Salary Cap: Gary Roberts and the Incredible Shrinking Kessel

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[Looks at calendar... notes that we haven't even opened training camp]

Yep, definitely going to take this seriously.

You can continue to try and defend the guy who has been in a nosedive for several seasons if you want. He's 36 later this month, his body is breaking down, his production is finally matching the product on the ice, and it's only going to get worse.

I don't care if you take it seriously or not. It's the truth, Kunitz is trash. Period.

 

[WheresRamziAbid]

I believes that's an issue though - Sid and Geno need to be playing 22-25 min/night. Kessel 20+ as well. We need to play our stars.

Why? As long as the team is having success id rather control those minutes as much as possible until later in the season/playoffs. They have less chance of injury and will be fresher when it matters.

 

[CanadianPensFan1]

Why? As long as the team is having success id rather control those minutes as much as possible until later in the season/playoffs. They have less chance of injury and will be fresher when it matters.

This.

Look, Id love to see the top two lines play 24 min a night so Sid/Geno/Kessel can rack up scores and all finish top 5 in scoring. But the reality is, if the team is winning games consistently, HCMJ could play the top two lines 15 minutes a game and Id be fine with it. We CAN count on our 3rd and 4th lines to defend, be effective and score now. We arent forced to watch Gladams screw every play up ad nauseum. GMJR made some awesome moves to shore up some pretty sweet depth for us all to enjoy this year. Lets not burn out Sid and Geno and have them poop up the joint in the playoffs. Let other teams do that with their stars so we can take advantage in the playoffs.

Just my opinion ..

 

[Ugene Magic]

You can continue to try and defend the guy who has been in a nosedive for several seasons if you want. He's 36 later this month, his body is breaking down, his production is finally matching the product on the ice, and it's only going to get worse.

I don't care if you take it seriously or not. It's the truth, Kunitz is trash. Period.

I'll tell Kunitz to stop taking your lunches.

 

[CanadianPensFan1]

You can continue to try and defend the guy who has been in a nosedive for several seasons if you want. He's 36 later this month, his body is breaking down, his production is finally matching the product on the ice, and it's only going to get worse.

I don't care if you take it seriously or not. It's the truth, Kunitz is trash. Period.

I dont think he is trash. You are right .. he is declining, he is getting older, and his production is slowing down. This cant be argued. But trash? Come on. Glass or Adams are trash. Kunitz is and can still be serviceable.

If Kunitz was making $2.5mil and playing on the 3rd line @ 12 minutes a night, it wouldnt be NEARLY as bad.

But at almost $4mil, on the 1st line, for what he is bringing, it is indeed pretty ugly.

But trash is a bit too far, imo.

 

[Houston Penguin]

God, the actual season can not come soon enough!!!!

 

[Speaking Moistly]

Kunitz was trash for his salary and place on the team, and that's the serious problem, because if they keep insisting he's a top 6 winger who is a mainstay on PP1...

If he was making less and cemented in the bottom 6 it wouldn't be such a concern, hell, even if he didnt make less it would be tolerable.

 

[Riptide]

I believes that's an issue though - Sid and Geno need to be playing 22-25 min/night. Kessel 20+ as well. We need to play our stars.

20-21 minutes a night? Sure. But there's no need to go higher than that.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Kunitz isn't a must trade candidate. If you can't get something that helps you, then don't trade him. Unless they move Scuderi, they don't have an opening on D (as in they can't fit another D on the roster) and they should only move Kunitz if it would be helping our defense. Kunitz is still good in a 3rd line role and should be acceptable as a 3rd wheel with Kessel and Crosby (assuming he'll be tried there first), he's not a cap dump.

Disagree. Kunitz is EXACTLY the type of player you ship out to clear cap space, get back futures and allow some other players on the roster to play a better role. Moving Kunitz does a ton of good even if we don't bring back a defensive upgrade or any body at all.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling teams would INSIST we take back salary/a body in any Kunitz deal.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Disagree. Kunitz is EXACTLY the type of player you ship out to clear cap space, get back futures and allow some other players on the roster to play a better role. Moving Kunitz does a ton of good even if we don't bring back a defensive upgrade or any body at all.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling teams would INSIST we take back salary/a body in any Kunitz deal.

