GDT: Free Agent Frenzy Today at Noon EST

[Dread Clawz]

I think the East as a whole will be more balanced. Don't expect 4-100 point teams in the Atlantic again. We probably aren't winning the President's, but we also don't need to.

Yeah I think Florida, Tampa, and Toronto will all have less points.

 

[Chaos2k7]

Yeah I think Florida, Tampa, and Toronto will all have less points.

We would have had less points this year if we kept everyone, we had like the 7th best regular season in league history.

 

[I am not exposed]

68+million reasons
Yeah I always hated Cousins for that, but he's on our side now so I hope he agitates the shite out of the Bolts.

I'm pretty sure he was getting that amount whichever team he chose to sign with.

 

[Gentle Man]

I'm pretty sure he was getting that amount whichever team he chose to sign with.

Calgary offered close to 12 a year buy yea.

I think he really wanted Philly

 

[pantherbot]

The Gaudreau contract probably puts negative pressure on Huby's hit tbh. Same age and production

Exactly what I was thinking. To those of you who keep arguing with me that Huber should get at least $10M...see this contract. If anything, Gaudreau is one year younger for his first contract year and it was in UFA which should see higher prices. So based on this, a fair deal for Huber should be $9M x 6 years.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

Theres gonna be no change in the top 3 of the atlantic, unfortunately though all 3 teams got worse, and that includes Florida

 

[vendetta]

Weegars extension is risky.
Zito in no way can afford to overpay him in either money or term.


Somehow he’d need to find space to add a quality defensive Dman into the mix

Weegar is a good d that stays healthy and can play both sides. Just as important as forsling. He needs to be resigned. He is a top 3 dman easily and needs to be locked up.

Because idgaf about the regular season and I don't see how this roster gets out of the 2nd round? I've never had less interest in a regular season or regular season success. This roster is probably the same (maybe slightly worse?) than the 2021 team?

If our core plays better without being timid little bitches they can get past round 2.

 

[FrolikFan67]

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

And ppl still do not see how Ekblad is no different than Weegsy...

 

[Gentle Man]

And ppl still do not see how Ekblad is no different than Weegsy...

Pretty sure this was concussion Ekfat

 

[WaitingForThatCab]

And ppl still do not see how Ekblad is no different than Weegsy...

Man, just go back and rewatch game 1 of the Caps series and see how Weegar plays out the end of that game and the result for the Panthers and tell me Ekblad's comparable as a playoff liability.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

Exactly what I was thinking. To those of you who keep arguing with me that Huber should get at least $10M...see this contract. If anything, Gaudreau is one year younger for his first contract year and it was in UFA which should see higher prices. So based on this, a fair deal for Huber should be $9M x 6 years.

$9milx6 might be a fair deal for Hubs but does that make the Panthers a better team in the long run or should Zito continue to restructure this team and build around Barkov&Lundell and treat the 3rd & 4th line as traditional checking/shutdown line and energy line which is probably Maurice's preference? ppl are too focused on the exact dollar figure instead to making this team more cohesive unit.

For an instance... the Panthers had a 3.2PP% during the playoffs. Is that a problem? I think we all can agree that it is a problem. How big of an impact Bruno had for PP% being that low? I would say that he had a significant impact, but was he the only reason for it... absolutely not. Then you'd have to admit (especially if you believe Bruno's comments that he gave them too leeway to act on their own) that the PP personnel was to be blamed for it as well. Why pay $9-10mil to a forward who's (if you assume what most ppl believe on this board to be true) their best forward but yet so inept at solving their scoring issues due to not being so elite after all when the opposing teams do not give him the respect i.e. the time and space that he absolutely needs?

Offering Huby a 9x7 deal puts the Panthers into a similar hole that the Bobrovsky-deal got them. I still remember how the majority of this board was celebrating getting Bob signed...

 

[Ghoste]

-ghoste

 

[Gentle Man]

We might be signing Balcers tomorrow?


Nevermind..looks to be a bunch of randos

Double edit


I guess it was an accidental leak by Jameson?

 

[Chino Oscar]

When looking at what the team looked like at last years trade deadline (which was top 5 if I remember correctly):

Verhaegue - Barkov - Duclair
Huberdeau - Bennett - Tippet/Vatrano
Marchment - Lundell - Reinhart
Lomberg - Luostarinen - Hornqvist

The bolded ones are the only ones that we have lost compared to last year's at the TDL. Granted, Duclar being out half the season also hurts, but it is what it is. Here is what I think we could look like:

Verhaegue - Barkov - Reinhart
Huberdeau - Bennett - White/Deni/Hepo
Cousins/Levtchi - Lundell - Hornqvist
Lomberg - Luostarinen - Schwindt/Cousins once Duke returns.

