Yeah, you are right that they do have a good nucleus. Good but not great, as they likely lose Guentzel, Pesce, Skjei, Teravainen with no way of replacing them because Jarvis, Necas and Drury's are RFA and their new contracts will suck up the rest of that cap space, if not more, and one may actually have to go. Burns and Staal are aging fast, and there's not much in nets come next year. Their peak time to win it all was this year and last, they were the odds on favorite this year. Their prospect cupboard is not great, Nikishin is a top prospect but the rest are good but not first D, first line potential. It's hard to argue that they were at their peak this year after years of building, and that they will not be as loaded come next year.
Because you can't give RFA's lower wage than they had before. It's the 6mil / year or he walks.
The fanbase arrogance here is all the Canes fans coming in harmony with every excuse/explanation possible as to why this wasn't a totally awful move from their team, and calling the Habs petty when all they do is call you out on your bs.
This is the reason why they couldn't sign him for any lower. They had to qualify him at 6 million or he would have been free agent. Kotkaniemi and his agent made out like bandits.
This was a key year but the point made earlier is that window is not necessarily closed long term but given their younger core they will be a consistently good team for years to come. I suspect they will be top contenders again within 1-3 years with a replenishment in d, o and goal keeping. FWIW: At just outside the top 10, their prospect ranking (I rate morrow and Nikishin as top paring guys) continues to be strong, and have their top picks for next 3 years. They had much of their prospect pool play overseas and probably didn’t catch your eye. Then again, most Habs fans don’t look at the Canes objectively.
Going for a goalie is revisionist history, but let’s not act like guys like Tarasenko where no available. It was a terrible move
Oh it’s been a nothing move. I was never impressed with it as I didn’t think KK had showed enough offense and didn’t think he was a great choice for 2C. It’s been a bad move.
What? You have no clue. His current contract is 4.8 a year. They never had to pay him 6+ moving forward.
They are saying that because they paid him 1 year/$6.1 million, the Qualifying Offer in the 2022 offseason had to be $6.1 million. Without offering that, he becomes an unrestricted free agent. In order to get him to sign a deal with lower AAV than the qualifying offer and avoid having to make a qualifying offer to retain him, they offered him an 8-year worth $38,560,000, or $4.82 million AAV. Essentially, they couldn't get him at $4.82 million for say 3 years because then he's better off just signing the qualifying offer or if not offered a qualifying offer, becoming an unrestricted free agent, so they were boxed into gambling on a long-term deal that they hoped he'd outperform.
Thanks for clarifying, i learned something new too.They are saying that because they paid him 1 year/$6.1 million, the Qualifying Offer in the 2022 offseason had to be $6.1 million. Without offering that, he becomes an unrestricted free agent. In order to get him to sign a deal with lower AAV than the qualifying offer and avoid having to make a qualifying offer to retain him, they offered him an 8-year worth $38,560,000, or $4.82 million AAV. Essentially, they couldn't get him at $4.82 million for say 3 years because then he's better off just signing the qualifying offer or if not offered a qualifying offer, becoming an unrestricted free agent, so they were boxed into gambling on a long-term deal that they hoped he'd outperform.
The qualifying offer is calculated from the players base salary (NHL salary minus signing bonus), and at minimum must meet the seasons minimum salary requirements:
- 110% of the base salary if the base salary is less than or equal to $660,000
- 105% of the base salary if the base salary is greater than $660,000 or less than $1,000,000. However, this qualifying offer cannot exceed $1,000,000.
- 100% of the base salary if the base salary is equal to or greater than $1,000,000.
- CBA Reference 10.2 (a)
I think KK was arbitration-eligible in summer 2022, so Canes could have taken him into team-elected salary arbitration without having to tender him the $6.1M QO. I think we agree KK would have gotten less than $6.1M there (it's anyone's guess if KK would have chosen one or two year contract).
We paid it under the table to Jake Guentzel. Everyone involved will deny it obviously, as they should.In my headcanon, the Canes fell 20$ short of getting THE free agent that would have made them win it all.
