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Have we seen the last of these guys?

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The scary thing is that Lupul is probably worth the most he ever will be. I wouldn't be totally surprised to see him regress a bit next year and if that happens we have a pretty bad contract on our hands.
 
robdicks said:
The scary thing is that Lupul is probably worth the most he ever will be. I wouldn't be totally surprised to see him regress a bit next year and if that happens we have a pretty bad contract on our hands.
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Exactly why a season, albeit a shortened one, is so important for us. We need to see if Lupul can continue where he left off last season. If he does, great. He's worth the money. If he falters a bit, great, we can probably get him a bit cheaper.
 
Pierre Gotye said:
I'm a believer this season is going to be canceled.

That means that: Lupul, Bozak, Connolly, Lombardi, MacArthur and Steckel
will be UFA's in 2013-2014 and will need to be signed or will walk.

Of that list Lupul would be missed the most. MacArthur has value, I think Burke should
have traded him when he had a chance. Everyone else I think is Marlies replaceable.
Kadri will never be a Leaf until some of these guys are gone.
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Lupul, MacArthur and Bozak are players we should try to re-sign. Lupul is a great partner for Kessel, MacArthur is a solid 2nd line winger (or very good 3rd line winger), Bozak is an OK band-aid solution as a #1 C, and he should make a good #3 C when we get a real #1.

We absolutely should not re-sign any of Lombardi, Connolly or Steckel.
 
If the CBA doesn't get signed and the season is cancelled, there will be tons of players in a UFA market, meaning that a lot of guys like Lupul will get lost in the shuffle, with many bigger names in the pond.

As UFA history shows, the big fish usually wait for the small fish to determine the market, and with a $60M cap for the 2013-14 season proposed, everyone will be taking a big hit, and those small fish especially because a lot of teams will want to "save room" for the big names, meaning they'll undervalue the smaller guys.

Lupul will be extremely lucky to get a whiff of the $4.25M he currently has, most likely he'll land somewhere in the $3M range.

If I'm Lupul, I resign in Toronto for $3M for 2-years. He's getting top-line minutes in Toronto and padding his stats, whereas in a market like Vancouver he'd end up on the 2nd line at best.

Padding his stats for two years would put him back into UFA after all the Cap restructuring was done and teams would be able to afford to pay him more money. If he wanted to hit free agency then he'd get better looks from teams will to invest money.
 
indigobuffalo said:
If the CBA doesn't get signed and the season is cancelled, there will be tons of players in a UFA market, meaning that a lot of guys like Lupul will get lost in the shuffle, with many bigger names in the pond.

As UFA history shows, the big fish usually wait for the small fish to determine the market, and with a $60M cap for the 2013-14 season proposed, everyone will be taking a big hit, and those small fish especially because a lot of teams will want to "save room" for the big names, meaning they'll undervalue the smaller guys.

Lupul will be extremely lucky to get a whiff of the $4.25M he currently has, most likely he'll land somewhere in the $3M range.

If I'm Lupul, I resign in Toronto for $3M for 2-years. He's getting top-line minutes in Toronto and padding his stats, whereas in a market like Vancouver he'd end up on the 2nd line at best.

Padding his stats for two years would put him back into UFA after all the Cap restructuring was done and teams would be able to afford to pay him more money. If he wanted to hit free agency then he'd get better looks from teams will to invest money.
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If the cap goes to 60 million, Lupul would be very lucky to get 3.75 million with his history.

I would gladly allow the rest go other then Bozak. Mac will want too much and there will be other players on the market that will sign for less and produce more.
 
I really want to keep mac.

Kulemin-grabo-mac has been the most consistent line for the past couple of years, and our most defensively responsible line. The chemistry they've developed over the years will be hard to replace. And with kulie hopefully improving his scoring once the season starts, I expect this line to provide lots of secondary scoring.
 
It could be far worse...

Kessel could be about to walk away for nothing. Losing that cast you mentioned is livable and many are replaceable.Many free agents will be about to come available and the money could be used to sign a number one center i.e Getzlaf and Winger Perry. JVR makes the loss of Lupul neglible while Bozak is at best a number 2 center.

Would I dump all of them for Getzlaf and Perry? Easily, with the kids(cheap) we have coming up in the next year or two.
 
diceman934 said:
If the cap goes to 60 million, Lupul would be very lucky to get 3.75 million with his history.

I would gladly allow the rest go other then Bozak. Mac will want too much and there will be other players on the market that will sign for less and produce more.
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Agreed. IMO that was generally the plan with the rest to begin with. I see Bozak as an ideal 3C going forward if we land a #1C.

Lupul - ? - Kessel
JVR - Grabovski - Kulemin
Frattin - Bozak - Kadri
Komarov - McClement - Brown

That would have the potential to be a very solid offense. Buys time to further develop guys like Ross, D'Amigo, Colborne, Devane, Biggs, Broll etc. who you eventually ease into the bottom lines.
 
