GDT: Free Agent Frenzy 2022

[MarMarSab3]

Weegar plays LD

And RD

 

[Clark4Ever]

It looks like we'll be seeing more of the rat for many years.

Excellent haul for Calgary, but they better make sure they extend Huberdeau and Weegar or move them for assets.

 

[Fogelhund]

Or they take their chance on a 1 year rental and flip Weegar at the deadline if they suck. If they don't suck, they go for it and hope maybe they can make an extension work eventually. This goes for Huberdeau too.

People forget the Flames want to compete. It's not always about maximizing your player value long-term.

If the Flames were worried about it, they would have taken a pure futures laden return. All picks and prospects/young players.

Chances are high that Calgary moves a D to help bring in some offence. The question becomes which D gets moved. I’d suggest one of Tanev or Weegar gets moved. The only guy better than Kerfoot (wingers) available as a UFA in points is Kessel.

Florida moved guys they knew they weren’t resigning. Weegar has allegedly been shopped for a while already. Outside of the first, they didn’t move anything they knew they weren’t keeping anyway.

So could Calgary keep all of their best D, sure… but then their forwards are going to be trash.

 

[fahad203]

Really not sure how Calgary comes off top here. I mean two players are pending FA and has N-Trade clause

Tkachuck is 6'4, 24 years old and a power forward

Hub would have wanted near 10 million next year at the age of 30 probably an 8 year extension. That is if he stayed

Florida has an upcoming star in Lundell who is just 19 turning 20
You add someone like Tkachuck with Verhaege, Bennett and Reinhart, that's a very gritty team with offense

I like how Florida realized that they needed a different look. After getting smacked by Tampa and not making through first round last year, they wanted to give the core a shake

This is a very proactive approach. Try something different as opposed to waiting around for your core to come around or figure it out

It's not like Tkachuck himself is a not a star in this league.

 

[Legion34]

It is false. Matthews never "signed short to try to time a cap jump". That was never reported or indicated at all. In fact, the exact opposite was reported, and even confirmed by Dubas himself.

“That was certainly the intention at the beginning from Auston’s side, they were focused on that [max-term deal],” Dubas said. “We’re very thankful they were willing to move from their desired term."

Matthews was willing to take (and in fact preferred) an 8 year deal, but the Leafs opted for a 5 year deal because it allowed them to keep all of their core together and build around them.

It was also never reported that Matthews on a 8 year deal would have been an abnormal amount, or higher than McDavid's negotiated cap hit percentage. McDavid negotiated 17.67% (which is what their agency would be focused on), and then took a voluntary post-negotiation discount for 16.67% (which actually put him as the abnormality relative to history when exclusively looking at more simplistic, traditional measures). And quite frankly, the truth is Matthews' pre-signing period was a lot, lot closer to McDavid than many like to acknowledge. There's nothing "silly" about Matthews being close to McDavid's post-negotiation discount percentage on a similar 8 year deal.

Fun fact: Even ignoring more accurate measures like per-60, where Matthews had a superior ES P1/60, ES G/60, PP P/60, PP P1/60, and PP G/60, Matthews also had the exact same overall primary points per game at time of signing. The difference in their point totals was entirely secondary assists.

What are you even talking about? McDavid signed July 5th, 2017. Las Vegas was known and already an operating team.

Yes, you don't know. That would be incredibly abnormal and unlikely to happen, and would be a significant 180 for Matthews. If Matthews did choose to do that, we would not get him on a 3 year UFA deal through ages 27-29 for cheaper than he would make on an 8 year deal.

He will sign an 8 year deal based on the cap at the time, with slight considerations for how the cap is projected to evolve. He is not going to sign based on a 95m+ cap under an 84.5m cap. That's not how contracts work.

Ugh
1.) it is well know that Matthews wanted an 8 year deal. But they were charging more because of the cap jump. The leafs and him settled on a 5 year deal to give a fair hit now and then he cashed in with the jump. This is known. It’s the same with Marner. He wouldn’t entertain a long term deal. Dreger reported it basically daily.

2.) Vegas was a team. But had not played yet. They were not at all gauranteed to be a success. There were concerns from the HRR side. This is known. None of the desert teams had done well. AFTER Vegas was a massive success they saw it as an HRR stream.

You can feel free to pretend that Spotify doesn’t exist. There are volumes of CJ Friedman dreger etc hits all the way through that year and the summer that the insiders all said exactly what I am saying happened then

Feel free to ignore it. It’s there. Go back and listen if yon like. Dreger did day by day Marner hits over the summer where he went over the Marner demands based on the Matthews contract.

It doesn’t make it any less true. Now we have a similar situation coming up and a prominent agent predicting the same thing.

I have no idea what will happen but we will see. I would love it if Matthews signed 15-16% on an 84.5 cap.

