Speculation: Roster Building Thread: Part XV

[True Blue]

Total straw man. What Brendan Smith got or how he performed has no bearing on what Strome gets or how he performs.

Well said. Smith has NOTHING to do with how the contract for Strome will or will not be determined.

 

[True Blue]

Staal might want to continue playing and he might not get that opportunity here anymore with the way Lindgren has been playing

Why would Staal want to uproot his family at this point?

 

[True Blue]

Rangers might just have to put some serious thought into Mika's next contract ...we might not have room for everybody if the kids keep performing in the next year or so . Not sure when Mika is up for renewal ? I know it is not a popular thought...but still one that needs consideration at this point for long term planning .

You are talking about the best Rangers center since 99 retired. That is how long it took the team to find it's legit top line center. He is going to be resigned.

 

[FIRE DRURY]

you can also add #3 that if he could be flipped for something of value why wouldn't the kings do that instead of taking staal...

and on the 'pure fantasy' part...its a terrible fantasy. even if it was realistic, how does that make us better? kovalchuk is terrible, also has 2 years left on his deal, makes more $$ than staal and because he is 35+ there is no cap relief from a buyout.

literally the ONLY positive to the deal for us is to not have to read post about how we need to get rid of staal

I mentioned Kovalchuk retained for Staal, so the salaries would be a wash. Staal has two season's left as well. It's a bad contract for a bad contract.

As bad as Kovalchuk has been, I'd still rather see him in the line-up instead of Staal, who, at this point in his career, is one of the worst dmen in the league.

It's harder for the Kings to trade Kovalchuk now since the playoff picture is a lot blurrier. They're not going to play him. They'll allow him to continue practicing with the team, but he's done as a King. If they flip him with retention for Staal, Kovy can continue playing up until the deadline. If we retain 50% of his contact, there should be some deadline buyers @ around 2.85M.

This is obviously all fantasy crap so I'm not expecting any of this to happen. Just some food for thought.

 

[FIRE DRURY]

Why would Staal want to uproot his family at this point?

Dolan is going to give Staal 20% over market value for his XpensiveCTDigs.

Marc will also have his lifelong dream of living in the same City as his childhood hero, Lebron James.

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

I would do Staal for Kovalchuk retained to make salary even.

The team is stuck with Staal and I don’t agree with buying him out. Seems to me they’re setting the stage so he only plays a percentage of the time the rest of his deal

Kovalchuk isn’t good anymore but he’s more useful than Staal. He’s got 9 points in 17 games this year. I’m not even sure why LA is not playing him

 

[GAGLine]

I would do Staal for Kovalchuk retained to make salary even.

The team is stuck with Staal and I don’t agree with buying him out. Seems to me they’re setting the stage so he only plays a percentage of the time the rest of his deal

Kovalchuk isn’t good anymore but he’s more useful than Staal. He’s got 9 points in 17 games this year. I’m not even sure why LA is not playing him

Because 9 points in 17 games doesn't accurately describe his play.

And while you may not want to buy out Staal, you can't buy out Kovy. Or more accurately, you can buy him out, but it doesn't reduce the cap hit at all due to him being on a 35+ contract. I'd rather keep the option open, just in case, especially considering that Kovy won't do anything to help this team at this point. The guy doesn't care. He's collecting his money.

 

[cd211]

I rather have brown from Kings.. we need more grit and especially more vet/leadership. Not likely tho bc I’d want them to retain

 

[Kovalev27]

I’d just buy out Staal this summer. I don’t want a longer term headache

 

[GAGLine]

I rather have brown from Kings.. we need more grit and especially more vet/leadership. Not likely tho bc I’d want them to retain

Brown has 2 more years left after this one. A complete non-starter.

 

[Avery16]

I can understand someone not being interested in signing Strome for a multi-year deal, but comparing signing him at 4x4 to Brendan Smith's signing is silly.

