Roster Building XXIV: Our Hearts Go Pitter Pattersson

[CanesUltimate11]

I’m sorry, but if one of the conditions to keeping a goalie is that the team also needs an NHL quality #3, that means they’re not a goalie worth keeping. I’m sorry, but that’s not just a regular acceptable thing to ask for, at least for a non Vezina level goalie.

Given what's around the league right now it's either trade for an unknown (ala Scott Darling), trade for an injured vet (Gibson) or go with the guy who's been really good (when healthy) and plan accordingly with your 3rd string.

The status quo doesn't seem to bad.

 

[Unhinged Finn]

Hard pass on Marner. He has that leafs stench on him. Stupid giveaways while trying to play a hero.

Yes he's skilled and produces points. I don't care.

Rod would have a brain aneurysm with him.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Hard pass on Marner. He has that leafs stench on him. Stupid giveaways while trying to play a hero.

Yes he's skilled and produces points. I don't care.

Rod would have a brain aneurysm with him.

I wonder if he would have the same hero tendencies if he were with a team that played like an actual team and the lower pressure of small market + settled salary. It's awfully hard to judge Leafs players.

 

[Bub]

It’s hard to argue that they’re wrong about that approach. Are they going to win a cup if they’re down to a 3rd string/minor league goalie? No, but no team is. They’ve been one of the best teams in the regular season relying on the likes of Spencer Martin and Dustin Tokarski, they probably don’t need one of the very best goalies to win a cup, just a reliable nhl starter.

Does that describe Andersen or kochetkov in the year of our lord 2025? The jury is out. But if there’s no better options there are certainly worse ones

Oh, agreed. At the very least, it's going to be a very interesting off-season for us. Interesting-good (yay), interesting-bad (boo), or a mix of both (most likely).

Also, last weekend I saw the AD-Skinner-in-his-BVDs episode. Tighty whities, man.

 

[Svechhammer]

Tulsky with an extra $20-30m in cap space over the next few years is going to terrorize this league

 

[A Star is Burns]

Hard pass on Marner. He has that leafs stench on him. Stupid giveaways while trying to play a hero.

Yes he's skilled and produces points. I don't care.

Rod would have a brain aneurysm with him.

I remember a bunch of people talking about Sabres stench and every mutha f***er they get rid of wins a Cup. Maybe it's okay to get good players out of not as good situations?

 

[Unhinged Finn]

I wonder if he would have the same hero tendencies if he were with a team that played like an actual team and the lower pressure of small market + settled salary. It's awfully hard to judge Leafs players.

I get what you're saying but no thanks. I have a maple leaf allergy.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Elliotte saying Saad to Vegas at around $1.5 mil (prorated)

 

[Unhinged Finn]

I remember a bunch of people talking about Sabres stench and every mutha f***er they get rid of wins a Cup. Maybe it's okay to get good players out of not as good situations?

If Nylander would be available I would be on board.

I would get over it if Marner signed here. I would get to say "told you so" every time he fvcks up

 

[To Be Determined]

I’m sorry, but if one of the conditions to keeping a goalie is that the team also needs an NHL quality #3, that means they’re not a goalie worth keeping. I’m sorry, but that’s not just a regular acceptable thing to ask for, at least for a non Vezina level goalie.

It is never actually a condition, because there is basically no such thing.

There are barely enough "nhl quality" goalies to fill 64 spots in the league. Some would say there aren't nearly that many.

When i hear "nhl quality 3rd" i take it to mean, can play ~10 games without looking like jack lafontaine.

The rare teams that end up with three legit nhl quality goalies always have some unexpected breakout. (And usually someone crashes out - if the team is lucky after the guy gets traded.)

 

[Unsustainable]

Kk at 4.8m with a cap at 113 is a drop in the bucket

 

[TheBigLetowski]

Kk at 4.8m with a cap at 113 is a drop in the bucket

Agreed, but can we get to play 2C?

 

[Borsig]

Agreed, but can we get to play 2C?

Jarvis if he can learn to win faceoffs. I'm not kidding. He's good enough but with
Aho
Svech
Jarvis
Rantanen
We are still short 2 top six. If you count Blake we are still out one.

Ideally Blake and KK are on the 3rd line with maybe a retained Hall for a 1 year or 2 year. Dude is 33/34. Right now Rantanan is playing on the left side and he's a RW no?

3rd line could be Hall KK Blake

Still need a 2C, or to move Jarvis to C (risky experiment?) Assuming we retain rantanen, and fill out the bottom six like we always do, You have the D and 2 genuine top six to mess with. Burns? IDK man I think he is cooked. I would let him retire. You have Nikishin/Slavin I am assuming, Chats and ? Ghost and Walker. Morrow is also a righty. So... And Morrow chats could be a disaster.

Andersen if hes ok, but he's 35.

We still need two genuine top six, we could have a nasty 3rd line with Hall and Blake and KK. if Rantanen goes for 14M, you still have like what, 20M for a good D- man, and two top six. If my math is right. Though IDK what the UFA crop looks like for top six. Better retain Rantanen. We put a lot on the line to offer him that 8th year. With the cap going up, NOW is the time to make that franchise changing trade and extension

 

[robbieberns]

Assuming he makes it to July 1st, if i’m GMET I make sure we win the race for Vejmelka. We’ve got the cap space, the rising cap ceiling, and have one of if not the best sells in the league at this point. I don’t necessarily hate Andersen and agree about his quality when healthy, but I think with a quality piece on the table like Vejmelka you do it.

 

[MinJaBen]

If we are looking for a RHD defenseman with a couple years of term on a reasonable contract, who might be available at this deadline, what about.....


...Justin Faulk? In the current cap climate, his contract is pretty vanilla. He could play either 1st or 2nd pair with Slavin as a stop gap until Morrow is ready.

