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Roster Building XXV: Winning Rantanen's Undying Love

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I’m really not that worried about being conservative so that we can get guys like Blake, Nadeau, Morrow, signed. We’re worried about them running when two of them haven’t even ran, crawled, or even been born yet. With the cap ceiling going up, so will the floor. That means bad, small market, or rebuilding teams are going to have to take on more than they’re used to, more room and places to dump contracts. Lot of competitive teams are great at doing that, it’s something our front office will have to learn to do at some point.
 
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Anton Dubinchuk said:
I typed this out in the Around the League thread because they were talking about Rantanen/Rangers over there, but it belongs here instead.


Look, don't make money the reason Rantanen doesn't sign here. At all. If he walks, make it truly because he doesn't want to be here for a max contract.

The great cap reset is hitting, right now. "Internal cap" (i.e. "you can't x amount more than Aho" or whatever) is out the window. Guys who locked in the last 2 years are simply not meaningful comparables anymore. Sorry Aho, sorry Slavin, sorry Svech, sorry Jarvis. Every single one of you guys is going to be a massive bargain for the next 8 years and you're going to just have to be ok with that as guys from the outside like Rantanen come in and make 2x what you make.

This coming offseason has the potential to be one of the most consequential for this franchise in a long long time. Maybe ever. Last season set us up to have more cap space this upcoming offseason than basically any other team in the league. $40 million to play with. And, if you consider Nikishin and Morrow to be roster players, we basically come in with a filled out roster. This isn't "we have $40m in cap space but we need to re-sign Skjei, Pesce, Guentzel, Necas" or whatever. We're coming in with 8 forwards, 6 D (if Morrow/Nikishin are included) and 1 G already on the roster. So... that's $40m for 4 forwards and a goalie. 5 players. $8 million per player. $8 million.

So like, sign Rantanen. And while you're at it, sign Marner. If you can't get Marner, go get Tavares. Or Ehlers. Or Marchand. Or whoever. And then once you've got as many difference makers as possible, just fill in with like Nadeau, Taylor Hall, Roslovic, Robinson, whatever. Re-sign Andersen for a year, or don't, depends how the playoffs go. Who cares. Go make a big splash. This team is poised to have a 2010 Miami Heat type offseason, and it's because we've managed our cap so meticulously over the course of a lot of years. We have to use it to our advantage and make headlines in June and July this year. These is the times.
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Hear me out.

Let’s trade for Luka Doncic
 
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Anton Dubinchuk said:
I typed this out in the Around the League thread because they were talking about Rantanen/Rangers over there, but it belongs here instead.


Look, don't make money the reason Rantanen doesn't sign here. At all. If he walks, make it truly because he doesn't want to be here for a max contract.

The great cap reset is hitting, right now. "Internal cap" (i.e. "you can't x amount more than Aho" or whatever) is out the window. Guys who locked in the last 2 years are simply not meaningful comparables anymore. Sorry Aho, sorry Slavin, sorry Svech, sorry Jarvis. Every single one of you guys is going to be a massive bargain for the next 8 years and you're going to just have to be ok with that as guys from the outside like Rantanen come in and make 2x what you make.

This coming offseason has the potential to be one of the most consequential for this franchise in a long long time. Maybe ever. Last season set us up to have more cap space this upcoming offseason than basically any other team in the league. $40 million to play with. And, if you consider Nikishin and Morrow to be roster players, we basically come in with a filled out roster. This isn't "we have $40m in cap space but we need to re-sign Skjei, Pesce, Guentzel, Necas" or whatever. We're coming in with 8 forwards, 6 D (if Morrow/Nikishin are included) and 1 G already on the roster. So... that's $40m for 4 forwards and a goalie. 5 players. $8 million per player. $8 million.