I think it’s probably unlikely. But we will see. My complete guess is that he MAY go short term. Set the leafs records and decide what he wants to do. Anything could change that. He many Meet a country singer and want to sign in nashville? He may want to stay here forever. No one knows.

 

[jiggy35]

The ultimate all-in TDL move for Dubas would be grabbing BOTH Huberdeau 50% + Weegar 50%.

Playoff lineup of

Bunting - Matthews - Marner
Huberdeau - Tavares - Nylander
Engvall - Kampf - Jarnkrok
Knies - Steeves - Aube-Kubel
Anderson

Rielly - Weegar
Muzzin - Brodie
Giordano - Liljegren
Mete, Benn

Murray
Samsonov

Is sexy.

 

[SprDaVE]

Chances are high that Calgary moves a D to help bring in some offence. The question becomes which D gets moved. I’d suggest one of Tanev or Weegar gets moved. The only guy better than Kerfoot (wingers) available as a UFA in points is Kessel.

Florida moved guys they knew they weren’t resigning. Weegar has allegedly been shopped for a while already. Outside of the first, they didn’t move anything they knew they weren’t keeping anyway.

So could Calgary keep all of their best D, sure… but then their forwards are going to be trash.

Their forwards aren't even that bad. Huberdeau replaces Tkachuk just fine in terms of offence. Losing Gaudreau hurts a lot of course though.

I'd say the chances are low they move out a D for forward help and I'm not sure Kerfoot is the player they'll target if they ever do flip someone like Weegar. I like Kerfoot and all but he isn't going to really make or break a teams forward core from trash to good either. Weegar can make a much bigger impact.

 

[Havoc]

It's funny. I think Florida did amazing even if it was a slight overpay (I don't think it was). 8 years of prime age Matthew Tkachuk (arguably the best two-way winger in the league) locked in at a reasonable price for a 29 year old Huberdeau who's going to get paid that or more (and likely will age terribly), and Weegar, although awesome has one more year as well. The first is hilarious because Florida will never pick again, but they traded essentially two rentals for a prime aged top-10 player in hockey. Atlantic continues getting stronger for the foreseeable future, but at least Florida has no defense and are stuck with Bob's boat anchor contract.

Yeah I dunno, I say yes to Matthew Tkachuk and sacrifice hubert and weegar and the 1st for him today too.
Especially having a center like Barkov on my team. Assemble that big, tough, skilled elite dynamic duo and worry about the rest after. How many games did we win in the second half just riding two guys? Almost all.

Huberdeau turns 30 next season what a smart move converting him into Tkachuk with a little short term overpay including Weegar. But who the hell is Weegar in the grand scheme of acquiring 24 year old Matthew Tkachuk.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Really not sure how Calgary comes off top here. I mean two players are pending FA and has N-Trade clause

Tkachuck is 6'4, 24 years old and a power forward

Hub would have wanted near 10 million next year at the age of 30 probably an 8 year extension. That is if he stayed

Florida has an upcoming star in Lundell who is just 19 turning 20
You add someone like Tkachuck with Verhaege, Bennett and Reinhart, that's a very gritty team with offense

I like how Florida realized that they needed a different look. After getting smacked by Tampa and not making through first round last year, they wanted to give the core a shake

This is a very proactive approach. Try something different as opposed to waiting around for your core to come around or figure it out

It's not like Tkachuck himself is a not a star in this league.

There's the try something different approach and then there's Dubas. Kyle fricken Dubas who is learning as he goes. Still doesn't know the difference between regular season and playoff hockey. Wasted years with an egotistical rookie

 

[Legion34]

Really not sure how Calgary comes off top here. I mean two players are pending FA and has N-Trade clause

Tkachuck is 6'4, 24 years old and a power forward

Hub would have wanted near 10 million next year at the age of 30 probably an 8 year extension. That is if he stayed

Florida has an upcoming star in Lundell who is just 19 turning 20
You add someone like Tkachuck with Verhaege, Bennett and Reinhart, that's a very gritty team with offense

I like how Florida realized that they needed a different look. After getting smacked by Tampa and not making through first round last year, they wanted to give the core a shake

This is a very proactive approach. Try something different as opposed to waiting around for your core to come around or figure it out

It's not like Tkachuck himself is a not a star in this league.

Huberdeau waived. He must be willing to sign.

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

Their forwards aren't even that bad. Huberdeau replaces Tkachuk just fine in terms of offence. Losing Gaudreau hurts a lot of course though.

