GDT: Free Agent Frenzy 2024

[herzausstein]

My one concern with the Marchessault and Stamkos signings is their age.

Marchessault has been an upper 20G/30G scorer throughout his career. Last year he got 40G so he isnt showing signs of dropoff yet. Most of his production came 5v5 (52P 5v5 / 17 PPP)

Stamkos is another 30/40G scorer throughout his career. Not as fast as he once was but even if alot of production comes on the powerplay... we can definitely use that. His production last season was almost 50/50 for 5v5/PP.

Skjei is younger and should smooth out the transition as Josi ages. 31P at even strength and 12 on the powerplay.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Overall I'm happy with the moves but it is not without it's risk. We're relying on a bunch of guys not dropping off at the age they typically drop off. I think we've picked a good bunch who isn't going to rest on their laurels but time is still a factor nonetheless. We're still pretty weak at center and are lacking any true shut down type of D-men. Probably good for Saros that he is getting paid this offseason because I'm not sure our roster is going to help his numbers much. That being said we've got a lot of guys who are capable of putting the puck in the net so the potential is there for us to be a really good team.

 

[Top 6 Spaling]

My one concern with the Marchessault and Stamkos signings is their age.

Marchessault has been an upper 20G/30G scorer throughout his career. Last year he got 40G so he isnt showing signs of dropoff yet. Most of his production came 5v5 (52P 5v5 / 17 PPP)

Stamkos is another 30/40G scorer throughout his career. Not as fast as he once was but even if alot of production comes on the powerplay... we can definitely use that. His production last season was almost 50/50 for 5v5/PP.

Skjei is younger and should smooth out the transition as Josi ages. 31P at even strength and 12 on the powerplay.

Unless we hit the lottery and Stammer/Forsberg/ROR/March/Josi/Saros are all the magical exception that breaks the aging curve, we're in a ton of trouble in three years. Gotta hope we can catch lightning in a bottle between now and then.

 

[Scoresberg]

Overall I'm happy with the moves but it is not without it's risk. We're relying on a bunch of guys not dropping off at the age they typically drop off. I think we've picked a good bunch who isn't going to rest on their laurels but time is still a factor nonetheless. We're still pretty weak at center and are lacking any true shut down type of D-men. Probably good for Saros that he is getting paid this offseason because I'm not sure our roster is going to help his numbers much. That being said we've got a lot of guys who are capable of putting the puck in the net so the potential is there for us to be a really good team.

I realize all this but I'm trying to sell this scenario to myself by asking "what was the other option?".

It's clear that they weren't ever going to let the kids take over so the other alternative would've been something along the lines of re-signing Zuc and Beauvillier and taking on that Stephenson deal.

I completely agree that today signaled an "all or nothing" -mentality by Trotz and co. which could just as well flame out completely. But it's hard not to get excited about trying to still keep the Cup hopes alive in the Josi-Forsberg Era.

 

[ShagDaddy]

Unless we hit the lottery and Stammer/Forsberg/ROR/March/Josi/Saros are all the magical exception that breaks the aging curve, we're in a ton of trouble in three years. Gotta hope we can catch lightning in a bottle between now and then.

In three years the stable of prospects will be ready to start replenishing the ranks.

 

[herzausstein]

Unless we hit the lottery and Stammer/Forsberg/ROR/March/Josi/Saros are all the magical exception that breaks the aging curve, we're in a ton of trouble in three years. Gotta hope we can catch lightning in a bottle between now and then.

RoR expires in 3 years
Josi in 4 years
Stamkos in 4 years

Skjei smooths out transition and takes over 1 lhd if a young prospect hasnt taken that role.

Hopefully, Wood, Kemell, L'Heureux, Evangelista, Tomasino, Fink, Stiga, Svechkov, Surin, Nilsson, Molendyk, Ufko, Gibson, have developed enough to step in by then. Lots of questions in there but not a terrible setup.

 

[Top 6 Spaling]

In three years the stable of prospects will be ready to start replenishing the ranks.

I hope you're right, but don't have a ton of confidence in our drafting and development at the moment. We will have to see.

RoR expires in 3 years
Josi in 4 years
Stamkos in 4 years

Skjei smooths out transition and takes over 1 lhd if a young prospect hasnt taken that role.

Hopefully, Wood, Kemell, L'Heureux, Evangelista, Tomasino, Fink, Stiga, Svechkov, Surin, Nilsson, Molendyk, Ufko, Gibson, have developed enough to step in by then. Lots of questions in there but not a terrible setup.

I hope deeply I am wrong, but I don't see a Josi, Stamkos, or RoR in that group at the bottom. My concern is we have no star players (or, personal opinion, stars in the making) under 29 on the roster. Even if the contracts don't end up killing us, we could find ourselves in a really hard spot at that point.