What deserving players would play a better role if Kunitz were moved out? We're extremely weak as an organization on LW, we don't have a Sprong or Bennett on LW. Just dumping Kunitz does nothing for us. Yes, we get cap space but we dont have the roster space (on D, what we'd need to upgrade) to use that cap space. If we didn't have like 9 waiver eligible D already, that would be different.

The only way I'd move Kunitz is if we move Lovejoy and have an opening on D (assuming we can't move Scuderi). Otherwise, it's meaningless to move him right now, especially with how questionable our LW depth is.

 

[EVGENIMERLIN]

I would have bet money that Kuni or Scuds would be traded by the start of camp. Color me surprised

 

[Richard]

Perron sucks. What is everyone's love affair with him? He's soft and didn't even score goals playing with the best player in the world.

Screw Perron. He was a dumb acquisition.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Perron sucks. What is everyone's love affair with him? He's soft and didn't even score goals playing with the best player in the world.

Screw Perron. He was a dumb acquisition.

Yes, let's judge a player based on a 20 game sample size instead of the rest of his career. Yawn.

 

[Jacob]

Perron sucks. What is everyone's love affair with him? He's soft and didn't even score goals playing with the best player in the world.

Screw Perron. He was a dumb acquisition.

He's actually not soft.

 

[OnMyOwn]

He did score goals playing with Sid. I don't understand that post.

 

[gdsmack267]

Perron sucks. What is everyone's love affair with him? He's soft and didn't even score goals playing with the best player in the world.

Screw Perron. He was a dumb acquisition.

Congrats on getting like 9 things wrong in a few sentences

 

[Empoleon8771]

He did score goals playing with Sid. I don't understand that post.

I mean it wasn't as good as people expected, but Perron did put up a 23 goals/82 game pace while the team was on a really bad offensive run (2.32 GPG in the 44 games he was on the roster).

 

[CanadianPensFan1]

I mean it wasn't as good as people expected, but Perron did put up a 23 goals/82 game pace while the team was on a really bad offensive run (2.32 GPG in the 44 games he was on the roster).

Yeah im not putting too much stock on what happened the last couple months of the season. Christ, everyone not named Fleury was pretty ugly during that time so whatever.

If Perron plays the first 20-25 games like he ended the season, then sure, blast him over the coals. But he came over and played pretty damn well until the wheels fell off the bus. Based on his career, Im willikng to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

What deserving players would play a better role if Kunitz were moved out? We're extremely weak as an organization on LW, we don't have a Sprong or Bennett on LW. Just dumping Kunitz does nothing for us. Yes, we get cap space but we dont have the roster space (on D, what we'd need to upgrade) to use that cap space. If we didn't have like 9 waiver eligible D already, that would be different.

The only way I'd move Kunitz is if we move Lovejoy and have an opening on D (assuming we can't move Scuderi). Otherwise, it's meaningless to move him right now, especially with how questionable our LW depth is.

We shouldn't keep Kunitz just because of a perceived lack of depth at left wing. Perron is a better LW than RW, for one. Bennett with Malkin looked very good on the left side. Sundqvist can play there. Nick Bonino and Matt Cullen can play there. Dupuis is coming back. Sestito can be signed. Scott Wilson and Conor Sheary are knocking on the door. Hornqvist can be tried there, as well.

I don't like the notion that we NEED Kunitz, because we don't. I definitely agree with trading Ben Lovejoy but that is unrelated to Kunitz.

 

[CanadianPensFan1]

We shouldn't keep Kunitz just because of a perceived lack of depth at left wing. Perron is a better LW than RW, for one. Bennett with Malkin looked very good on the left side. Sundqvist can play there. Nick Bonino and Matt Cullen can play there. Dupuis is coming back. Sestito can be signed. Scott Wilson and Conor Sheary are knocking on the door. Hornqvist can be tried there, as well.

I don't like the notion that we NEED Kunitz, because we don't. I definitely agree with trading Ben Lovejoy but that is unrelated to Kunitz.