Calgary's depth up front is pretty bad. Backlund wouldn't be the 2C on a legitimate cup contender and they need a ton of help at RW

 

[SprDaVE]

Really not sure how Calgary comes off top here. I mean two players are pending FA and has N-Trade clause

Tkachuck is 6'4, 24 years old and a power forward

Hub would have wanted near 10 million next year at the age of 30 probably an 8 year extension. That is if he stayed

Florida has an upcoming star in Lundell who is just 19 turning 20
You add someone like Tkachuck with Verhaege, Bennett and Reinhart, that's a very gritty team with offense

I like how Florida realized that they needed a different look. After getting smacked by Tampa and not making through first round last year, they wanted to give the core a shake

This is a very proactive approach. Try something different as opposed to waiting around for your core to come around or figure it out

It's not like Tkachuck himself is a not a star in this league.

These kind of big shake ups don't always work out. Look at Vegas as a very recent example of constantly shaking things up can do. Huberdeau was very well liked there and a top 5 Hart nominee, and Weegar won't be easily replaced.

Tkachuk had his highest shooting percentage this past season and a pretty big jump in point totals as a result. His playoffs production is abysmal.

 

[Shooter2x]

It's funny. I think Florida did amazing even if it was a slight overpay (I don't think it was). 8 years of prime age Matthew Tkachuk (arguably the best two-way winger in the league) locked in at a reasonable price for a 29 year old Huberdeau who's going to get paid that or more (and likely will age terribly), and Weegar, although awesome has one more year as well. The first is hilarious because Florida will never pick again, but they traded essentially two rentals for a prime aged top-10 player in hockey. Atlantic continues getting stronger for the foreseeable future, but at least Florida has no defense and are stuck with Bob's boat anchor contract.

This.

Win for Florida.

In todays NHL when it comes to young superstars you don't hesitate because of the Weegars of the league.

Huberdeau can't get Tkachuk 1 for 1. Weegar + 1st isn't something you need to think about. Superstars run the league today.


If someone offered Huberdeau with only 1 prime year left, Weegar ,+ 1st for Marner I decline and so does everyone else here so lets cut being fake.

 

[fahad203]

Huberdeau waived. He must be willing to sign.

Good for Calgary. Both sides win
Hub is still 29. You gained 5 years on Tkachuck and getting a power forward

Hub will be a great replacement for Johnny.

 

[SprDaVE]

Calgary's depth up front is pretty bad. Backlund wouldn't be a 2C on a legitimate cup contender and they need a ton of help at RW

Depth is definitely not great. Not sure Kerfoot helps either one of those becaue he's not a great center either.

Even if they re-sign both Tkachuk and Gaudreau they still have he same problem you listed but with Gaudreau.

They can now sign a couple decent free agents to fill out the ranks a bit and it could be alright.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Really not sure how Calgary comes off top here. I mean two players are pending FA and has N-Trade clause

Tkachuck is 6'4, 24 years old and a power forward

Hub would have wanted near 10 million next year at the age of 30 probably an 8 year extension. That is if he stayed

Florida has an upcoming star in Lundell who is just 19 turning 20
You add someone like Tkachuck with Verhaege, Bennett and Reinhart, that's a very gritty team with offense

I like how Florida realized that they needed a different look. After getting smacked by Tampa and not making through first round last year, they wanted to give the core a shake

This is a very proactive approach. Try something different as opposed to waiting around for your core to come around or figure it out

It's not like Tkachuck himself is a not a star in this league.

You realize Tkachuk wanted out and didn’t want to re-sign long term?

I don’t think their different between Tkachuk and Hubes (considering age and contract status) is a top 4 RHD D-man, a 1st rounder, and a pick.

 

[fahad203]

These kind of big shake ups doesn't really work out all that well. Look at Vegas as a very recent example of constantly shaking things up can do. Huberdeau was very well liked there and a top 5 Hart nominee, and Weegar won't be easily replaced.

Tkachuk had his highest shooting percentage this past season and a pretty big jump in point totals as a result. His playoffs production is abysmal.

Whether it does or doesn't remain to be seen. It does work actually if you get the right player
But that shouldn't stop you from trying to improve your team and try something different

It's not like you are giving up on a young prospect. Tkachuck is a heck of a player who brings something different

You gained a top asset with a potential asset that may want to move out and on top of that you gained 5 years

While you are potentially saving money. Hub would want the same or more money than Barkov. Barkov is your center piece and nobody should make more than Barkov

 

[BertCorbeau]

Worth noting that Calgary could get more in terms of picks and futures by selling Hubes and a Weegar at the deadline if needed than they would just for Tkachuk

 

[Eye Test]

Does flordia now move lundell to get rid of hornquist and grab a D like Chychrun?

Or lundell for sandin + 2nd + 3rd?