I want to clarify, I'm thrilled with how today went. Teams have to choose windows and go for it. I'm glad we chose ours and more excited and optimistic for this year than I've been since 2018. I just go into that with the knowledge it's very possible we traded success today for success tomorrow, and that's a trade I can live with.

 

[Top 6 Spaling]

RoR expires in 3 years
Josi in 4 years
Stamkos in 4 years

Skjei smooths out transition and takes over 1 lhd if a young prospect hasnt taken that role.

Hopefully, Wood, Kemell, L'Heureux, Evangelista, Tomasino, Fink, Stiga, Svechkov, Surin, Nilsson, Molendyk, Ufko, Gibson, have developed enough to step in by then. Lots of questions in there but not a terrible setup.

I hope deeply I am wrong, but I don't see a Josi, Stamkos, or RoR in that group at the bottom. My concern is we have no star players (or, personal opinion, stars in the making) under 29 on the roster. Even if the contracts don't end up killing us, we could find ourselves in a really hard spot at that point.

I want to clarify, I'm thrilled with how today went. Teams have to choose windows and go for it. I'm glad we chose ours and more excited and optimistic for this year than I've been since 2018. I just go into that with the knowledge it's very possible we traded success today for success tomorrow, and that's a trade I can live with.

 

[ShagDaddy]

I hope you're right, but don't have a ton of confidence in our drafting and development at the moment. We will have to see.

if the prospects don’t develop to the point the team needs them too, then they can continue to go the Vegas route of just swapping out veterans for more veterans to keep the competitive roster rolling.

Today, Trotz showed he is not afraid of being aggressive to improve the roster. This ain’t your grandpa’s Nashville Predators anymore.

 

[Scoresberg]

RoR expires in 3 years
Josi in 4 years
Stamkos in 4 years

Skjei smooths out transition and takes over 1 lhd if a young prospect hasnt taken that role.

Hopefully, Wood, Kemell, L'Heureux, Evangelista, Tomasino, Fink, Stiga, Svechkov, Surin, Nilsson, Molendyk, Ufko, Gibson, have developed enough to step in by then. Lots of questions in there but not a terrible setup.

This is mainly why I'm content with heading into next year with this offense. There's a lot of scoring talent there as well as depth without forgetting the room for improvement for the younger guys.

 

[herzausstein]

I hope deeply I am wrong, but I don't see a Josi, Stamkos, or RoR in that group at the bottom. My concern is we have no star players (or, personal opinion, stars in the making) under 29 on the roster. Even if the contracts don't end up killing us, we could find ourselves in a really hard spot at that point.

I want to clarify, I'm thrilled with how today went. Teams have to choose windows and go for it. I'm glad we chose ours and more excited and optimistic for this year than I've been since 2018. I just go into that with the knowledge it's very possible we traded success today for success tomorrow, and that's a trade I can live with.

Josi - Ufko and Molendyk have that type of potential offensively and theyre good defensively as well but they are just a little bit smaller. I dont know if thatll hold them back or not though. Maker afterall is listed at just 5'11" 187 lbs so size isnt everything.

Surin or Svechkov could probably match RoR. RoR is afterall just a 60ish point center having only hit 70 points 1 time.

Stamkos... nope we dont have anyone that will match peak Stamkos. Even current year stamkos point per game is a stretch but you never know.

 

[triggrman]

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I hope deeply I am wrong, but I don't see a Josi, Stamkos, or RoR in that group at the bottom. My concern is we have no star players (or, personal opinion, stars in the making) under 29 on the roster. Even if the contracts don't end up killing us, we could find ourselves in a really hard spot at that point.

I want to clarify, I'm thrilled with how today went. Teams have to choose windows and go for it. I'm glad we chose ours and more excited and optimistic for this year than I've been since 2018. I just go into that with the knowledge it's very possible we traded success today for success tomorrow, and that's a trade I can live with.

We didn't trade off the young guys. Wood, Surin, Kemel, etc are all 3 years from being impact players anyway, correct? We still have guys that are replaceable like Jankowski, even have an open spot currently.

 

[Scoresberg]

Huh, so I guess Hakanpää is healthy after all. Two-year deal to Toronto.

 

[herzausstein]

This is mainly why I'm content with heading into next year with this offense. There's a lot of scoring talent there as well as depth without forgetting the room for improvement for the younger guys.

