GDT: Let the Free Agency Madness begin

[Surrounded By Ahos]

Can I just say how nice it is to actually be a player in free agency agency after the decade+ of shit we went through post-Cup? The Borg went out and grabbed two of the better skaters available in UFA, and didn't egregiously overpay, while simultaneously retaining both goaltenders, and having them both take a paycut.


It's a far cry from where we used to be. I picked 2016 at random. Our big offseason signings that season were Lee Stempinak, Viktor Stalberg, and Matt Tennyson. On top of those epic moves, we also signed Victor Rask to a six year contract extension (although that did lead to Nino, sooo...).


These. Is. The. Times.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

so for the defense im thinking

Slavin - Burns
Orlov - Pesce
Skjei - TDA
Chatty

right now thats what it looks like to me.

I think Skjei is traded but I could definitely see this happening and it’s absolutely dominant. Kinda does Skjei a bit dirty though demoting him after how great he’s been the last couple years…

 

[VAcaniac]

Can I just say how nice it is to actually be a player in free agency agency after the decade+ of shit we went through post-Cup? The Borg went out and grabbed two of the better skaters available in UFA, and didn't egregiously overpay, while simultaneously retaining both goaltenders, and having them both take a paycut.


It's a far cry from where we used to be. I picked 2016 at random. Our big offseason signings that season were Lee Stempinak, Viktor Stalberg, and Matt Tennyson. On top of those epic moves, we also signed Victor Rask to a six year contract extension (although that did lead to Nino, sooo...).


These. Is. The. Times.

Hey we signed Alex Semin and Jordan Staal that one year!

I was sure we were marching to the cup.

 

[cptjeff]

Can I just say how nice it is to actually be a player in free agency agency after the decade+ of shit we went through post-Cup? The Borg went out and grabbed two of the better skaters available in UFA, and didn't egregiously overpay, while simultaneously retaining both goaltenders, and having them both take a paycut.


It's a far cry from where we used to be. I picked 2016 at random. Our big offseason signings that season were Lee Stempinak, Viktor Stalberg, and Matt Tennyson. On top of those epic moves, we also signed Victor Rask to a six year contract extension (although that did lead to Nino, sooo...).


These. Is. The. Times.

Oh wow, I had forgotten Rask was a 6 year deal. God that's bad.

 

[Brock Anton]

Can I just say how nice it is to actually be a player in free agency agency after the decade+ of shit we went through post-Cup? The Borg went out and grabbed two of the better skaters available in UFA, and didn't egregiously overpay, while simultaneously retaining both goaltenders, and having them both take a paycut.


It's a far cry from where we used to be. I picked 2016 at random. Our big offseason signings that season were Lee Stempinak, Viktor Stalberg, and Matt Tennyson. On top of those epic moves, we also signed Victor Rask to a six year contract extension (although that did lead to Nino, sooo...).


These. Is. The. Times.

Or the 53 times we brought back Joe Corvo.

 

[SvechneJerk]

Mike Johnson, in a discussion about Karlsson that I saw yesterday, was talking about in order for EK to excel, he needs to play his game, which is to be a bit of a “rover” & to be allowed to activate in the O-zone. As he was describing it, it occurred to me that that is exactly what we do with our Dmen & why our FO would be looking to add him to the mix.

The Karlsson add would be for so much more than just adding another weapon to our PP. Having him out there would make the opposition place a lot of focus on him, creating more space & opportunities for our other guys to succeed.

And for those concerned about having Burns & TDA on the same PP, I see it as a good thing. TDA’s strength is moving the puck, while Burns’ is his booming shot. I see TDA driving PP2, allowing Brent to roam looking for good shooting angles, basically acting like another Forward.

 

[StormCast]

Yeah, this is a terrible example, and I shouldn't have to explain why.

Agreed. Fractions should always be reduced. Who says 4/6 anyway? Oh and the analogy? Utter shyte.

 

[StormCast]

I agree..I'd rather have a top line winger than EK if I could pick just one.

But EK will elevate the game of every forward. He's that good of a skater and passer. He will improve the transition game significantly, can consistently get clean zone entries and back the D off.

In this system, with the current forwards, he is a better addition than any of the F's out there on balance IMO. Unlike a single forward who may have extended goal droughts, his passing is always there.

 

[WhiteTrashAmerican]

Hot take: I trade Pesce before Skjei. I think Skjei is one of the most underrated guys in the league. I think we could get a bit more back in a trade for Pesce and Brady's offense is pretty awesome...18 goals last season and he doesn't get talked about. Maybe it's just my heart speaking

 

[Svechhammer]

Mike Johnson, in a discussion about Karlsson that I saw yesterday, was talking about in order for EK to excel, he needs to play his game, which is to be a bit of a “rover” & to be allowed to activate in the O-zone. As he was describing it, it occurred to me that that is exactly what we do with our Dmen & why our FO would be looking to add him to the mix.

