1) Yes our cap is mostly spent on offense. Easy to see. Outscore your opponent. Defense kinda secondary. Lots of people here get this.
2) Everybody here seen at the beginning on last year what happened to JAY when he tried to institute the one three without the proper personnel. Changing a team from high octane offense to a counterpuncher requires vast patience and commitment and a GM that will take a hit and change out the right people for different ones.
3) Obviously in stating all this in your very pointed dialogue you have a strategy of change going forward. What is it? Where would you like to see us go?
Knobby came in and moved us back down the scale towards offense but kept some off the lessons learned during JAY's heartache and used it to his and the teams advantage. A little more two way if you will. Yes your right STU is not a high end 1A. Good for two games and the next he lays an egg. He needs a high end backup that can play 35ish games a year. And yes we need a goalie in the A that has really good potential. But what other changes would you make?
My pointed reply is simply to point out that:
1) spending $5M on a goalie is a half-measure. You either go bigger or you have two guys in the $3-4M range.
2) the team is NOT constructed to expect us to eek out a 2-1 game when it matters. We shouldn't be in 2-1 games in the first place if our investments are paying off.
What's my solution? I'm actually very ok with what Knobloch got out of our team defensively and pretty ok with our cap structure... you play the cards you are dealt, and when dealt two aces you build around that.
And you can't go back and rewrite the past, so starting from where we are and focusing on shoring up our ability to keep pucks out, I would:
1) Change my management mindset on Skinner. He's our 1A/B until he proves otherwise. Build in contingencies now. Like,
2) Play Pickard more, keep Stu hungry for his starts,
3) Explore trading for Blackwood, he's every bit as talented (and big) as Stu, would come cheap and can also be 1A/B at low AAV (Vegas strategy), so let's have some actual competition
4) Be planning ahead that there is a good chance I'm trading Skinner in 2025/26 because I'm not convinced he'll be worth much more than his current $2.6M... maybe he proves me wrong, but I'm not banking on it.
5) Be sure to draft another goalie in the first 3 rounds of the draft this year and another one over the next three years, we need prospect churn and competition in the AHL for Rodrigue and sorry, but Delia is not it. We need two guys under 25 dueling it out down there and another couple maturing in ECHL/College.
6) Change the goalie coach... that's a no brainer.
7) Get Rodrigue some NHL reps at the end of this year before he becomes Waiver ineligible
8) Use my cap space this year on an RD, it's still the higher priority, especially if we can get Blackwood
9) Set aside Kane's + Stu Skinner's money in 2026 as contingency planning for a new #1 goalie. Maybe Skinner/Blackwood/Rodrigue surprise, but I'm planning ahead to ensure success
10) As part of #9, we should have cap space accrued for the 2026 trade deadline and there are some interesting guys scheduled for UFA, including: Demko, Markstrom and Gustavsson... plus another crop in 2027 (only one year left). Lots can happen in a goalies' (and teams) life between now and then, so who knows who's available and looking good but the point is to be kicking tires at that deadline, with an opportunity to audition them (for a long-term contract) in the 2026 playoffs.