Defensive pairs will mostly remain the same as prior to TDL, with Staal as 7th rotating with Carlsson

Are we that much worse off now? Don't think so. Amazingly, the only real point producer that we lost from that lineup is Marchment. I do see an issue if anyone gets hurt for a prolonged period of time. I am rooting for Deni/Hepo/Levtchi to make the team and be effective in their roles.

 

[Mogo]

Yea. Laine. To Florida.


Redeem yourselves

No

We’re definitely gonna be worse next year. Should still be a playoff team but it’ll be tough. We’re not even gonna have Duclair for the first half of the season.

Hope those AHL guys are ready to make some noise

When was the last time our own AHL guy came up and made serious noise or even noise? Trocheck?
We've always been horrible growning players in AHL

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

No



When was the last time our own AHL guy came up and made serious noise or even noise? Trocheck?
We've always been horrible growning players in AHL

Come on now, let's improve our team for once. Trade Hubs, bring in Laine.

Weegar. The player development dept sucks. If Deni becomes a top9 player for them, I'd consider that as a huge win and in turn trade the farm for picks and other assets.

 

[Mogo]

Come on now, let's improve our team for once. Trade Hubs, bring in Laine.

Weegar. The player development dept sucks. If Deni becomes a top9 player for them, I'd consider that as a huge win and in turn trade the farm for picks and other assets.

No to Laine ever

We really need a W with our AHL guys. Trocheck, Garrison, Weegar are the only guys that come off top of my head that we had emerge from AHL and really do something.

Hopefully Denisenko has a great summer and is ready to take the next step. We need it

At least Zito has been honest and say we dont have cap space. Unlike GM's before him always saying were making space for our youngsters and thats why we didnt make moves in UFA

 

[letsgrowcactus]

LMAO okay that's just mean:

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

No to Laine ever

We really need a W with our AHL guys. Trocheck, Garrison, Weegar are the only guys that come off top of my head that we had emerge from AHL and really do something.

Hopefully Denisenko has a great summer and is ready to take the next step. We need it

At least Zito has been honest and say we dont have cap space. Unlike GM's before him always saying were making space for our youngsters and thats why we didnt make moves in UFA

Well, Zito is disingenuous about how it came being that he doesn't have the cap space. It's not like some divine intervention made him to trade Panthers' first round picks for essentially nothing and not buyout Hornqvist. Zito is no different than Tallon in regards to trusting and giving the rookies a fair chance at establish themselves at the NHL level. Tallon was notorious for saying that he wants 10-15 of his draftees to play for the Panthers and then in every free agency he goes out there and spends every cap dollar available to him.

 

[Necrobutcher]

Kinda pointless to speculate about Laine cause it's such a stretch but the one thing why the Panthers could really use him is the fact that he steps up in the playoffs. I remember watching the 2019 WPG-STL series and i was kinda blown away by him. He had had a very poor season but all of a sudden he was their best forward when it mattered the most. Scored a couple of goals but also made plays constantly and even worked pretty hard defensively.

 

[letsgrowcactus]

Well, Zito is disingenuous about how it came being that he doesn't have the cap space. It's not like some divine intervention made him to trade Panthers' first round picks for essentially nothing and not buyout Hornqvist. Zito is no different than Tallon in regards to trusting and giving the rookies a fair chance at establish themselves at the NHL level. Tallon was notorious for saying that he wants 10-15 of his draftees to play for the Panthers and then in every free agency he goes out there and spends every cap dollar available to him.

Eh, I was one of the most critical of Zito's TDL, but let's not go overboard here.

The reason why we're in cap hell is not Zito: it's on Tallon and Rowe. Let's look at the contracts Zito had to deal with:
- Matheson; considered untradeable at one point at 4.8x6. Sure he turned it around in Pittsburgh, but imagine if he were still here and still playing like shit? Swapping him for Hornqvist is still a massive win, even if it worked out great for Pittsburgh too.
- Yandle with his NMC over 6M cap hit; had to be bought out (which is why we're screwed this offseason).
- the Darling buyout (for Reimer) - still screwing us this year (at least it's just 1.2 mill at this point and will be gone soon)
- Connolly and his 3.5Mx2 cap hit (just got bought out by Chicago). Zito traded him, Borgstrom (also just bought out), Stillman (n.6 D) and a 7th rounder - we got back a whatever in a few weeks of Wallmark and Lucas Carlsson (looks like the Stillman replacement at least in terms of value)
- Strallman at 5.5M (traded away for a 2nd rounder and Kolyachonok)
- the Bob albatross, still there and signed for four more years - the only guy on this list that Zito couldn't address.

