Player Discussion Will Cuylle

[GAGLine]

Shesty is a bit question mark.
If we sign guys without signing him, we could absolutely force the issue with him.

That's a risky proposition. I know a lot of people are of the belief that we can win with an average goalie, but anyone who actually watches this team should realize that isn't the case, at least not as currently constructed.

Cuylle will get a bridge deal and Shesty will likely get his 12 mil. To quote Scott Gomez, "It is what it is."

 

[bhamill]

Jumping the gun will cost us cap space as well. The only difference is when. We either pay more now in the hopes we save later or save now and potentially pay more later. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to this.

More often than not, we don't have a choice because we are too close to the cap to offer players longer-term deals. If you look at those deals that turn into bargains, most of them are signed when a team is terrible and has plenty of cap space. Teams that are perennial cup contenders don't typically have that luxury.

If we can move Trouba's full cap hit, maybe we can afford to give Cuylle a longer-term deal with a higher AAV that will one day be a bargain. Or maybe that extra cap space will go to re-signing Kakko instead, or to signing someone to replace Lindgren. More than likely, Cuylle will get a bridge deal and we'll be tight up against the cap yet again. It's just the reality of our situation.

A boy can dream.

 

[Luger]

Trouba has 1 year left after this one and the actual salary is $6M next year. Someone would take Trouba at full salary and pay for him in the summer. Potentially, we could get a good return at the TDL because someone would have Trouba for 2 playoffs at the cost of 1 year of the cap hit, but we're Cup contenders and won't be dumping players at the TDL. But next summer, he's getting shipped out. His no-trade list will be reduced from 15 to 12 teams, so 20 teams will be fair game.

 

[Deas]

So how good is his upside? 60 point 2nd-liner?

 

[Rempe73]

So how good is his upside? 60 point 2nd-liner?

I see him as more of a Jesper Fast type. Elite bottom 6 forward who can play anywhere but won’t drive a line ever. He has more offensive tools than Fast but is not as good defensively.

 

[leetch99]

Geesh...do we have to relive the Fast saga again ?

 

[ReddestRum]

Geesh...do we have to relive the Fast saga again ?

 

[Fitzy]

So how good is his upside? 60 point 2nd-liner?

Been thinking about this a little more recently as he seems to have made a little bit of an improvement with his hands and stickhandling.

The path to go from a bigger, faster, better Brendan Lemieux to an actual power forward is a long one, and the reputation is that power forwards take a while to reach their full potential. So it's hard to know and ceilings are really difficult because when you can skate and have size, it often means the sky is nearly the limit but there's a huge distribution curve in terms of 'random error'

I think his 'likely' upside is 25-20-45 on a 2nd pp unit. But with a player like that there's always the outside chance he becomes more. Wilson, Bertuzzi both took like 5 seasons to take their offense to the next level.

I don't think he ever becomes even a poor man's version of that, but there's always the outside chance.

 

[LeetchisGod]

Cuylle should be the eventual Kreider replacement on the power play. He needs to be practicing deflections.

 

[will1066]

Geesh...do we have to relive the Fast saga again ?

Cuylle should be the eventual Kreider replacement on the power play. He needs to be practicing deflections.

They're priming Kakko for that role