get another young top 6 forward locked into a bargain of a deal long term before the cap starts going way up. Depends how each of them play next year and what they're looking for. Let's assume Jarvis continues to show his rookie year was no fluke and gets better to the tune of 60-70 points and still doing everything else right. Yes odds are he will want to maximize his earnings longer term with a bridge deal first but from the team's perspective we should 100% be trying to lock him up for 8 years $6m/yr or something similar. It would be a risk but also a move that if it pays off we will have a tremendous cap situation through an extended window.

I put Jarvis or Necas because I think it's entirely possible Jarvis struggles in year 2 and Necas looks great again. Just a year ago most of us were higher on Necas than Svech. But either way I'd want to get 1 of those guys locked in longer term for what could wind up being a bargain in the 2nd half of the deal. It probably won't play out that way and more like Necas winds up being traded, Jarvis bridged, etc. but we'll see.

-Aho - Of course, you try to sign him as soon as you can. We'll see just how quickly he's willing to sign or if he wants to push for leverage.
-Turbo - I'd consider moving on after this contract unless we get him at a steal again or it's a requirement to having Aho signed.
-Jarvis - We'll see how the season goes, but I agree he's likely to be a strong candidate to lock up as long as we can.
-Necas - I still have high hopes for him, but I don't know that he's a guy I'd rush to sign even if he has a good season. I'd be more willing to slow play it with him and move him out for other assets if his ask is too high.
-Pesce - I love Pesce, but I've always had a feeling he won't age that great. He might also be looking to squeeze a lot out of his next contract and it might be wise to let him move on to the highest bidder.
-Skjei - I'd be fine with keeping him around barring some slip in play, but I also don't know that I'd commit a ton more to him than the contract he's already on. I feel like he could be a slightly easier sign though.
-Staal - If he wants to commit to three years at a reasonable rate, I guess that's okay, but I'd heavily prefer 2 or really year to year. He likely will be an easy enough sign.

I wouldn't be in a rush for most of them unless you just get awesome deals. But it will be very interesting to see how it plays out.

Agree with you on most of those. The reason for the rush is to get these deals in before the cap starts rising significantly. Aho main priority, after that I agree no particular rush on those guys but I do think it's important to get some of them done so we have more cap certainty going forward and can make other moves accordingly.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Fair concern with Turbo but I think he's going to be content staying here for another team friendly deal and probably for more like 4 years which wouldn't be too bad. Also I think we'll need to keep him to help keep Aho.

I would absolutely choose Pesce over Skjei, and yes it can be somewhat dependent on how our prospects develop. I said Pesce or Skjei because I do know we are not keeping both longer term, and there is a chance Pesce tries to get a massive contract that we aren't willing to pay. In which case it would stink to lose both Skjei and Pesce, however if Seeley/Nikishin/Morrow are looking like they could step into our top 4 in a couple years then I'd be fine letting them both walk if we need to.

Jarvis/Necas, my thought is it will be very important for this team to get another young top 6 forward locked into a bargain of a deal long term before the cap starts going way up. Depends how each of them play next year and what they're looking for. Let's assume Jarvis continues to show his rookie year was no fluke and gets better to the tune of 60-70 points and still doing everything else right. Yes odds are he will want to maximize his earnings longer term with a bridge deal first but from the team's perspective we should 100% be trying to lock him up for 8 years $6m/yr or something similar. It would be a risk but also a move that if it pays off we will have a tremendous cap situation through an extended window.

I put Jarvis or Necas because I think it's entirely possible Jarvis struggles in year 2 and Necas looks great again. Just a year ago most of us were higher on Necas than Svech. But either way I'd want to get 1 of those guys locked in longer term for what could wind up being a bargain in the 2nd half of the deal. It probably won't play out that way and more like Necas winds up being traded, Jarvis bridged, etc. but we'll see.

