Management UPDATE: Steve Staios GM and POHO, Dave Poulin Senior VP of Hockey Operations
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Puikiou
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- Oct 15, 2013
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Staios HAS to be aggressive on absolutely every front this summer if upper management expects the team to take the next step. That's trades, free agency and the draft.
After back-to-back Stanley Cup final appearances, Florida still managed to have a whole spare line of legitimate NHLers Maurice could turn to in order to change the look of the team when things went south (Boqvist-Samoskovich-Sturm vs Greer-Nosek-Gadjovic). Nevermind a blue line that features Forsling-Ekbladn Mikkola-Jones and Kulikov-Schmidt. That's astounding depth and a likely template of what we'll have to build up to.
If I were in Staios' shoes this summer:
1) Nick Jensen + FLA 2025 3rd to CAR for Dallas' 2025 1st (28 overall or later)
- With Burns and Orlov poised to walk in FA and a weak RhD side to begin with, Jensen fills a huge void in Raleigh as a partner to Slavin or a mentor to Nikishin. Scouts and league execs witnessed how his presence stabilized Chabot's game this year.
- Ottawa clears a roster spot, a bit of cap space and recoups some value from the unfortunate Chychrun trade. This move also allows the organization to give up the 21st pick this year and start with a clean slate in a better draft next year.
2) David Perron to STL for future considerations
- Perron goes home.
- Ottawa clears more cap space.
3) Let Claude Giroux, Anton Forsberg, Travis Hamonic and Adam Gaudette walk
- No spot on the team for a 37 yo that's slower than some beer leaguers. At this stage, Giroux's not good enough for the top 6 on a legit cup contender, nor effective enough for the bottom 6 on such a team. His game is only set to keep declining as father time progresses and as such, his tenure in the nation's capital should be over. Thank you for everything and good luck in Montreal.
- Forsberg and Hamonic are self-explanatory.
- Gaudette would be fantastic depth to keep, but he likely priced himself out with the season he just had.
4) Sign Aaron Ekblad for 8.2M x 7 years (a shade under Brady's deal). Brock Boeser for 7M x 7 years.
- Ekblad gets a deal that's above market price, which is probably what it will take to get him to the nation's capital.
- Boeser receives plenty of long-term security in exchange for a pay raise that still keeps him in a fair market value range.
- Both players have a significant injury history. The thought process is that those issues are behind them, as they drastically improve the team when healthy and at their peak.
5) Sign Mason Appleton and Nick Perbix to matching 2.5M x 4 years contracts
- Zeroing in on the two best "under the radar/undervalued" players available in FA.
Again, both Appleton and Perbix get plenty of security with their deals, which offsets the need to drastically overpay and keeps their price tags at fair value.
6) Re-sign Zetterlund (3.25M x 4 years). Then, extend Kleven (1.25M x 1 year) and Merilainen + Jenik to matching one year deals (950K x 1 year).
Yakemchuk and Halliday to the AHL for 1 more year.
Total team cap hit: 94.475M / NHL salary cap: 95.5M
*Waive Zack MacEwan in training camp and run with a 21 players roster to accommodate Joonas Korpisalo's retention and Colin White's buyout penalty (1.875M total).
After back-to-back Stanley Cup final appearances, Florida still managed to have a whole spare line of legitimate NHLers Maurice could turn to in order to change the look of the team when things went south (Boqvist-Samoskovich-Sturm vs Greer-Nosek-Gadjovic). Nevermind a blue line that features Forsling-Ekbladn Mikkola-Jones and Kulikov-Schmidt. That's astounding depth and a likely template of what we'll have to build up to.
If I were in Staios' shoes this summer:
1) Nick Jensen + FLA 2025 3rd to CAR for Dallas' 2025 1st (28 overall or later)
- With Burns and Orlov poised to walk in FA and a weak RhD side to begin with, Jensen fills a huge void in Raleigh as a partner to Slavin or a mentor to Nikishin. Scouts and league execs witnessed how his presence stabilized Chabot's game this year.
- Ottawa clears a roster spot, a bit of cap space and recoups some value from the unfortunate Chychrun trade. This move also allows the organization to give up the 21st pick this year and start with a clean slate in a better draft next year.
2) David Perron to STL for future considerations
- Perron goes home.
- Ottawa clears more cap space.
3) Let Claude Giroux, Anton Forsberg, Travis Hamonic and Adam Gaudette walk
- No spot on the team for a 37 yo that's slower than some beer leaguers. At this stage, Giroux's not good enough for the top 6 on a legit cup contender, nor effective enough for the bottom 6 on such a team. His game is only set to keep declining as father time progresses and as such, his tenure in the nation's capital should be over. Thank you for everything and good luck in Montreal.
