The Loss of Broberg and Holloway Gripe Thread

[Soundwave]

My personal thought was they were going to sign Jake DeBrusk on the first day of free agency so I was watching Jake DeBrusk videos the night before free agency day. I thought that would be a good fit. That seemed to be the chatter that was out there.

When they traded Ceci I thought they for sure are matching at least one of Holloway or Broberg. I thought that was a lock to happen.

 

[AM]

two games in a row that the fourth line has been getting the job done.

This is what teams that want to win look like.

And keep in mind, players that want to be on a championship team need to make sure their salary matches the available funds.

We don’t need guys who want to get paid double.

And yes it funny as all hell there are people who want guys who don’t want to play here instead of whoever is available at the deadline.

Maybe we trade for Holloway, you know if they retain.

 

[bucks_oil]

Stop making excuses and putting this on a young emerging player who signed for a million more. This is % on Bowman and Jackson. They could easily have matched Holloway and easily worked around the cap. Absolutely nothing to do with Holloway. 0.

Arvidsson nor Skinner at this point isn't even half the talent Holloway is. Speed, size, youth and physicality. These guys in management get paid millions to make these calls. In real life these guys would be fired on the spot.

After they screwed up on Arvidsson and Skinner during free agent Frenzy,... that's what it was Frenzy on a team without a GM and who'd had a lame-duck (on the way out) GM for the months leading up to free agency and the 7 planning days after the SCF finished.

Once those errors were made, they had NO CHANCE to match Holloway. He signed for $900K to $1.6M more than any of the guys he would be replacing on our roster....

... and we started the season with only $785K in cap space.

So please tell us all how they could "easily worked around the cap"?

Being proactive and signing him before free agency at $1.5 or so was probably an option (I don't think anywhere it said he would accept 1.1, only that's what we were planning to offer).

But once the mistakes on July 1st were made, there was no going back, unless:
1) we traded BOTH Kulak and Ceci, in which case we could fit in ONE of Holloway or Broberg, options being:

1A: Keep Holloway instead of Kulak + have 3 defenders making ~$1M play every night (so Stecher + Brown + one other guy since Emberson isn't here), or​

1B: Bet on Broberg instead of Kulak + have Stecher and J Brown as your bottom pair, or​

2) we used up Kane's LTIR, but then we'd have zero cap for the deadline AND would have to move big money at the deadline to fit Kane in when he returns.

In both cases we were taking on big risks on our back end, essentially losing Kulak + deadline addition for Broberg or Holloway vs status quo.

It was a mistake to march them to offer sheet status and blow our bundle on July 1st. Once that happened, they actually made the most rational decision available.

 

[McFlash97]

1
1

My personal thought was they were going to sign Jake DeBrusk on the first day of free agency so I was watching Jake DeBrusk videos the night before free agency day. I thought that would be a good fit. That seemed to be the chatter that was out there.

When they traded Ceci I thought they for sure are matching at least one of Holloway or Broberg. I thought that was a lock to happen.

Was elated to know Holloway was getting matched. A key cog in retaining that youthful exhuberance and experience.

Darryl Katz is too soft on these guys. He should be more involved with questioning stupid decisions.