I wasnt trying to contradict your previous points. I dont know that we couldnt keep Necas and Jarvis. In my ACGM of 24-25, I gave Aho 9.75 mil, Turbo 7.5, Jarvis 7.5, Drury a 2 year 3.5 million per bridge, Pesce 6 million (but he probably gets a 550k-million more), and I filled a lot of the roster with our farm (Morrow, Seeley, Pono, etc) to have have 11 Fs, 6 D and 1 G. I still have 13 million in space, which includes a big trade with SJ for Meier who I gave 8.5 million per, necas +++ went the other way.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

I wasnt trying to contradict your previous points. I dont know that we couldnt keep Necas and Jarvis. In my ACGM of 24-25, I gave Aho 9.75 mil, Turbo 7.5, Jarvis 7.5, Drury a 2 year 3.5 million per bridge, Pesce 6 million (but he probably gets a 550k-million more), and I filled a lot of the roster with our farm (Morrow, Seeley, Pono, etc) to have have 11 Fs, 6 D and 1 G. I still have 13 million in space, which includes a big trade with SJ for Meier who I gave 8.5 million per, necas +++ went the other way.

Yeah agreed, I was just expanding my thoughts a bit

 

[bleedgreen]

We’re not a lock to sign a single player that is coming to ufa. I already assume they’re as good as gone. I think the only possible exceptions are Aho and Slavin - but I don’t assume they’re staying either. In fact to me it’s at best 50/50 either are staying. We don’t really believe in it. I don’t know if we’re wrong either. We’ll have had what’s likely the most productive years of their careers already. We’ll be overpaying for the rest if they get max length deals. If we don’t win the cup by the time Slavin gets there, we’ll have wasted the gift their contracts were as well as Aho’s.

They won’t take team friendly deals now, nor should they. You can also suggest that if this core doesn’t win by then maybe it’s time to go in a different direction anyways.

I don’t think we’ve have a dynamic enough forward group to this point, and we definitely havent had the goaltending which makes the forward group irrelevant. Continued development of the the yutes and one healthy playoff run for the goalies could change all that.

 

[Derailed75]

We’re not a lock to sign a single player that is coming to ufa. I already assume they’re as good as gone. I think the only possible exceptions are Aho and Slavin - but I don’t assume they’re staying either. In fact to me it’s at best 50/50 either are staying. We don’t really believe in it. I don’t know if we’re wrong either. We’ll have had what’s likely the most productive years of their careers already. We’ll be overpaying for the rest if they get max length deals. If we don’t win the cup by the time Slavin gets there, we’ll have wasted the gift their contracts were as well as Aho’s.

They won’t take team friendly deals now, nor should they. You can also suggest that if this core doesn’t win by then maybe it’s time to go in a different direction anyways.

I don’t think we’ve have a dynamic enough forward group to this point, and we definitely havent had the goaltending which makes the forward group irrelevant. Continued development of the the yutes and one healthy playoff run for the goalies could change all that.

Well look at you mister optimistic! I dont expect them to take team friendly deals either but Ido expect both of them to take less money to go to/stay on a contender instead of just chasing dollars like Dougie did. If thats the case I would say theres a better than 50% chance they both stay. The cap is going up but I dont think the good teams are going to break the bank for anyone so as long as the Borg offers a competent offer I feel they both stay.

 

[bleedgreen]

Well look at you mister optimistic! I dont expect them to take team friendly deals either but Ido expect both of them to take less money to go to/stay on a contender instead of just chasing dollars like Dougie did. If thats the case I would say theres a better than 50% chance they both stay. The cap is going up but I dont think the good teams are going to break the bank for anyone so as long as the Borg offers a competent offer I feel they both stay.

Lol Dougie didn’t chase dollars and leave for a bottom feeder, he took the only real offer on the table and went to team that’s clearly on the way up that has the dynamic forward group likely already there.

It’s ridiculous to think either will leave a penny on the table to stay. They don’t owe us a thing, especially Slavin. We’ve put a lot of miles on that guy for under value. Aho has already signed with another team to make sure he gets what he wants. He clearly wants options, that’s why he wanted five years.

We like to think our guys are different from everyone else’s guys. They’re not. Our ownership does not hand out contracts and clearly aren’t fans of signing ufa’s. I do think they believe Aho and Slavin are big parts of our team which is why I think it’s 50/50. They did want to sign Aho for 8…..but I definitely think he would’ve been gone after that had he stayed.

Terms the problem. Neither have any reason to take less than max unless they for some reason want it that way. This will be their one chance to choose their future. No reason to assume that’s with us. Of course they’ll be curious about what’s out there.

