So basically we are still looking more and more like the only contender to Colorado in the West.
Around the NHL, Off-Season Edition
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Brian39
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- Apr 24, 2014
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I'm interested to hear the complete details around this. There have been a number of discussions on 32 Thoughts about Lehner battling through the hip issue last year and feeling like Vegas didn't take it seriously enough. he was pretty vocal in supporting Eichel's ability to choose his own course of treatment and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he is taking a hard line of "I don't care how my recovery timeline impacts you, I'm doing what is the absolute best for me."
However they got here, this is a massive blow for Vegas. They clearly would have been in the goalie market earlier this summer if they knew this was likely, because their new tandem is bleak. I like Thompson as a backup/1B option and he might even be ready to handle a 1A role. But Brossoit isn't a 1B and might not even be a competent backup.
- Jul 4, 2014
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I suspect that Vegas is probably reaching out to Holtby's agent at this point and maybe even inquiring about Khudobin if he is healthy.
Brian39
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Agree about the horrible decision on Fleury.
But they do have money to spend. Capfriendly makes their situation look worse than it is. Shea Weber is in LTIRetirement and now they can add Lehner to LTIR. That's $12.85M in space. If they maximize LTIR with both of those guys, they can hit a cap payroll of $95.3M without exceeding the cap. Also, that 17 man roster excludes the 3 guys that are currently on regular IR on capfriendly (even though those numbers count against the cap). If/when they add Brossoit and Patrick to the roster, they will be at a 19 man roster. And if they are out long term still, then you can add them to the LTIR pile.
Bottom line, Vegas has about $7M in cap space to fill 4 roster spots.
AjaxManifesto
Pro sports is becoming predictable and boring
The Vegas hockey club that is run like a dive bar slot machine just found that the handle is broken. Dollars going in, nothing coming out
No they are still in major trouble still though. Have to sign Hague (he will take good chunk of the 7 million) I'm guessing 2-2.5.
Have to sign another forward and they have to decide on the goalie situation unless they are rolling 12 forwards again. All they are is one injury again from playing players short again like last season.
Brian39
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I think they will have to bridge Hague at an AAV he hates but will ultimately accept since he has no arbitration rights. I think the $2M range is a good bet.
They don't need to sign another forward. Nolan Patrick is their 12th forward, but he ended the season on IR so he isn't showing on the roster at the moment (even though his contract is counting against their cap). If he's unavailable this year then he will be placed on LTIR and that is another $1.2M for them to spend.
Add a goalie in the $3M range and that leaves them with enough space to fill the last 2 spots with any of the $750k-$900k depth forward options they have in their pipeline.
They'll pay $1.5M-$1.75M for their 13th and 14th forwards, which leaves them with $5.25M-$5.5M for this mystery goalie and Hague. If things do get truly crunched, they can clear another $234k in space by sending Brossoit to the AHL and using Thompson as the backup (assuming he goes unclaimed on waivers). They'd save about $1.5M by replacing Brossoit with Thompson if some team claimed Brossoit (unlikely).
Their issue is finding a competent goalie in the middle of August, not finding the cap to pay him.
PocketNines
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Snubbed4Vezina
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Isn't Holtby on the brink of retirement because of his own injury issues?
Win-win for Vegas. They can sign him to a big contract and then he can LTIRetire.
Moose and Squirrel
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I thought i had read there was a cap on the LTIR a team could have? or am I mis-remembering that
I am pretty sure there is no cap on the LTIR. However you can only exceed the cap by 10% in the summer and LTIR I don’t think exist in the summer. Only at the start of the season does LTIR exist.
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The Oilers (and Calgary to some extent) have the illusion of being closer to being a contender based on the weak playoff pool for the Pacific. I'd like to think Edmonton is closer, since it would be fun to watch McDavid and Draisatl in those big moments. But I think that roster is badly flawed and I don't see that its been remedied.
The Predators on the other hand are doing a good job of building a team that can really win. I thought the Rangers were too young to be a real threat, so I won't make that mistake about the Preds, but I think they're not ready yet. I also had written off their coach as being a liability, but maybe I am wrong about him.
Thallis
No half measures
They have a good amount of money to spend once 13 million goes on LTIR. They'll probably make a trade for Varlamov or someone similar.
BlueMed
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Reality Czech
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Kind of silly to suggest that just because they lost in 4 games and we lost in 6, that we are definitively better than them. I expect the Oilers to be a tough out again this year, too much high-end talent on that team to just roll over and go away. McDavid is gonna will that team to a Cup one of these years.
Brian39
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You can't just ignore that all 3 teams in question underwent changes.
Nashville didn't have their Vezina finalist in net for that series and they added McDonagh and Niedereider in free agency. I'm not a big fan of Nashville and think that last year was a bit of a mirage. But they improved on paper.
I'm also not a believer in Edmonton, but you can't ignore that they finally did something to move on from the Smith/Koskinen dumpster fire in net. I wouldn't put my money on Campbell/Skinner being a top 5-10 tandem in the league, but I'm pretty comfortable that they won't be bottom 5. Stability in net can do a lot for a team, even one as flawed as the Oilers.
And while I'm not as down on our summer as most, we did take losses on paper. The cap made some paper losses a certainty and I think we are well suited to absord/manage the losses. I also think that the other top teams in the West took greater losses. While I wouldn't say we lost ground on the top of the Conference, it is reasonable to say that we moved toward the pack to some degree and that improvement by teams below us could cause us to 'meet in the middle.'
You can't just look at the number of wins teams had against Colorado and then ignore everything that has happened since.
I remember Colorado had a 3 goal lead in game 5 that could have led to a "Gentlemans Sweep". I think the west will be very interesting with a couple of surprise teams. More parity than you think.
BlueMed
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Have you seen their defense and goaltending?
As much as people complain about our defense (which is likely top 6-10 in the league), their defense is an absolute circus with a #2-3 D man getting paid 9.25 M AAV and nothing else to show.
CaliforniaBlues310
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As of now I’d guess MacKinnon/Newhook/Compher, but knowing them Sakic is gonna get a sweetheart deal for JT Miller.
Wow. After what was looking like a potentially disastrous offseason for Calgary, they have now actually improved their team from last season IMO.
Also I think they almost traded for Kadri before Colorado did, so they had been interested in him for a while.
Also I think they almost traded for Kadri before Colorado did, so they had been interested in him for a while.
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