The Karlsson add would be for so much more than just adding another weapon to our PP. Having him out there would make the opposition place a lot of focus on him, creating more space & opportunities for our other guys to succeed.

And for those concerned about having Burns & TDA on the same PP, I see it as a good thing. TDA’s strength is moving the puck, while Burns’ is his booming shot. I see TDA driving PP2, allowing Brent to roam looking for good shooting angles, basically acting like another Forward.

I just want to get Karlsson to hear the reactions across the league about how unfair our defense is. It also would likely kill the TDA trade, which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

 

[spockBokk]

Hot take: I trade Pesce before Skjei. I think Skjei is one of the most underrated guys in the league. I think we could get a bit more back in a trade for Pesce and Brady's offense is pretty awesome...18 goals last season and he doesn't get talked about. Maybe it's just my heart speaking

I think who out of Skjei/Pesce gets kept will depend mostly on the possibility of one of them re-signing a short term deal before the other. (Which doesn’t seem very likely)

There’s going to be an imbalance in righties no matter what they end up doing with Burns, Pesce, Chatfield, TDA and possibly Karlsson. I should probably include Coghlan too. Granted, Pesce could be part of what would go out the door for Karlsson. So, keeping Skjei around might be a good move for balancing out all 3 pairs with a LD/RD.

I still prefer them to keep Pesce as an own rental over Skjei though. I’d see what I could get for Skjei futures-wise and then use those futures to go after a Lindholm/Schiefele/etc or use the freed up cap space to sign Bertuzzi or Tarasenko, then just forget about Karlsson.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

So looking at Dave's Capology post, the Canes have $4.17M in cap space with 12F, 6D, and 3G included. Assuming the TDA at 50% trade goes through, that would add $2.5M so we'd be at 12F, 7D, 3G and have $1.67M in cap space left. We still have Coghlan's QO of $814K so with that, it would be down to ~$850K left with 12F, 8D, 3G. Let's say Pono, Rees or Suzuki becomes the 13th forward. That would leave the Canes with no cap space.

If no trades are made (which I think is unlikely), that would likely be our team. Does this sound right?

OPTIONs:

There's some flexibility with burying Kochetkov and Coghlan (or trading him), that could free up close to $2M.
Trading Skjei would free up $5.25M, but we'd need Coghlan or someone else as the #7D
Trading Pesce would free up $4.025M, but we'd either need to keep Skjei or gain another top 4D if both are traded.

 

[MinJaBen]

Yesterday was exciting with us being a player in all the UFA shenanigans, but I wonder if we just repeated the same mistake we made with Faulk by securing his replacement before we traded him away. That left us with a very meh return. I don’t see how that doesn’t get repeated, especially if we are still really targeting Karlsson and TDA.

 

[Svechhammer]

So looking at Dave's Capology post, the Canes have $4.17M in cap space with 12F, 6D, and 3G included. Assuming the TDA at 50% trade goes through, that would add $2.5M so we'd be at 12F, 7D, 3G and have $1.67M in cap space left. We still have Coghlan's QO of $814K so with that, it would be down to ~$850K left with 12F, 8D, 3G. Let's say Pono, Rees or Suzuki becomes the 13th forward. That would leave the Canes with no cap space.

If no trades are made (which I think is unlikely), that would likely be our team. Does this sound right?

OPTIONs:

There's some flexibility with burying Kochetkov and Coghlan (or trading him), that could free up close to $2M.
Trading Skjei would free up $5.25M, but we'd need Coghlan or someone else as the #7D
Trading Pesce would free up $4.025M, but we'd either need to keep Skjei or gain another top 4D if both are traded.

I get the feeling that we are already looking to move Pesce or Skjei, and if we get Karlsson we might be looking to move both. And we will probably be going into the trade market thinking we can package someone like Turbo with either and be able to take on a big salary for a top line player, possibly in the Nylander mold.

And along with this, I get the impression the main thing holding up the Aho deal is a willingness on both sides to see what our cap situation looks like next year and making sure his structure fits it while still making sure we can still bring back as many key pieces as possible.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Yeah but when Orlov walks and Karlsson is old making 11.5 and Burns retries, is Nikishin+Slavin enough to keep the cup window open?

1) I doubt Karlsson will be making $11.5M here in Carolina. Would be shocked if there isn't substantial retention if a deal goes through.