Sure, Sestito CAN be signed. But he shouldnt be.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Why do you keep repeating everyone can play LW? Bennett has shown he's much less effective at LW. Bonino has not played the wing since juniors. Cullen is a 39 year old 4th liner. Dupuis is coming off a major knee surgery and 2 blood clots. Sestito sucks horse dong.

We don't really need Kunitz right now assuming everything doesn't completely go to ****, but trading him right now accomplishes nothing when we have such glaring question marks at LW. We have only Perron who doesn't have that many question marks, that's it. What if we dump Kunitz for futures, and then Dupuis has another blood clot and Plotnikov doesn't adjust well to the NHL? We're stuck with 1 top-9 LW in Perron then.

Trading Kunitz right now for futures is nonsensical, and it only makes sense if Dupuis and Plotnikov show they're top-9 forwards. It's a potentially high risk, low reward move. It's taking a gamble that 2 players with absolutely massive question marks pan out, and we have very few backup option if one or both of them fail.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Why do you keep repeating everyone can play LW? Bennett has shown he's much less effective at LW. Bonino has not played the wing since juniors. Cullen is a 39 year old 4th liner. Dupuis is coming off a major knee surgery and 2 blood clots. Sestito sucks horse dong.

We don't really need Kunitz right now assuming everything doesn't completely go to ****, but trading him right now accomplishes nothing when we have such glaring question marks at LW. We have only Perron who doesn't have that many question marks, that's it. What if we dump Kunitz for futures, and then Dupuis has another blood clot and Plotnikov doesn't adjust well to the NHL? We're stuck with 1 top-9 LW in Perron then.

Trading Kunitz right now for futures is nonsensical, and it only makes sense if Dupuis and Plotnikov show they're top-9 forwards. It's a potentially high risk, low reward move. It's taking a gamble that 2 players with absolutely massive question marks pan out, and we have very few backup option if one or both of them fail.

And what if Kunitz is finished? Trade him before anybody finds that out. Sooner is better than too late, every time.

 

[Empoleon8771]

And what if Kunitz is finished? Trade him before anybody finds that out. Sooner is better than too late, every time.

His value has already taken a nose dive, it's not like an additional 20 games at the level he was at last year will hurt his value even further. You would have a point about sooner than later if we didn't have no better options than Kunitz at our disposal. But we don't. I'm not saying we need to keep Kunitz, I'm saying we need to keep Kunitz until Plotnikov and Dupuis show they are/are still good NHLers. Trading him right now has no reward and a ton of risk

 

[Fordy]

His value has already taken a nose dive, it's not like an additional 20 games at the level he was at last year will hurt his value even further. You would have a point about sooner than later if we didn't have no better options than Kunitz at our disposal. But we don't. I'm not saying we need to keep Kunitz, I'm saying we need to keep Kunitz until Plotnikov and Dupuis show they are/are still good NHLers. Trading him right now has no reward and a ton of risk

yes, it will

 

[Riptide]

What deserving players would play a better role if Kunitz were moved out? We're extremely weak as an organization on LW, we don't have a Sprong or Bennett on LW. Just dumping Kunitz does nothing for us. Yes, we get cap space but we dont have the roster space (on D, what we'd need to upgrade) to use that cap space. If we didn't have like 9 waiver eligible D already, that would be different.

The only way I'd move Kunitz is if we move Lovejoy and have an opening on D (assuming we can't move Scuderi). Otherwise, it's meaningless to move him right now, especially with how questionable our LW depth is.

Personally I could care less who gets that spot. We have enough young guys who can play depth roles who need NHL icetime. Might as well give them a chance at those spots.

Dupuis - Crosby - Kessel
Perron - Malkin - Hornqvist
Plotnikov - Bonino - Bennett
Sundqvist/Wilson - Cullen - Rust

Once Fehr is back, you have a few more options for the bottom 6. IF we somehow managed a deal where we didn't take back salary then sign Tlusty (or someone else) as another depth option.

If Dupuis falters, then start shuffling other bodies into the remaining top 6 spot until you find a combination that works.