So like, sign Rantanen. And while you're at it, sign Marner. If you can't get Marner, go get Tavares. Or Ehlers. Or Marchand. Or whoever. And then once you've got as many difference makers as possible, just fill in with like Nadeau, Taylor Hall, Roslovic, Robinson, whatever. Re-sign Andersen for a year, or don't, depends how the playoffs go. Who cares. Go make a big splash. This team is poised to have a 2010 Miami Heat type offseason, and it's because we've managed our cap so meticulously over the course of a lot of years. We have to use it to our advantage and make headlines in June and July this year. These is the times.
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Generally agree with you conceptually but we also need to be thinking ahead too. Nikishin could wind up being top 5-10 player in the league and able to command $13M/yr as the cap rises. Don't want to not be able to keep him because we spent too much on long term deals in 2025.
 
Meh, I get long term planning. Don't be reckless. But get talent whenever and wherever you can and sort it out if you're lucky enough to have too many good players. I get being high on our guys, especially Nikishin, but don't be afraid to be bold because there's a chance someone becomes one of the best players in the league. Any player being a top 5-10 player is still a pretty small percentage chance even for a guy like Nikishin.
 
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AhosDatsyukian said:
Generally agree with you conceptually but we also need to be thinking ahead too. Nikishin could wind up being top 5-10 player in the league and able to command $13M/yr as the cap rises. Don't want to not be able to keep him because we spent too much on long term deals in 2025.
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Yeah. I'm probably more conservative in my hope for spending. The bottom line is we can spend like drunk sailors and not get too caught up by it, most likely, with our enormous cap room. I'm hopeful we sign Rants, but it's far from guaranteed. If we don't, our best outcome probably involves letting other teams dole out ridiculous contracts this offseason and then taking their pricier-but-still-good players for pennies on the dollar. I could see an Eric Robinson getting something silly like $3Mx3years and our Borg being completely OK with walking away.

It won't happen, but as an example take Timo Meier. If Jersey somehow saddles up to Marner or Rantanen, perhaps they need to shed a contract to make it work alongside their extensions for Luke Hughes and Kovasevic. Again, extremely unlikely, but hear me out. Timo makes $8.8M. It's a lot for what he brings to the table, but at the same time these $8-$9M deals today will be $10-12M. If we find a dance partner who has a good but slightly overpaid player, it's probably less risky to acquire them for a low price than pay today's dollar for a free agent.

All in all, cheap cap dump-esque acquisition moves like we have made in the past (Burns and Pacioretty) are all the while more palatable with the rising cap.
 
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I'm down for creative stuff. But you could find yourself in a Koko situation where you get full confirmation beyond whatever happens this season that the guy's not the best fit here or out of Colorado period but you've essentially made a handshake deal. The guy could get hurt. Either side just changes their mind and it could be a horrible look. But I don't like to rule anything out, especially with this front office.
 
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If Rantanen wanted to do a 1+8, it would be with the Hurricanes for a year and then (potentially) elsewhere for seven to eight. Tulsky has so much cap space that he can do a 1x19 for Rantanen and still fit a full roster.
 
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I see absolutely zero reason for a 28yr old, soon to be 29 in October of this year, to sign a 1yr deal that would net him only 5-6M more ($12-13M over max term vs $18M over 1yr) on an annual aav vs guaranteed $100M over 7-8yrs. If his agent advises Rantanen to do that, he’s an idiot.

Starting to get the not so warm and fuzzies about him sticking around…I’m ready for the 4Nations to be done with so I can get back to obsessing over ever insidurr tweet and podcast…
 
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Unsustainable said:
12.5x8 would be ideal for Mikko.

I think Necas gets 11x8 in Colorado.


Wonder if we could snag Zegras and Gibson at the deadline.
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I think Gibson is more of an offseason target. If both are healthy, I think Freddie is just as good or better in recent years.

And while Freddie may be unlikely to stay healthy, I don’t think the difference in availability of Gibson is worth the deadline cost.

Revisit in the offseason when Carolina could absorb the full salary without issue.
 
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