- Forsberg and Hamonic are self-explanatory.
- Gaudette would be fantastic depth to keep, but he likely priced himself out with the season he just had.
4) Sign Aaron Ekblad for 8.2M x 7 years (a shade under Brady's deal). Brock Boeser for 7M x 7 years.
- Ekblad gets a deal that's above market price, which is probably what it will take to get him to the nation's capital.
- Boeser receives plenty of long-term security in exchange for a pay raise that still keeps him in a fair market value range.
- Both players have a significant injury history. The thought process is that those issues are behind them, as they drastically improve the team when healthy and at their peak.
5) Sign Mason Appleton and Nick Perbix to matching 2.5M x 4 years contracts
- Zeroing in on the two best "under the radar/undervalued" players available in FA.
Again, both Appleton and Perbix get plenty of security with their deals, which offsets the need to drastically overpay and keeps their price tags at fair value.
6) Re-sign Zetterlund (3.25M x 4 years). Then, extend Kleven (1.25M x 1 year) and Merilainen + Jenik to matching one year deals (950K x 1 year).
2025-2026
Tkachuk (8.2M) - Stützle (8.35M) - Boeser (7M)
Zetterlund (3.25M) - Cozens (7.1M) - Batherson (4.95M)
Greig (3.25M) - Pinto (3.75M) - Amadio (2.6M)
Reinhardt (800K) - Jenik (925K) - Appleton (2.5M)
MacEwen (775K)
Total: 52.675M
Sanderson (8.05M) - Ekblad (8.2M)
Chabot (8M) - Zub (4.6M)
Kleven (1.25M) - Perbix (2.5M)
Matinpalo (875K)
Total: 32.6M
Ullmark (8.25M)
Merilainen (925K)
Total: 9.2M
Tkachuk (8.2M) - Stützle (8.35M) - Boeser (7M)
Zetterlund (3.25M) - Cozens (7.1M) - Batherson (4.95M)
Greig (3.25M) - Pinto (3.75M) - Amadio (2.6M)
Reinhardt (800K) - Jenik (925K) - Appleton (2.5M)
MacEwen (775K)
Total: 52.675M
Sanderson (8.05M) - Ekblad (8.2M)
Chabot (8M) - Zub (4.6M)
Kleven (1.25M) - Perbix (2.5M)
Matinpalo (875K)
Total: 32.6M
Ullmark (8.25M)
Merilainen (925K)
Total: 9.2M
Yakemchuk and Halliday to the AHL for 1 more year.
Total team cap hit: 94.475M / NHL salary cap: 95.5M
*Waive Zack MacEwan in training camp and run with a 21 players roster to accommodate Joonas Korpisalo's retention and Colin White's buyout penalty (1.875M total).
Masked
(Super/star)
Try $10.5M+ x 7 years for Ekblad. Boeser is also likely too low but that's harder to determine.
Puikiou
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Masked
(Super/star)
That's going to be the going rate for a #1 RHD with a Cup on his resume.. It's comparable to what Pietrangelo signed for with Vegas.
Ekblad being the best RD available on the market + capflation means whomever signs him will have to overpay unless he decides he wants to take a 'discount'. Dude can set himself up for wealth for the rest of his life with this next deal and I doubt $8 million gets it done.
Puikiou
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No team is signing Aaron Ekblad for 10.5M until he's 37 years old. None.
Among other issues:
1) He hasn't played a full season in 6 years.
2) He scored a grand total of 7 goals over the last 2 seasons (107 games played) before miraculously finding his scoring touch again on the eve of a payday in the playoffs.
3) Multiple concussion issues.
4) Suspensions due to undisciplined play and most recently, illegal use of performance enhancing substances.
5) Questionable foot speed.
5) Generally good defensively, but far from elite and prone to mistakes.
6) CapWages has him signing for 7.8M x 8 years.
Etc. Etc.
He's a #2-#3 defenseman that needs a strong partner (like Forsling) and an overall strong insulation (Montour, Mikkola, Jones, etc.) to shine. At 10.5M, he instantly becomes one of the worst contracts in the league, as he's: a) expected to be available to play most of the time, 2) expected to be the best defenseman/player on a team (which he has never been) and lead a defensive core (which he has never done).
Only desperate bottom feeders with loads of cap space like SJ or CHI would throw 9M at him... But even then. Jones forced his way out of Chicago because he wanted to win and Florida gladly took him on because they were not confident Ekblad could be "the guy" and therefore were not interested in overpaying him.