Darcy Tucker said:
im kind of surprised so many people are writing off a 60 point player who hustles like MacArthur.
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Only so much room and so much dollars and we need to start moving younger, cheaper options through. Would you take him over any of Kessel, Lupul, JVR or Kulemin? I wouldn't.
 
ponder said:
Lupul, MacArthur and Bozak are players we should try to re-sign. Lupul is a great partner for Kessel, MacArthur is a solid 2nd line winger (or very good 3rd line winger), Bozak is an OK band-aid solution as a #1 C, and he should make a good #3 C when we get a real #1.

We absolutely should not re-sign any of Lombardi, Connolly or Steckel.
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Disagree - the problem with MacArthur is that it's top six or bust for him. For whatever reason, he doesn't play on the third line the way he plays on the second line. He was tested through stretches of last season as a third line player and was very poor.

Because of that issue, I think that's why people want to move him out so quick because we have another top six or bust player in Kadri who people think should be given a chance in the top six.
 
BonMorrison said:
Disagree - the problem with MacArthur is that it's top six or bust for him. For whatever reason, he doesn't play on the third line the way he plays on the second line. He was tested through stretches of last season as a third line player and was very poor.

Because of that issue, I think that's why people want to move him out so quick because we have another top six or bust player in Kadri who people think should be given a chance in the top six.
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I simply don't agree, I think he'd look very good on the right 3rd line. It's not like he's soft, he's fairly chippy, reasonably physical, will fight now and then, competes hard, and doesn't make many mistakes, he's a good 3rd liner as long as you're going for 3 scoring lines, not 2 scoring lines and 2 defensive lines (FWIW, pretty much all the good teams go for 3 scoring lines now). In the future, when we get a real #1 C, a 3rd line of:

MacArthur - Bozak - Frattin/Kulemin

Could be quite a good one.
 
How would Bozak be alright for a bottom 6 role? Am I missing something. He played with two of the most dynamic winger tandems in the league offensively and got to 47 points.

Sign Lupul and screw the rest.
 
thecatch22 said:
How would Bozak be alright for a bottom 6 role? Am I missing something. He played with two of the most dynamic winger tandems in the league offensively and got to 47 points.

Sign Lupul and screw the rest.
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He does this thing called playing defense and can contribute offensively and shouldn't cost much.
 
ponder said:
I simply don't agree, I think he'd look very good on the right 3rd line. It's not like he's soft, he's fairly chippy, reasonably physical, will fight now and then, competes hard, and doesn't make many mistakes, he's a good 3rd liner as long as you're going for 3 scoring lines, not 2 scoring lines and 2 defensive lines (FWIW, pretty much all the good teams go for 3 scoring lines now). In the future, when we get a real #1 C, a 3rd line of:

MacArthur - Bozak - Frattin/Kulemin

Could be quite a good one.
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If the cap goes to 60, your bottom 2 lines have to be filled with guys making around $1 M. He won't come for that range and isn't better than our other 4 wingers.
 
I am thinking a line up like this after the shortened season:
Lupul - X - Kessel
JVR - Grabo - Kadri/Mac
Kulemin - Bozak/McClement - Frattin/Mac
Komarov - Steckle/McClement - Brown/Hamilton

All in all that would be a line up that could make playoffs, have a banger bouncing up and down from the press box like Thornton does for Boston depending on who we play against, reason for McClemant on the 3rd line is because we might not have Bozak or Steckle however I would like to think we keep at least one of them since they are good role players. We would have 4 very good penalty killers all of them off of the top 6 too. I think the shortened season if there is one will determine where Kadri lands in the line up and ultimately if we keep Mac past the deadline or not.

More on the topic:
Lupul - Im betting he will get anywhere from 4.5-5.5 depending on his play if theres a season or not, Toronto has the money to spend. Only way he doesn't pay the man is if he can bring in both Getz and Perry IMHO, he still might even then but for a discount.
Bozak - Could be a really good 3rd liner/PKer if he signs for around 2 or less, if not he can walk.
Steckle - if we could get him for under 1.5 short term that would be amazing for the 4th line PK/face off specialist unless McClement proves he can dominate the faceoffs then he can walk.
TC - See ya, trade at the deadline for whatever scraps you can get from a playoff team or let him walk for nothing.
Mac - Sign and trade hopefully he is going to want more than he is worth, he cant play on the 3rd line which is where he fits on this team. Maybe a deadline deal to a contender for a late first or a prospect or something.
Lombardi - failed experiment, let him go.
 
ponder said:
I simply don't agree, I think he'd look very good on the right 3rd line. It's not like he's soft, he's fairly chippy, reasonably physical, will fight now and then, competes hard, and doesn't make many mistakes, he's a good 3rd liner as long as you're going for 3 scoring lines, not 2 scoring lines and 2 defensive lines (FWIW, pretty much all the good teams go for 3 scoring lines now). In the future, when we get a real #1 C, a 3rd line of:

MacArthur - Bozak - Frattin/Kulemin

Could be quite a good one.
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He was played extensively on the third (and fourth, for a very brief period) line and didn't look good there last season. He didn't play with the chippiness or aggression that he shows when he plays on the second line. Maybe you're right and it would take different linemates but if Carlyle is playing to whole "two scoring, one shutdown line" thing then I don't really see a spot for Mac unfortunately (barring if Kadri takes the 2nd line RW spot).
 
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