I think beniers came on faster than expected in his rookie year and the team sort of clicked that second year. I think if gourde etc had been traded in the second season and sabotaged making the play offs the fans would have revolted. Last season though it seemed relatively early in the season that play offs weren't going to happen. So not sure why they didn't then.
Agreed. I always wanted us to build through the draft for the first 3-4 years with high picks and trade out vets with expiring contracts. But things changed, with us making the playoffs last season and ownership wanting us to win sooner rather than later. I know it is for the reasons you mentioned, but at the end of the day, it wouldn't really matter why ownership wants us to win now. Francis is employed by them and needs to deliver.
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That is my guess as well. 6M AAV x 3/4 years. Basically not letting him become a UFA.Kraken Begin Extension Discussions With Matthew Beniers
The Kraken have begun preliminary contract discussions with top pending restricted free agent Matthew Beniers, per David Pagnotta of The …
Will be interesting to see what kind of a deal they'll end up with.
Last season certainly brought down the AAV for Beniers and it wouldn't be intelligent for Beniers to sign a longterm deal at a reduced AAV.
Overall I think we'll end up with a bridge deal of about 3 - 4 years at roughly a $6M.AAV.
How long it takes depends on how well you draft, There's never any guarantees of anything. There's no guarantee those drafted players become stars, but there's no guarantee a high paid free agent signing will instantly work or last. There are tons of bad signings on crazy free agent days. You can cripple your cap just as easily as you can make yourself better.
Considering Owen Power got an 8 million dollar deal 6 might be unrealistic. I'd say it'll start with 7.
If its 7M then it better be a 8 year deal and buy some UFA years out as well. I don't quite get how giving a forward who just came of a sub-40 point season 7M a year is justified.
You may have just contradicted yourself here. The strong core you talked about in a post previously is exactly what the draft is for. Players like Soucy and Geekie are complimentary players. It is not exactly difficult to get them in the draft. Heck, I would not be shocked if Evans surpasses Soucy this coming season or next. Tolvanen who was a waiver pickup is better than Geekie already. What is hard is to get is core players. I am not even talking about superstars here. There are teams who have drafted high and waited years but not lucked into core players. Established NHL teams in big markets can afford going through long term rebuilds and wait to luck into superstars. I doubt Francis has that option.
So you want to give him a lot less than the guy who underwhelmed?
To the contract, the thinking in the league now is generally to lock up these young "stars" early so that they do not leave you in their prime as UFAs. You don't get Tkachuk'ed if you will. Lots of them seem like overpays but the GMs think they will be golden as the contracts age. So it depends if you still think Beniers will be a top player or not. If you do, 7 is a bargain.
Owen Power got overpaid. Just because Buffalo did that does not mean we need to do it as well.
You are talking about an idealistic scenario where we have all the time we need to build that core out via drafting. Next season is #4 for us. You are unwilling to trade our draft pick that would be for season #5. Fine, that would pretty much mean we are not going to be competitive for season #5 as well. Now what? 5 seasons with pretty much nothing to show for outside of Beniers and Wright, and this is assuming Wright turns into the #2C we expect. No guarantee that we have more core players outside of Wright and Beniers. Dunn and McCann are the other 2 good players we have who will be 29 and 30 years respectively.
No idea about Soucy, but I was pretty sure we were not going re-sign Sprong. I dont know if Soucy did not want to come back here or if we just didnt want him back.
How are you getting Necas???
That is on Francis. And Necas is just an example. The team needs to improve and needs more talent. That being said. One of my ideas was 1st 2025 + Gourde/Tolvy + Firkus.
Getting 7M over 8 year contracts is fine, it buys into UFA. But if Beniers want to bet on himself, and help the team out, he should have no problem with a bridge 6M x 3/4. Just look at what Dunn did.
Yes, the prospects are unproven. That is exactly why I am talking about getting proven talent. I would rather place my bet on proven talent than holding on a draft pick, where I have no idea of the range, and is even a bigger unknown than our current prospect pool, let alone proven talent.
Yes, but also, no. Sure, we didn't replace the talent but I think the team overachieved in our 2nd season. The depth undoubtedly helps but it is impossible for our top-6 to match up against other teams. It is honestly pretty bad. That is why the depth is so much more important for us. It will help, but I feel like our 2nd season was more of an outlier.
Wright and Beniers are never going to be elite offensive juggernauts. At their ceiling I expect them to be really good top-line 2-way centers. But to help them get there, you need to provide them help. Yes, we can keep waiting for draft picks to pan out but you seem pretty intent on ignoring what i mentioned about timelines.
I would argue this is a key reason why they’ve never had a stellar power play too.
To your point, Wennberg went from the Kraken's 2C and almost 19 minutes of TOI to the Rangers 3C and 15 minutes TOI. And honestly, the Rangers' utilization is probably considerably more in line with Wennberg's calibre of play.
I'm not ignoring timelines, I just think your view is unrealistic. I mean "that's on Francis" is an easy out for a fan. Everybody wants Necas. That's a no brainer. Of course he'd make the team better, but you just don't get to rob other teams because you like your team. Your offer is way too much. You'll be able to get a lot for Gourde at deadline if you don't re-sign him first. Armchair GM is easy when you just say I want this guy or that guy make it happen. It's just not that easy.
Asking Francis to fix the team is not an easy out. I never said it was easy. But it's his damn job. We go into season 4 with really not much to show. Vegas won the Cup in Season 4. And I am not saying this to compare us to Vegas but do you think ownership expects to wait till season 6 or 7 till we start making the playoffs consistently? And like I mentioned before, Necas is an example. He is not the only player we can trade for. You mentioned someone like Tkachuk yourself. And while I agree that my offer may be a slight overpayment, it gets our team better immediately. Sure, Gourde could get a better return at the TDL. Let's say it is a late first. Now what? Another draft pick in the late 20's in the 2025 draft or beyond, who is likely another 2-3 seasons away from helping us. You say you are not ignoring timelines, but when I asked you how long we wait for a solid core, your response was akin to "as long as it takes." That is just flat-out unrealistic, and Francis won't have a job if that happens.
I never mentioned about FA or overspending there. But why do you pick Lindholm as an example? How about Guentzel or Reinhart who are much better players? I just feel that people put too much stock into the draft and unproven prospects. I am not talking about gutting our prospect pool. I just don't think losing a 1st round pick in 2025 or Firkus is that big of a deal. We still have Rehkopf, Nyman, Goyette, Sale, Molgaard. We also have Nelson, Ottavainen, Price, Dragicevic. Francis has done a really good job drafting but the team has enough capital to afford losing one prospect and another mid-to-late round draft pick in 2025.
Thanks for the correction.