Strome will be 2 years younger than Smith was, have a much bigger sample size of performing with the Rangers (Smith only played 30 games including the playoffs with us), and be a smaller percentage of the cap (Smith signed for more than 4 million when the cap hit was 6.5 million lower overall.)

If he ends up settling back in as a 35 point uninspired player, yeah its not a good deal, but it's also not a cap killer contract to have that on the 3rd line.

Many comparisons aren’t carbon copy, yet they still remain illustrative. There are many things different between Strome and Smith. Countless, in fact. However, for the purposes of this topic, both are facing extension and we are discussing a multi-year extension with trade protection for an inconsistent player based only on a small sample of games. It was a mistake with Smith, one that we’re forced to still live with. It would be a mistake to do it again.

 

[bigdog16]

Jesus do we have some whiny fans on twitter this morning. Lias supporters crying out for DQ's head are absolutely ridiculous. 5-1-1 in the past 7 after beating Tampa Carolina Nashville Pitt, and all that matters is Lias playing time

 

[Avery16]

No. I'm stating that he has performed for us and that he could be a Grabner-like player who performs better in certain systems. His level of performance can't be ignored as he has gotten better with each game. On a 3 year deal, which is what I suggested, I don't see how it creates too much risk.

Grabner’s contract was a mistake too. We did the right thing and traded him, even if the return was less than what we hoped for. The league saw that season as a fluke, and they were largely correct.

 

[Avery16]

I would do Staal for Kovalchuk retained to make salary even.

The team is stuck with Staal and I don’t agree with buying him out. Seems to me they’re setting the stage so he only plays a percentage of the time the rest of his deal

Kovalchuk isn’t good anymore but he’s more useful than Staal. He’s got 9 points in 17 games this year. I’m not even sure why LA is not playing him

But here’s the other thing- why would LA pay the difference between Staal and Kovy to replace Kovy with Staal?

 

[Edge]

Grabner’s contract was a mistake too. We did the right thing and traded him, even if the return was less than what we hoped for. The league saw that season as a fluke, and they were largely correct.

Ironically enough, his production level really hasn't been all that far off in Arizona. He's got 15 goals and 24 points in 60 games, including a 24 goal pace right now. Cumulatively, that works out to roughly a 21 goal, 33 pace over 82 games. And that takes into account him being in his 30s, as opposed to late 20s. So it's a pretty natural decline, but not entirely unexpected.

Factoring in age, contract and where the team was at, there would be a few additional incentives to keeping Grabner if he were 26 as opposed to 30 at the time of a potential trade.

 

[Gardner McKay]

Grabner’s contract was a mistake too. We did the right thing and traded him, even if the return was less than what we hoped for. The league saw that season as a fluke, and they were largely correct.

I don't know if you are mis-remembering or just not bothering to look at the stats but that couldn't be further from the truth. Over three years Grabner scored 34 goals, 20 goals and 16 goals (45 game season). At the time of the trade, there was more history to indicate he was a 20 goal scorer than there was to indicate he wasn't.

Jesus do we have some whiny fans on twitter this morning. Lias supporters crying out for DQ's head are absolutely ridiculous. 5-1-1 in the past 7 after beating Tampa Carolina Nashville Pitt, and all that matters is Lias playing time

While I don't disagree that Lias' playing time is a concern, it is hard to argue with results.

 

[Ola]

There's no way Strome gets a 5 or 6 year deal from anyone. Even if he puts up 80 points this year, he isn't getting that. His track record just doesn't support that kind of commitment.

Grabner is a good comparison. He got a 3 year deal. Granted, he was coming off a poor showing with the devils, but his success as a Ranger earned him that much. His career had a somewhat similar trajectory to Strome's. Started off well, then tanked, then regained value in the right situation.

Unless some team offers us something we can't refuse, I'd be inclined to re-sign Strome. His value was low enough before coming here that he can be signed to a bargain deal, assuming he continues to produce for us beyond this year.

