Finding more offense is the key to the 24-25 season. The team doesn't have the high-end talent to be top 10, but they've added three top six forwards (Lapierre full-time, Mango, PLD) to a solid group and added two guys who can chip in offense from the back in (Chychrun especially but Roy scored more points in 23-24 than anyone on the Caps D not named Carlson).
The biggest thing for me is that the Caps last year had 22.75M (27.2% of the salary cap) going to three forwards who combined for 43 points, the equivalent production of Daniel Sprong (and in more games played!). They were the functional equivalent of a cap floor team + Daniel Sprong with a 22.75M cap hit, no coach could've gotten even league-average offense from that roster. Now those three players have essentially disappeared from the balance sheet for no cost and been replaced with a bunch of skilled players in their primes. It's gonna get better. Even if these guys all repeat their down years, the offense will get better.
Not at all worried about that. He has said that started last year trying to play a more offense-first style but the roster couldn't pull it off, so he switched to the defensive style we saw for the second half of the season. You have to think that the moves Mac made this summer are all about having guys that can play that type of game. In other words, Carbs already did the pivot. Going back to what he prefers is the easy part, so long as the new lineup is what we hope they are (or better!).
So, Konecny's one year older than PLD. Prior to last year he was a career 0.68 ppg player with two 60 point seasons under his belt (both 61 points). PLD right now is a career 0.65 ppg player with three 60 point seasons under his belt (60, 61, and 63). We can quibble over details - Konecny's the better goal scorer and recently added PKing to his duties, PLD's bigger, hits and blocks a little more, and plays the more valuable position - but in terms of raw production they're pretty close.
on the worst contract countdown Stephenson was #2 and he signed this month (PLD was HM) so it's possible anyone but Huberdeau could match their deal in this market. Good thing Toronto rushed to replace Dubas with Treliving.
How many point are you projecting for him to score to make his # more than Carlson?
It’s more of the cap going up and the inflation on all these contracts. Carlson is quite value at this point.
I mean last year he tied his career high from 3 seasons ago with 41 pts. With our offense, not sure it’s a lock he produces more, but to get 8+ mil I gotta think he needs to play like an all star….and produce like it.
I think that despite the point totals Chychrun's time in OTT has left the league in general (and myself) wanting a bit to be making 1D $8M+ money -- that's part of the reason they were able to get him so cheap. I would say that Hanifin, Rielly, Sanheim, and Forsling are the most in-the-ballpark recent comps as strong 2D/lower end 1D (at least in league-wide perception, maybe not actual talent) signing long-term extensions around their 26/27/28yo seasons. Even with the cap inflation, I doubt that if Chychrun signed an extension right now he could beat Hanifin's 7.35Mx8. The only players IMO in that tier to break 8M are Trouba, Sergachev, and Nurse and I'd think that NHL GMs would learn a bit from those cases.
As of now, I don’t think so. He hasn’t had a good trend. Maybe he does this year. I think he can get his value up to 6M but higher might be a stretch. That is fine for top 4 (if he proves to be that for us).
Chychrun is going to be a UFA. I didn’t set the market and it’s only going up.
Dima got 7.75 on the open market and he never surprised 36 points in his career and was older than Chychrun when he signed that deal. Chychrun easily gets 8+ as a UFA.
For 2 years and Carolina arguably regretting that cap number today lol….they thought he was a finishing move to win a Cup or 2…..X X X