Yes, Zito handled the TDL poorly, but show me a single bad contract signed on his watch. And as much as we've (rightfully) criticized the TDL: Chiarot for a 1st + Smilanic was a bad target and bad overpayment, but let's say Zito targeted Kulak like we wanted - he cost this year's 2nd round pick, a 7th and a depth D. We did need a defenceman, especially once Ekblad went down - there was no question we were getting someone. So say Zito does it "right" - he trades Kulak for our 2023 2nd (2022 was traded away to acquire Bennett) and Smilanic to ballance out the rest. The difference between the two is the difference between a late 1st and a (probably mid-to-late) 2nd - what's the value difference, about a 3rd round pick? (And then obviously we could have also re-sign Kulak, but then again, we could have still signed him in FA - Edmonton only confirmed him yesterday).

I don't love that we paid a 1st+Tippett for Giroux since he only wanted to come here, but the market price is about right and he was clearly an asset: he had 23 points in 18 RS games for us and 8 points in the playoffs. If we don't add him, do we even make it to the second round? Toronto was 7 points behind us; we had 2 OT victories over them where Giroux had 5 points - if they win both of those in OT, they're just 3 behind, if in regulation, they're 1 point behind us. So maybe they beat us for the division and we play Tampa in round 1, or maybe we don't make it out of the 1st round without Giroux's playoff contributions against WSH (he had 3 points in the game 6 OT win). Again, I'm not sure I would have made the same decision as Zito - but for what he paid, he got the value - team won the President's trophy and more importantly made it into round 2 for the first time in 26 (!) years .

So maybe if Zito passes on Giroux or on Chiarot, we have the assets to trade Hornqvist. Then again, the value difference between Chiarot and Kulak was not that high, and Giroux was a clear asset to our run. On top of that, ditching pricey contracts has shown to be expensive lately in cap-frozen NHL - just look at Vegas having to actually give up a prospect to move 1 year of Paccioretty. If a top6 guy and .ppg producer (albeit recently injured) costs a minor prospect to move, what would it cost to move a 4th liner who's paid essentially the same cash and commands just 1.7 mill less cap space?

Buying out Hornqvist would free up enough money for Marchment for this year, but it'd be also on the cap next year - and we might need the cap space then. Even if we don't, do we feel safe betting 4.5Mx4 on Marchment? I like him, he's been amazing this year, but he's had exactly one year when he has produced at this rate - and unlike Marchesseault or Verhaeghe, he doesn't have the precedent of producing a lot at lower level. He will probably be worth it, but if he isn't, he could handcuff us again to a contract we wouldn't be able to move - and we have zero margin for error with our big contracts in Bob, Barkov etc. Him being injury prone doesn't help either.

TL;DR: As much as the TDL was questionable and acquiring Chiarot was an overpayment, cap hell is not on Zito and I think he made the right call with Marchment. Keeping Hornqvist sucks, but it might be the least bad option in our situation.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

Eh, I was one of the most critical of Zito's TDL, but let's not go overboard here.

The reason why we're in cap hell is not Zito: it's on Tallon and Rowe. Let's look at the contracts Zito had to deal with:
- Matheson; considered untradeable at one point at 4.8x6. Sure he turned it around in Pittsburgh, but imagine if he were still here and still playing like shit? Swapping him for Hornqvist is still a massive win, even if it worked out great for Pittsburgh too.
- Yandle with his NMC over 6M cap hit; had to be bought out (which is why we're screwed this offseason).
- the Darling buyout (for Reimer) - still screwing us this year (at least it's just 1.2 mill at this point and will be gone soon)
- Connolly and his 3.5Mx2 cap hit (just got bought out by Chicago). Zito traded him, Borgstrom (also just bought out), Stillman (n.6 D) and a 7th rounder - we got back a whatever in a few weeks of Wallmark and Lucas Carlsson (looks like the Stillman replacement at least in terms of value)
- Strallman at 5.5M (traded away for a 2nd rounder and Kolyachonok)
- the Bob albatross, still there and signed for four more years - the only guy on this list that Zito couldn't address.

Yes, Zito handled the TDL poorly, but show me a single bad contract signed on his watch. And as much as we've (rightfully) criticized the TDL: Chiarot for a 1st + Smilanic was a bad target and bad overpayment, but let's say Zito targeted Kulak like we wanted - he cost this year's 2nd round pick, a 7th and a depth D. We did need a defenceman, especially once Ekblad went down - there was no question we were getting someone. So say Zito does it "right" - he trades Kulak for our 2023 2nd (2022 was traded away to acquire Bennett) and Smilanic to ballance out the rest. The difference between the two is the difference between a late 1st and a (probably mid-to-late) 2nd - what's the value difference, about a 3rd round pick? (And then obviously we could have also re-sign Kulak, but then again, we could have still signed him in FA - Edmonton only confirmed him yesterday).