3 years / 15 mil or 4 years / 18 mil. Somewhere in that range. If he wants 4 years, I want a lower cap hit. No NMC, but willing to give him a limited NTC.

You are talking about what NHL GMs will do here, and then make a bunch of logical arguments. Not sure how relevant those are!

Zucc just got a 5 year deal at 6m per that takes him close to 40 y/o.

Heck, I am not an expert of arbitrations and norm salaries, but I wonder if there isn’t a big risk that we would have to — walk away — from an arbitration award for Strome if he even remotely keeps this up. Like seriously, what would Strome get in arbitration if he puts up 70 pts at center?

Zucker got 5.5 from Minny. Zucker has a longer track record, but Strome is a center. William Karlsson got a 1 year deal that took him to UFA at 5.25m per. Tatar got 5.25m per over 5 years. Galchenyuk sucks and got 3 years at 5m per. Palat got 5m for 5 years.

Sure Strome’s track record is shorter but OTOH he is a center and 70 pts is way more than what most got above that gave them deals over 5m per.

Deal him while we can. Would suck to have to walk away from him for nothing just because he got like 6.25 m in arbitration...

 

[Avery16]

Ironically enough, his production level really hasn't been all that far off in Arizona. He's got 15 goals and 24 points in 60 games, including a 24 goal pace right now. Cumulatively, that works out to roughly a 21 goal, 33 pace over 82 games. And that takes into account him being in his 30s, as opposed to late 20s. So it's a pretty natural decline, but not entirely unexpected.

Factoring in age, contract and where the team was at, there would be a few additional incentives to keeping Grabner if he were 26 as opposed to 30 at the time of a potential trade.

I think it’s misleading to project his current pace over an 82 game season. His actual (future stats not included) stats haven’t been that great for Arizona and I do not think he is worth his 3.3 mil x 3 contract, thanks.

 

[MetalJaws]

Staal is likely to handle this like a pro. Not playing much won't piss him off. He's a professional and will hopefully take ownership of his play and how well the kids are playing. He's going to work into the lineup when something comes up. He'll still be a veteran presence and will practice hard and be ready to go.

Crazy to think in 2 years how different this team will look. The end of an era. Kinda sad they didn't get it done but there was some good hockey.

Here's to the Future!

 

[TheBloodyNine]

I’m ashamed that I didn’t think signing Kovalchuk was a bad idea.

For a year, I don't think it would have been. For more than that though, def a bad idea.

 

[Ola]

I wonder which teams might be interested in Strome at the draft. If we are in a PO race it would seem to make more sense trading him then. At the same time, the trade market almost completely died last summer.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Staal is likely to handle this like a pro. Not playing much won't piss him off. He's a professional and will hopefully take ownership of his play and how well the kids are playing. He's going to work into the lineup when something comes up. He'll still be a veteran presence and will practice hard and be ready to go.

Crazy to think in 2 years how different this team will look. The end of an era. Kinda sad they didn't get it done but there was some good hockey.

Here's to the Future!

The last era died with the letter.

hard to believe that was less than 2 years ago.

 

[NYRFANMANI]

I’d just buy out Staal this summer. I don’t want a longer term headache

Looks to be 3.566m the first year and 1.066 the second year ... holy shit this is actually the option!

 

[bobbop]

We all know Lindgren is back in the AHL once Staal is healthy

I think that ship has sailed.

 

[Edge]

I think it’s misleading to project his current pace over an 82 game season. His actual (future stats not included) stats haven’t been that great for Arizona and I do not think he is worth his 3.3 mil x 3 contract, thanks.

Fine, then take his game averages, and don't project, you essentially arrive at the same conclusion.

His goals per game with the Rangers: .385

His goals per game with Yotes: .25 (.32 this season).

That's not a huge or unexpected fallout, and still a 20 goal pace.

And it's really not that far off for that type of contract.