2) After retooling the D year after year and moving on from guys like Hanifin, Faulk, Hamilton, TDA, etc.. and still having an elite defensive team, I doubt the Canes are just going to sit still and do nothing but rely on rookies. They'll make other moves along the way, as they always done. If I've learned anything from this management group, is not to worry about things 2-3 years down the road.

 

[spockBokk]

Yesterday was exciting with us being a player in all the UFA shenanigans, but I wonder if we just repeated the same mistake we made with Faulk by securing his replacement before we traded him away. That left us with a very meh return. I don’t see how that doesn’t get repeated, especially if we are still really targeting Karlsson and TDA.

If they act quickly, like in the next week, on a Pesce or Skjei trade, I think this risk is mitigated. If they let it drag out, good point.

I think the problem with Faulk was the timing of finally dealing him. Teams had no cap space to acquire him in September. There are still a good bit of teams that could both use a Pesce or Skjei AND also fully absorb their cap hits without needing to send cap back.

Now, I think they could be looking at WPG or CGY with guys like Schiefele and Lindholm, both with only a yr left, that could be hockey trades (maybe even Nylander here), but Skjei has a NTC and it’s been rumored that Pesce does too, so I bet the Canadian teams are on both.

I expect them to make a significant trade with one of Pesce or Skjei going out the door between now and the TDA acquisition in about a week. I guess we’ll see if the cap space that potential trade opens up is used for Karlsson or for, what I want to see, another scorer.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Yesterday was exciting with us being a player in all the UFA shenanigans, but I wonder if we just repeated the same mistake we made with Faulk by securing his replacement before we traded him away. That left us with a very meh return. I don’t see how that doesn’t get repeated, especially if we are still really targeting Karlsson and TDA.

I've been of the view that any return on Pesce (or Skjei) isn't going to be as great as many on here think regardless of prior moves.

They both have 1 year left on a deal. They both will be 30 (Pesce 29 but 30 in Nov) when their next deal kicks in. They both will likely want high dollar, long term deals (and I don't blame them).

Finding a trade partner that is a good fit for that will be tricky so they may be more likely to be viewed as a 1 year rental.

If the return isn't good, I'd rather keep them as an own rental and lose them for nothing after the season (assuming we don't get Karlsson).

 

[bobc222]

Yeah, this is a terrible example, and I shouldn't have to explain why.

Yeah it's a reductio on purpose to try and explain that, for example, I'd rather have a Top 3 defense AND Top 6-7 forward group than have the Best Defense and Top 10 forward group. I'm just worried about spending assets to improve an area we already dominate in, instead of addressing the same issue we have every single playoffs.

 

[zman77]

Quotes By GM Don Waddell & Dimitry Orlov

Hurricanes bolster lineup with Dmitry Orlov, Michael Bunting​

CAROLINA ALSO RE-SIGNED FORWARD JESPER FAST AND GOALIES FREDERIK ANDERSEN AND ANTTI RAANTA​

July 1, 2023 Cory Lavalette Article, NHL, Sports

RALEIGH — The combination of cap space and a soon-to-be-rising salary cap turned into the perfect storm for the Hurricanes at the start of the NHL’s free agency period on Saturday.
“Cap space,” Hurricanes GM Don Waddell said, “is like gold.”
That Carolina had it — and many other teams didn’t — allowed the team to sign two of the bigger names on the market.
The Hurricanes first added former Capitals and Bruins defenseman Dmitry Orlov on a two-year contract worth an average of $7.75 million annually, further bolstering an already stacked blue line.
“I think he was ranked as the top defenseman on everybody’s list as far as free agents,” Waddell said.
Orlov, who played 42 games against Carolina during his 10-plus seasons with the Metropolitan Division rival Capitals, mentioned having three times been on a Presidents’ Trophy winner and coming up short in the playoffs. In his first opportunity to be a free agent, he said he was looking to go to a team with a chance to win it all.
“So I think I made a good decision,” Orlov, a Stanley Cup winner with the Capitals in 2018, said during a video press conference, “and I’m happy to be with Carolina right now. … I want to be on a good team who have a big goal to get to the end.”
The 5-foot-11, 214-pound Orlov has been a workhorse for Washington — and briefly Boston this season — throughout his career, averaging more than 20 minutes a game while posting 64 goals and 273 assists in 709 regular season games.

Hurricanes bolster lineup with Dmitry Orlov, Michael Bunting | The North State Journal

RALEIGH — The combination of cap space and a soon-to-be-rising salary cap turned into the perfect storm for the Hurricanes at the start of the NHL’s free agency period on Saturday. “Cap space,” Hurricanes GM Don Waddell said, “is like gold.” That Carolina had it — and many other teams didn’t —

nsjonline.com

 

[Svechhammer]

Yeah it's a reductio on purpose to try and explain that, for example, I'd rather have a Top 3 defense AND Top 6-7 forward group than have the Best Defense and Top 10 forward group. I'm just worried about spending assets to improve an area we already dominate in, instead of addressing the same issue we have every single playoffs.