Im wondering what are plans are for Pärssinen, Glass, Tomasino, del gaizo, and Fabbro. Theyre all gonna require waivers. Some probably get traded. Some probably have no trade value so if we arent using the cap might as well use em for 13th forwards / 7th dmen. Del Gaizo/Glass might clear waivers. Pärssinen/Tomasino/Fabbro likely not. But there is room to add then to the current mix and now they wont have to play with Jankowski/Smith/McCarron in a grinder role should they stay with the team.

 

[Scoresberg]

Im wondering what are plans are for Pärssinen, Glass, Tomasino, del gaizo, and Fabbro. Theyre all gonna require waivers. Some probably get traded. Some probably have no trade value so if we arent using the cap might as well use em for 13th forwards / 7th dmen. Del Gaizo/Glass might clear waivers. Pärssinen/Tomasino/Fabbro likely not. But there is room to add then to the current mix and now they wont have to play with Jankowski/Smith/McCarron in a grinder role should they stay with the team.

Pärssinen will most likely be in the NHL on opening night. As for Glass and Tomasino, who knows. I do think we could use Glass' cap hit elsewhere whereas the coaching staff doesn't seem to like Tomasino so he might have a tough time carving out a spot.

At least one of Del Gaizo and Statsney will be on the NHL roster when the season starts. I don't think both can fit there especially if we have Fabbro and/or Carrier still on board as well. I do think Trotz realizes that size is still king on defense and will build the back-end accordingly.

 

[ShagDaddy]

Stamkos... nope we dont have anyone that will match peak Stamkos. Even current year stamkos point per game is a stretch but you never know.

Don’t sleep on Kemmel. Will he ever hit the 100 point mark, probably not but that one timer from the circle on the PP by Kemmel could be just as lethal as Stamkos. Kemmel is only 20 years old and still developing parts of his game but having witnessed that one timer first hand in practice and in games, it just hits different.

 

[herzausstein]

Don’t sleep on Kemmel. Will he ever hit the 100 point mark, probably not but that one timer from the circle on the PP by Kemmel could be just as lethal as Stamkos. Kemmel is only 20 years old and still developing parts of his game but having witnessed that one timer first hand in practice and in games, it just hits different.

Not wanting to sleep on L'Heureux either. I see a Marchand quality in him. Might not ever hit those peaks but he one can hope.

Not sure what to think with wood. He was on a pretty bad NCAA team. Id love him to turn into a tage thompson level player.

Fink is a wildcard. There are alot of smaller players that excel in NCAA that then just vanish in the AHL.


There is the Saros contract announcement.

Predators Agree to Terms with Juuse Saros on Eight-Year, $61.92 Million Contract Beginning in 2025-26 | Nashville Predators

Goaltender is Second in Predators History in Wins, Shutouts

www.nhl.com

 

[ShagDaddy]

 

[BigFatCat999]

oy. bit high for my taste

 

[weeze]

Pärssinen will most likely be in the NHL on opening night. As for Glass and Tomasino, who knows. I do think we could use Glass' cap hit elsewhere whereas the coaching staff doesn't seem to like Tomasino so he might have a tough time carving out a spot.

At least one of Del Gaizo and Statsney will be on the NHL roster when the season starts. I don't think both can fit there especially if we have Fabbro and/or Carrier still on board as well. I do think Trotz realizes that size is still king on defense and will build the back-end accordingly.

Kind of 50/50 on Glass. He was really soft at beginning of year and his FO was not very good. I think he worked on his FO and it got better but is still soft on the puck. That $2.5M is a bit high for what he brings to the table.

 

[JD86]

That's a really good deal. I feel like Carrier is underappreciated because he's small and not physical and also not flashy offensively. He just does the the right things on the ice, high IQ, good positioning, good denials at the line. He's a legit 2nd pair RD.

In any case, the Preds are right up against the cap with 20 skaters + 2 goalies.

 

[Scoresberg]

Considering the lack of RHD options remaining I consider this a tactical victory. Although, I'd still like to see another depth defenseman with size brought in.

 

[Cashville]

I'm definitely excited. You can scrutinize the age/term or the exact AAV #s, but I have to credit Trotz for making a firm decision on going for it and getting the guys that fit best. You can argue we landed 3 of the top ~5 or so UFAs. Stammer and March are also all-world locker room guys which is important to the way this team has been built; Skjei may be as well, just not as close to him.

 

[weeze]

Not a fan of this deal. That is too much for what he has brought to the Preds. Seems to get injured due to his size. Well just looked and the last 3 seasons he played 77,43 and 73 so maybe he was injured for an extended time 2 seasons ago. But at 5'11" and 175lbs he is a smallish D man.

 

[Scoresberg]

We're now $595k from the cap ceiling with a 20-man roster. Doesn't include Pärssinen, Tomasino, MDG or Statsney.

Someone needs to move to make room. Preferably Glass or Fabbro.