 

[robbieberns]

I think you go big game hunting without any regards to Morrow. You never bet money on an unsure thing. If you have to go the short term coverage route, they have to be an Orlov level talent, not someone like Faulk. love what he did here, but he sucks now, ask Blues fans.

 

[Unsustainable]

Rasmus Andersson might be a smart move on Defense.

2C, options are limited unless we make a big splash trade again.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

The canes have so many contracts now that’ll look like absolute bargains in a year or two that paying rantanen even 13 million isn’t gonna hurt at all.

yep. the cap going up strongly benefits teams who have their core players locked up long term before it started rising. Like we do...

 

[Sigurd]

Regarding some of the talk about signing Marner, regardless of whether it's true Marner "really wants to play for Carolina" according to a Twitter profile that's iffy at best, I'd personally rather we not hand out a huge contract to another winger after Rantanen.

After Rantanen, if we were to sign a player to another 10+ million dollar contract, it should either be (1) a right-handed defenseman to replace Burns, or (2) an elite 2nd centerman.

I'd worry about not enough financial focus on other positions if we have Rantanen and Marner, both wingers, extended for, at the very least, 12 million dollars. However, if Marner actually does want to really play for us, I don't rule out Carolina just signing him anyway given how elite he is. Hopefully in that scenario, we are able to still get a new good defenseman after Burns retires that we can afford, and just roll with KK as our 2C who has amazing wingers to work with.

Excluding Marner from the picture, if we want to throw money around this off season at free agents, Ekblad is still appealing. Yeah, he has some injury history. However, he's a good point producer, has an edge (i.e. a good amount of hits) to his game which we could use more off in the playoffs, and he's a right handed defenseman. Then try to sign Benett as our 2C who isn't Marner or Rantanen super-star tier, but is still very good for a 2C; especially come playoff time. Although I'm kind of skeptical either sign with us because Florida remains very good.

I also wouldn't mind if we extended Andersen to 1-2 years if he keeps doing well, but I agree that if we do this, we need to find a good 3rd string goalie for the very real likelihood that Andersen gets injured again. In addition to being elite when he is healthy, and there just not being many good alternatives for a starting goalie now or during the summer, it would also benefit us to focus our attention elsewhere instead of also having a new starting goalie on our to-do list. I think a #1 RHD is plenty enough to deal with, and then throw in possibly getting a new 2C if they want to get someone better for the role than however KK does this year, and both gives our front office plenty to work on improving.

 

[mikeyfan]

Talking about a goalie Charlie Lindgren will be a free agent and may be the solid backup to Koochie we need. I for one still believe Koochie will be or number 1 goalie

 

[DaveG]

The problem with Andersen in the playoffs last year was pretty obviously fatigue. We just needed to alternate goalies like we were all season. We were doomed by bad goalie management far more than bad goaltending.

For what Andersen brings when healthy, he's more than worth keeping around. But we do need an NHL caliber #3. For the money Andersen would cost compared to any remotely comparably skilled goalie, we can easily carry a 3rd. To my mind, that's the best option right now. Keep Freddie, carry 3 goalies.

Andersen, when he's playing *is* a Vezina level goalie.

Bingo. We can roll it back with Andersen-Kooch pretty damn easily if we do better than Martin or a guy literally off the couch as the #3, which shouldn't be hard to do even if that's bringing old man Reimer back for a year. Buys Khazeyev another year in the A to develop now that he seems to be getting a hang of things.

If we are looking for a RHD defenseman with a couple years of term on a reasonable contract, who might be available at this deadline, what about.....


...Justin Faulk? In the current cap climate, his contract is pretty vanilla. He could play either 1st or 2nd pair with Slavin as a stop gap until Morrow is ready.

I've heard worse ideas and I wouldn't think he'd be nearly as expensive as Andersson to acquire.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

Talking about a goalie Charlie Lindgren will be a free agent and may be the solid backup to Koochie we need. I for one still believe Koochie will be or number 1 goalie

Caps are about to extend him

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

With Morrow looking really good in the AHL, we don't exactly need the moon-and-the-stars at RD. We still have to be careful with cap spending, Rantanen aside, because we want the next wave of young guys on our club long-term as well, especially Nikishin. That youth succession backbone is something that not a lot of contenders have besides us and Dallas.

 

[CandyCanes]

The last homegrown defenseman the Canes developed who played over 100 games in a Canes uniform was Haydn Fleury, with Slavin and Pesce before him. The last time we relied on rookie defensemen as regulars, we weren’t making the playoffs.

We’re high on both Nikishin and Morrow, but the idea of having two rookie defensemen in the lineup next season—when the Canes have one of their best chances to contend—is a bit scary. I doubt Morrow becomes a full-time player next season, as I fully expect Tulsky & Co. to use our cap space to bring in a solid veteran to fill Burns’ spot. That said, Morrow will likely be the first call-up for any right-side defensive injury this year and next. I could see them finally finding a way to bring him into the fold full-time by the 2026-27 season.

 

[robbieberns]

At the end of the day you don’t go cheap or underwhelming either such an important position because you have a guy in the system who might be something at some point. The money is there to get Rantanen signed, get a proper goalie, and a legitimate 1RD. You stockpile assets and play the contract game right so that these key positions can be taken care of with a lack of stress. You don’t downgrade from Skjei snd Pesce to Ghost and Walker just to talk about bringing in a washed up 32 y/o Faulk to hold down the fort so that an AHL guy can run with it a few years from now. Obviously I want us to continue making smart moves and refusing to give out stupid contracts, but i’m just advocating for a contender firmly in a contention window constructing a roster that can win, particularly when the assets and resources are there to build an unreal squad for the next 5-8 years.