I get the impression that we are loading up on defense in order to have as much quality ammo in a trade as we can. We get Karlsson and we can trade both Skjei or Pesce and there would likely be no shortage of teams interested in bringing them in. A team like Toronto or Edmonton would be foolish to try and pick either up and they each have plenty of forward pieces to make us happy with the return. I mean look at the heat Toronto is facing for trying to convince their fans that Reaves will solve everything on the blue line for them. They would absolutely be in on Pesce or Skjei.

So yeah, I'm not worried about the long term here. When it came to Faulk, I just don't think the league overall thought too highly of him. I get the impression that things are different this time around.

 

[bobc222]

I get the impression that we are loading up on defense in order to have as much quality ammo in a trade as we can. We get Karlsson and we can trade both Skjei or Pesce and there would likely be no shortage of teams interested in bringing them in. A team like Toronto or Edmonton would be foolish to try and pick either up and they each have plenty of forward pieces to make us happy with the return. I mean look at the heat Toronto is facing for trying to convince their fans that Reaves will solve everything on the blue line for them. They would absolutely be in on Pesce or Skjei.

So yeah, I'm not worried about the long term here. When it came to Faulk, I just don't think the league overall thought too highly of him. I get the impression that things are different this time around.

I'd be fine with it if we get double retention on Karlsson enabling us to move those defenseman for a forward. Also I think we need to move them out first for a forward, otherwise we get lowballed on the return since they know we're overloaded on D and have to move them.

 

[Sigurd]

I get the impression that we are loading up on defense in order to have as much quality ammo in a trade as we can. We get Karlsson and we can trade both Skjei or Pesce and there would likely be no shortage of teams interested in bringing them in. A team like Toronto or Edmonton would be foolish to try and pick either up and they each have plenty of forward pieces to make us happy with the return. I mean look at the heat Toronto is facing for trying to convince their fans that Reaves will solve everything on the blue line for them. They would absolutely be in on Pesce or Skjei.

So yeah, I'm not worried about the long term here. When it came to Faulk, I just don't think the league overall thought too highly of him. I get the impression that things are different this time around.

IMO, this is easily the ideal scenario.

I don't know if we can get Karlsson without trading one of Skjei or Pesce, but if we could somehow keep both, and trade both if necessary to say either Toronto or Edmonton giving their continued long-term need for good defensemen, then getting Nylander (or much more of a long shot, Matthews in return for a larger Carolina package) or Nugent-Hopkins for examples, would be great. All the while having Slavin-Burns and Orlov-Karlsson for our top 4 D which would be freaking amazing.

 

[hblueridgegal]

AG had a podcast last night. He said they've tried to get Pesce and Skjei to take less term (3-4 years) with more $ but neither have been too interested so far.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Rangers and Oilers are even more susceptible to an offer sheet right now. I wish the NHL was more fun with this stuff

 

[moses malone 12]

Mike Johnson, in a discussion about Karlsson that I saw yesterday, was talking about in order for EK to excel, he needs to play his game, which is to be a bit of a “rover” & to be allowed to activate in the O-zone. As he was describing it, it occurred to me that that is exactly what we do with our Dmen & why our FO would be looking to add him to the mix.

The Karlsson add would be for so much more than just adding another weapon to our PP. Having him out there would make the opposition place a lot of focus on him, creating more space & opportunities for our other guys to succeed.

And for those concerned about having Burns & TDA on the same PP, I see it as a good thing. TDA’s strength is moving the puck, while Burns’ is his booming shot. I see TDA driving PP2, allowing Brent to roam looking for good shooting angles, basically acting like another Forward.

this feels like next level chess by the Borg. They pursue an elite player and don't overpay as the market is not deep. Its Canes and perhaps one other team pursuing EK at this point. My concern is if the Canes get him, do they make him fit their system. Mike Johnson correctly identified that EK needs to play his game. I'm all for this as he is truly elite in terms of passing and playmaking.

what's interesting to me is the potential to move out both Pesce and Skjei. Not necessarily at same time but there is a likelihood both are not extended. Those guys played heavy minutes and excelled at it. Is it worth it to move on from that simply because the next contract(s) will be too rich in 4 years. Burns may be done in 2 years and EK may not be durable going forward.

I don't have a firm position on the EK play yet. It's potentially brilliant if they leverage his skill set properly. Regardless, good stuff to start the offseason.