 

[Havoc]

Really not sure how Calgary comes off top here. I mean two players are pending FA and has N-Trade clause

Tkachuck is 6'4, 24 years old and a power forward

Hub would have wanted near 10 million next year at the age of 30 probably an 8 year extension. That is if he stayed

Florida has an upcoming star in Lundell who is just 19 turning 20
You add someone like Tkachuck with Verhaege, Bennett and Reinhart, that's a very gritty team with offense

I like how Florida realized that they needed a different look. After getting smacked by Tampa and not making through first round last year, they wanted to give the core a shake

This is a very proactive approach. Try something different as opposed to waiting around for your core to come around or figure it out

It's not like Tkachuck himself is a not a star in this league.

I'd look into doing something similar with Marner when he's 29 since I'm unsure how his frame will translate to the inevitable decline in his 30s. Overpay on paper to turn back the clock 5 years to 24 year old Marner.

Then do it again with new Marner at age 29 for the new, new Marner

Really love this move by Florida.

 

[fahad203]

You realize Tkachuk wanted out and didn’t want to re-sign long term?

I don’t think their different between Tkachuk and Hubes (considering age and contract status) is a top 4 RHD D-man, a 1st rounder, and a pick.

Florida isn't thinking in terms of what value we got head per head. Florida's core at best now 26 years in average.

Weager has been rumored to be in the trade mill for a while. They been wanting to move from him now for long time.

They saved money long term and they got younger. That first round? 2025. They have plenty of time to recover that

It's ok sometimes to move on from players. Not get emotionally attached because you drafted him, because he got 100 points. It's ok to try a different look

I know, I know. As a Leafs fans, that must be so foreign to us.

Does flordia now move lundell to get rid of hornquist and grab a D like Chychrun?

Or lundell for sandin + 2nd + 3rd?

Lundell is untouchable. He's not going anywhere
He's one of the reason why they were able to make this move

 

[Shooter2x]

I'd look into doing something similar with Marner when he's 29 since I'm unsure how his frame will translate to the inevitable decline in his 30s. Overpay on paper to turn back the clock 5 years to 24 year old Marner.

Then do it again with new Marner at age 29 for the new, new Marner

Really love this move by Florida.

This trade is like a cheap trick you'd use in Xbox. Take your aging star and then just keep adding / swapping non allstar players to your offer until the computer accepts your offer for the younger foundational player. Your team will be good forever.

 

[SprDaVE]

Whether it does or doesn't remain to be seen. It does work actually if you get the right player
But that shouldn't stop you from trying to improve your team and try something different

It's not like you are giving up on a young prospect. Tkachuck is a heck of a player who brings something different

You gained a top asset with a potential asset that may want to move out and on top of that you gained 5 years

While you are potentially saving money. Hub would want the same or more money than Barkov. Barkov is your center piece and nobody should make more than Barkov

I don't think this fixes anything for the Panthers for next season. They just got much weaker defensively, they didn't get better offensively and certainly didn't get better for next season.

After Ekblad, who is often injured, their D consists of Montour, Forsling, Gudas and a bunch of spare parts. If this was the Leafs, we'd be blasted for having the worst defensive pairings in the entire NHL.

They were already all offence no defence last year, it got a whole lot worst. It blows my mind how no one here is even mentioning how bad it is.

 

[Green Snow Storm]

Worth noting that Calgary could get more in terms of picks and futures by selling Hubes and a Weegar at the deadline if needed than they would just for Tkachuk

Yeah at the deadline where teams tend to overpay, you're looking at two massive futures packages.

Florida despite adding a player who I love got weaker in my opinion. That D is ugly right now.

 

[Dekes For Days]

1.) it is well know that Matthews wanted an 8 year deal. But they were charging more because of the cap jump.

No, they did not "charge more because of the cap jump". That was never reported. That was never indicated. It is normal for the cap hit on a post-ELC contract to increase when going from a 5 year deal to an 8 year deal, and the reported discrepancy in cap hit for the 5 vs. 8 year deal was not in any way abnormal. Based on reports, we're talking about like a 5% increase per year. That's very standard in any cap environment, and there's absolutely no reason to believe that the future projected cap jump impacted it at all. You can't claim "facts" and then point to your own personal and unsupported interpretations and assumptions.

The Leafs and him settled on 5 years so that the Leafs could fit all of their core in and still be able to build around them, not because Matthews wanted to "sign short to try to time a cap jump". Matthews was open to a reasonable 8 year deal then, and there's no reason to think he won't be open to a reasonable 8 year deal now.

2.) Vegas was a team. But had not played yet. They were not at all gauranteed to be a success.

They were not guaranteed to be a hockey success, but they were essentially guaranteed to be a financial success. That's why they were fine paying a half-billion expansion fee. They had already gauged the market and they had secured over 13k+ season ticket deposits by 2 years prior. Vegas was seen as a golden goose by the NHL. Everybody already knew that it was going to positively impact the cap and that the cap was going to rise when McDavid signed.