I don't love that we paid a 1st+Tippett for Giroux since he only wanted to come here, but the market price is about right and he was clearly an asset: he had 23 points in 18 RS games for us and 8 points in the playoffs. If we don't add him, do we even make it to the second round? Toronto was 7 points behind us; we had 2 OT victories over them where Giroux had 5 points - if they win both of those in OT, they're just 3 behind, if in regulation, they're 1 point behind us. So maybe they beat us for the division and we play Tampa in round 1, or maybe we don't make it out of the 1st round without Giroux's playoff contributions against WSH (he had 3 points in the game 6 OT win). Again, I'm not sure I would have made the same decision as Zito - but for what he paid, he got the value - team won the President's trophy and more importantly made it into round 2 for the first time in 26 (!) years .

So maybe if Zito passes on Giroux or on Chiarot, we have the assets to trade Hornqvist. Then again, the value difference between Chiarot and Kulak was not that high, and Giroux was a clear asset to our run. On top of that, ditching pricey contracts has shown to be expensive lately in cap-frozen NHL - just look at Vegas having to actually give up a prospect to move 1 year of Paccioretty. If a top6 guy and .ppg producer (albeit recently injured) costs a minor prospect to move, what would it cost to move a 4th liner who's paid essentially the same cash and commands just 1.7 mill less cap space?

Buying out Hornqvist would free up enough money for Marchment for this year, but it'd be also on the cap next year - and we might need the cap space then. Even if we don't, do we feel safe betting 4.5Mx4 on Marchment? I like him, he's been amazing this year, but he's had exactly one year when he has produced at this rate - and unlike Marchesseault or Verhaeghe, he doesn't have the precedent of producing a lot at lower level. He will probably be worth it, but if he isn't, he could handcuff us again to a contract we wouldn't be able to move - and we have zero margin for error with our big contracts in Bob, Barkov etc. Him being injury prone doesn't help either.

TL;DR: As much as the TDL was questionable and acquiring Chiarot was an overpayment, cap hell is not on Zito and I think he made the right call with Marchment. Keeping Hornqvist sucks, but it might be the least bad option in our situation.

Ofc, I wasn't arguing that Zito has to perpetually trade toxic contracts alongside of top picks in order to find some cap space so that he can sign players that considers being part of a solution. He did have those 1st round picks + extra before the TDL but he chose not reserve those to be used an asset at later date to carve out extra space for Marchment (since he was adamant on keeping Hornqvist in the roster).

In other words, he had the cap space before the TDL and as soon as he acquired Chariot and G he didn't have enough of it as he still had some since he signed Cousins and White. He did have the cap space for Marchment but he chose not to reserve it for March, and by extension he wasn't fighting in a cap hell so to speak.

Re-signing Marchment for a 4x4 deal with the Panthers would've been risky but which contract has been risk-free? And he wasn't going command a NMC so labeling him as an anchor would've been excessive if wasn't scoring at 60-70pts in a season. You have to take into consideration his style of play and compare it to that of Barkov and Ekblad who can't string together a full 82 game season when they aren't constantly for opportunities to bulldoze opposing players.

Zito essentially thwarted the Cats' advantage that he had accumulated with his asset mgmt tactics and now this FA batch feels like another group of Wennberg, Nutivaara, Hinostroza... and Zito is yet again trying to figure out what kind of a team he has in his hands. Like, do you attribute the Cats' playoff powerplay percentage of 3.2 entirely to Bruno and proceed into the next season with no personnel changes to the powerplay squad, or do should there be additional changes? imo it's safe to assume that Zito has his priorities screwed up. Whether this persists or not remains to be seen.

 

[Kalv]

We might be signing Balcers tomorrow?


Nevermind..looks to be a bunch of randos

Double edit


I guess it was an accidental leak by Jameson?

Latvian reporters are now catching on to this as well. Apparently deal has been agreed and Balcers will sign with you guys

 

[Dread Clawz]

Latvian reporters are now catching on to this as well. Apparently deal has been agreed and Balcers will sign with you guys

So assuming we sign Balcers to a 1M deal...

We then have to move out approx. 3.4M before the start of the season, even with putting Duke on LTIR. Assuming the roster is something like this:

Swaggy-Barky-Cousins
Huby-Bennett-Reino
Balcers-Lundell-White
Lombo-Luosty-Horny
Staal(750 K)

Weegs-Ek
Fors-Monty
Carlsson-Gudas
Staal

So who are we moving out? Probably Gudas? That still wouldn't be enough money because we'd need to replace his spot. We probably need to move both Gudas and Monty. It's a real pickle.