The way I see it is that it won't be a very exciting offseason. Player movement is difficult, especially when a team doesn't have a lot of cap/assets.
Out:
- Chychrun->Trade.
- Forsberg->Trade.
- BOS 1st->Trade.
- Brannstrom->Not qualified.
- Kubalik->Shot into the sun.
- Approx. Cap Space After Those Moves = 20M for 15 players (assuming Norris is active).
In:
- Ullmark->Trade
- Jenner->Trade
- Tanev->Trade for UFA rights, then sign.
- New Hamonic->(Over the hill veteran defenseman to play on the bottom pair.)
- John Gruden->(Head Coach)
- Will Bitten->He's from Ottawa and was on the Bulldog's championship team that Staios and Gruden are connected to. That's at triple whammy. Might be a UFA if STL doesn't qualify him.
Ullmark, Jenner, and Tanev (or his equivalent) should cost about 15M and bring the roster up to 18 players. Assuming Norris will play to start the season, that would give them about 5M to get up to 20-23 skaters.
Keep in mind that the "In" names don't have to be those players. Except for John Gruden, that's obviously set in stone. For example, if not Ullmark, it will be an established veteran goalie with a track record. Jenner, a veteran top 6 forward. Tanev, a defenseman who can play defense and doesn't stink. New Hamonic, New Hamonic. Will Bitten, a random player from the Hamilton Bulldogs. All coaches and GMs do it. They fill the less consequential spots like the 4th line or the AHL veteran roles with guys they like from their past.
Unless there is actually steam to the Karlsson stuff and it's a lateral move (Karlsson for Chabot), I doubt we see anything crazy or out of left-field. Even the above list seems like expectations that are too high.
The above list of transactions would look something like:
- Forsberg+Chychrun to BOS for Ullmark+roster player. No extensions. The logic being if the market is soft for Chychrun to the point that they would play out the season with him, they might as well swap him for a player who is a better fit. The pending UFA status becomes a sunk cost at that point.
- BOS 1st and 1-2 B or C pieces to CBJ for Jenner. New management in Columbus, they will want to put their own spin on the team. They don't have a lot of players they can move to get space+assets needed to alter the team.
- Tanev signed to a deal everybody knows will be bad in 2-3 years, but they need to give him the extra term to convince him to choose Ottawa. Similar to Toronto giving Marleau the third year when every other team he was in on was stuck at 2 because they knew the third year could be bad.
- New Hamonic. Erik Johnson? Marc Staal? Johnny Oduya? 1M 1-way deal for a player who probably should no longer be playing.
These are more predictions than what I think we should do. You guys don't want to Ceci what I think we should do.
