tmorton
Registered User
- Aug 26, 2024
- 11
- 15
First time posting, but I've been a frequent visitor of this forum for about a decade.
As a Florida fan, I hear a lot of people saying "oh now that you've won they'll never be able to keep the team together". I honestly don't think that's true, and I'm here to post about it. Let's look at 2025.
Key Contracts Due 2025
Sam Bennett (currently cap hit $4.425 M)
Carter Verhaeghe (current cap hit $4.2 M)
Aaron Ekblad (current cap hit $7.5 M)
also coming off the books $1.24 M for Keith Yandle
So looking at these three deals, we have $17.4 M coming off the books (in addition to some minor losses, which I'll touch on later). I don't think a contract of 5 x $6 M is unreasonable for either Verhaeghe or Bennett. We may have to add a 6th year for Bennett, but Marchessault is a decent comp for these guys. The big question mark here is Ekblad. I think we all know he's not worth his $7.5 M deal, and I'm sure his camp is aware of it too. If we can convince him to stick with a ~ $6 M x 7 deal, we'd get him locked up as well. Even this deal scares me a bit, but his advanced metrics show he's still extremely strong on the defensive side. This year is the biggest obstacle of "keeping the band back together", but I think it's doable. And if not, we can probably grab someone else of similar quality for that $6 M cap hit.
Any of the other expiring contracts, as well as the cap raise (possibly another 4 M?) can be used to replace the one year pacts for Schmidt or Nosek, or the extend Boqvist squared.
Key Contracts Due 2026
Here's the big one, this is the year Bob is a UFA. Either we would sign him back on a sweatheart deal and/or sign a tandem/backup option and save well over $5M. This combined with cap increases and we could add a decent 2D or great second pair D with the savings.
Basically if we can make it through 2025 with the above signings we are in phenomenal shape longer term. We'd have Luostarinin and Rodriguez both for one more year, and any cap raises are gravy as our top two lines (plus) would be completely locked up with money to spare. As some of those players age and need to be pushed to the 3rd (and eventually 4th) line, we will have money to suppliment the top of the lineup.
All hail Zito.
As a Florida fan, I hear a lot of people saying "oh now that you've won they'll never be able to keep the team together". I honestly don't think that's true, and I'm here to post about it. Let's look at 2025.
Key Contracts Due 2025
Sam Bennett (currently cap hit $4.425 M)
Carter Verhaeghe (current cap hit $4.2 M)
Aaron Ekblad (current cap hit $7.5 M)
also coming off the books $1.24 M for Keith Yandle
So looking at these three deals, we have $17.4 M coming off the books (in addition to some minor losses, which I'll touch on later). I don't think a contract of 5 x $6 M is unreasonable for either Verhaeghe or Bennett. We may have to add a 6th year for Bennett, but Marchessault is a decent comp for these guys. The big question mark here is Ekblad. I think we all know he's not worth his $7.5 M deal, and I'm sure his camp is aware of it too. If we can convince him to stick with a ~ $6 M x 7 deal, we'd get him locked up as well. Even this deal scares me a bit, but his advanced metrics show he's still extremely strong on the defensive side. This year is the biggest obstacle of "keeping the band back together", but I think it's doable. And if not, we can probably grab someone else of similar quality for that $6 M cap hit.
Any of the other expiring contracts, as well as the cap raise (possibly another 4 M?) can be used to replace the one year pacts for Schmidt or Nosek, or the extend Boqvist squared.
Key Contracts Due 2026
Here's the big one, this is the year Bob is a UFA. Either we would sign him back on a sweatheart deal and/or sign a tandem/backup option and save well over $5M. This combined with cap increases and we could add a decent 2D or great second pair D with the savings.
Basically if we can make it through 2025 with the above signings we are in phenomenal shape longer term. We'd have Luostarinin and Rodriguez both for one more year, and any cap raises are gravy as our top two lines (plus) would be completely locked up with money to spare. As some of those players age and need to be pushed to the 3rd (and eventually 4th) line, we will have money to suppliment the top of the lineup.
All hail Zito.
true and mind-blowing.