10M+ is simply not happening.
Florida acquired Jones, not solely ebcause they don't believe in Ekblad. They knew they'd be missing Ekblad and Mtkachuk so they made a trade, like Zito has for the last several deadlines to aggressively bolster their team. Jones can be an insurance package in case Ekblad left, but Ekblad was still 2nd for defender ice time, scored at a better rate than Jones, led Panther's D in scoring and isn't a 2nd pairing defender that needs to be insulated. Until 2022, he was quite literally their best defenseman and carried his own pairing until injuries started to take a toll. This past season, by every metric, he's been a top pairing guy.
I'm sure several people thought it'd be impossible for Nurse or Jones to get $9 million when their play had nothing to do with such a high salary. It still happened, though, because short-sighted GMs can have a hand in player salaries drastically increasing.
Consider who the alternative RDs are, the rising cap, and how elements like Ekblad's ring and reputation for playing on the edge, etc. and it wouldn't be surprising to me if he got more than $9million. I don't think its guaranteed that he gets $10 million (and think it would be an awful deal if he got signed to that), but I wouldn't be surprised if his next deal approaches it, especially from a team that is desperate to get better or just has a GM that isn't thinking long term.
I agree.
Brady Skjei got 7 million for 7 years last summer, and that was while being a LD and before the rising cap.
Think of a team like Toronto - they’ve got 3 years left before Matthews is a UFA and are in desperation to win now, with plenty of cap to spare. They’ll throw money at Ekblad knowing it doesn’t matter what they’re paying him when he’s 35-36, especially if Matthews is gone.
Masked
(Super/star)
You can just look at Chychrun getting $9M/year at LD. How much more would you pay to have Ekblad over him?
Golden_Jet
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- Sep 21, 2005
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Seems like AI or EA sports trades.
UFa’s are a bidding war, and end up overpriced.
But I would prefer Ekblad over Andersson, if choosing between those 2.
I thought Staois said that he tried to get UFA D but none of them wanted to come to Ottawa. Didn't hear it had anything to do with price or term but what do I know?
People still saying we didn’t get value for Chychrun is weird. He was a 1 year rental when traded, coming off an embarrassing year.
I thought Staois said that he tried to get UFA D but none of them wanted to come to Ottawa. Didn't hear it had anything to do with price or term but what do I know?
Hopefully that last season and playoff helps the sales pitch.
All things considered, Chychrun put up a very solid season in Ottawa.
14 goals scored is right up there as one of the best seasons in Sens history for a Dman.
Only Karlsson (4x), Chara (2x), Duschene, Redden and of course Norm Maciver in 92-93, have had better seasons in terms of goals scored in a season.
All of this while never really having a consistent partner and continually being tried on the right-hand side, which just didn't work.
It was just a bad fit and I think coupled with the expectations and the cost to trade for him, just became a bit of a disaster.
Wondercarrot
By The Power of Canadian Tire Centre
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It was embarrassing to anyone who watched him play the whole year. Couple of good stretches, and absolutely lost out there a lot of the time.
You can say he was miscast but he hardly showed enough to be cast in any other way.
He was absolutely awful.
Micklebot
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He was either playing his off-side or beside JBD or Hamonic most of the season, not exactly a recipe for success.
I mean, Hamonic managed to neuter Sanderson's game with a 23% GF while together this year,
He was soft as butter defensively, which was infuriating considering what a gym rat he is, but he had a decent season offensively, considering how his minutes were handled.
Disappointing? Absolutely, but if that's embarrassing, we've got some pretty high standards for what's consider good.
He was tied for a team worst -30 along with Kubalik. Our next worst D were Hamonic -10 and JBD -7. He was absolutely abysmal.
Wondercarrot
By The Power of Canadian Tire Centre
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That’s fair on the offence side.
That defence though….it was truly embarrassing - soft and lost.
mysens
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Besides his play, the most obvious to me was his demeanor on the ice. You could pratically seeing him sulk, play unmotivated, and was simply just going through the motions to get to the end of the year. His ego did not want him to be behind Chabot and Sanderson. This personality trait is not a locker room guy you want. I mean, he did the same $hit in Arizona. I always have issues taking on players who hold out and keep their team hostage because they want to leave. The writing was on the wall with this guy from the beginning. Not a team player. Selfish.
Tuna99
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Leafs overpaid for Tanev for sure, great player but that is going to be ugly when he’s 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 years old on a full NTC.
Toronto hates their players. Sundin, Marner, Joseph, Hot dog boy - it always goes bad for good players in Toronto because it’s the worst market in the NHL
Tuna99
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