 

[Daeavorn]

Lol Dougie didn’t chase dollars and leave for a bottom feeder, he took the only real offer on the table and went to team that clearly on the way up that has the dynamic forward group likely already there.

It’s ridiculous to think either will leave a penny on the table to stay. They don’t owe us a thing, especially Slavin. We’ve put a lot of miles on that guy for under value. Aho has already signed with another team to make sure he gets what he wants. He clearly wants options, that’s why he wanted five years.

We like to think our guys are different from everyone else’s guys. They’re not. Our ownership does not hand out contracts and clearly aren’t fans of signing ufa’s. I do think they believe Aho and Slavin are big parts of our team which is why I think it’s 50/50. They did want to sign Aho for 8…..but I definitely think he would’ve been gone after that had he stayed.

Terms the problem. Neither have any reason to take less than max unless they for some reason want it that way. This will be their one chance to choose their future. No reason to assume that’s with us. Of course they’ll be curious about what’s out there.

I think this is a bit much. We dont know what they are thinking. Aho claims he signed the offer sheet just to get the negotiations over with so he could report to camp. I believe him.

Slavin will get his money there is no doubting that. He is our best player and finally starting to get recognition nationally. He plays a game that will age well also.

Everyone else? Yeah but those two aren't going anywhere. 1Cs dont grow on trees and we're super lucky aho turned into one.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Lol Dougie didn’t chase dollars and leave for a bottom feeder, he took the only real offer on the table and went to team that clearly on the way up that has the dynamic forward group likely already there.

It’s ridiculous to think either will leave a penny on the table to stay. They don’t owe us a thing, especially Slavin. We’ve put a lot of miles on that guy for under value. Aho has already signed with another team to make sure he gets what he wants. He clearly wants options, that’s why he wanted five years.

We like to think our guys are different from everyone else’s guys. They’re not. Our ownership does not hand out contracts and clearly aren’t fans of signing ufa’s. I do think they believe Aho and Slavin are big parts of our team which is why I think it’s 50/50. They did want to sign Aho for 8…..but I definitely think he would’ve been gone after that had he stayed.

Terms the problem. Neither have any reason to take less than max unless they for some reason want it that way. This will be their one chance to choose their future. No reason to assume that’s with us. Of course they’ll be curious about what’s out there.

Yeah but we'll try to get something done the summer before with both of them. And if they make it clear that they want to explore FA with those options - I doubt we'll let either leave for nothing.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I don't look at Bleed's post last pessimistic, but rather more along the lines of "realistic", at least until the front office shows actions that say differently.

I kinda agree with his take that it's likely that most of the UFAs will move on with the exception of Aho and Slavin, and that's not a guarantee with those two. It doesn't mean that some of the others (TT, Pesce, Skjei, etc..) won't also re-sign, but if I had to bet today, I'd bet against it. It's just been the team's MO so far that when guys want UFA or RFA contracts that they feel are too high, they move on, and in some cases trade them before they become UFAs.

Skinner (not just contract related), Faulk, Lindholm, Hanifin, Edmundson, Hamilton, DeAngelo, Trocheck, Nino, and to a lesser extent Bean, Nedeljkovic, Foegele, McGinn.

Some of those guys weren't just contracts but also wanting to move in another direction (Ned for instance), but the front office has been pretty consistent in their approach. We've all assumed that Aho and Slavin will be the exceptions to that approach, so we'll see.

This isn't a complaint because they've felt that rather than pay too much, they can find better value via trades or free agency and so far, that's been successful for them so it's hard to argue with the approach. It also ties into their strategy of getting as many picks as possible so there's more chances that someone in the pipeline can step into the line-up.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

Are they so committed to what they’re doing that they’ll be reckless about it? Other teams pay market value for their UFA aged stars for a reason: acquiring top of the lineup talent is difficult. They’ve seen this firsthand, coming up empty handed in their rumored pursuit of Laine, Eichel and Tkachuk. Shutting your window out of principle would be gross hubris.

I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. You can move on from Faulk when you have a player the caliber of Pesce to pair a replacement with. Ditto Hamilton and Slavin. The crown jewels are a different story.