2018 off-season thread

[MacDonald4MVP]

Let's dive in. We have a lot of capspace and there are some intriguing moves to be made.

I wonder who will be next talent to follow Umberger, Lehtera, Weise and Filpps on their way to Philly.

Click to read more...

 

[Alex K]

Bozak, Vermette, Kunitz are UFA's

 

[Jtown]

Bozak, Vermette, Kunitz are UFA's

i would love to sign Kunitz. and then have morin punch his Fing face in everyday at practice.

 

[Starat327]

Bozak, Vermette, Kunitz are UFA's

I'd probably be ok with Bozak on a short deal if Frost doesnt make the team. Guy has some decent offensive numbers for playing with relatively garbage linemates for a good portion of his Toronto tenure. Depth scoring would help this team tremendously. Good on faceoffs, too. Problem is someone will likely offer more term and or money (Vancouver?)

 

[Prongo]

Slava voynov wants to come back to the NHL. I know I know. Not going to debate the crap he did. There were rumors a while ago when that all took place we were close to acquiring his rights.

Honestly I really wouldn’t be surprised if they are mentioned again.

 

[David St Hubbins]

I'd throw a bundle at Thornton for a 1 year deal and put Frost on his wing. Trade Simmonds (if you can get anything good for him after this shit show of a season) and roll with:
G-Coots-TK
Lindy-Patrick-Jake
Frost-Thonrton-Weal/Simmonds
Laughten- Vorobyov-NAK

Prov-Ghost
Sanheim-Gudas
Morin/AMac/Hagg

Myers as first call up

 

[Prongo]

Why do a lot of people want jumbo Joe. We are getting crushed by a team skating circles around us and we want to get slower?

Speed. Speed speed. Prioritize that in the off season

 

[Starat327]

Why do a lot of people want jumbo Joe. We are getting crushed by a team skating circles around us and we want to get slower?

Speed. Speed speed. Prioritize that in the off season

The beard.

 

[David St Hubbins]

Joe would give us a year to bring along Frost, who moves faster than crap through a goose. Putting another speedy winger with him still makes us a much faster team, and allows Laughten to move to the wing where his speed and wrist shot become much more effective.

But most of all, it's because we aint winning shit next year because we are still bringing the defense together, our young forwards are just coming to the show, and our coach is a f***ing moron.

 

[Magua]

Playing fast is not the same as skating fast.

It's reductive to boil "speed" down to a physical thing. We have too many players who don't think OR skate fast.

Playing fast is just as much about what the 5-man unit does, not the individual.

 

[tucson83]

this team needs leadership on defense, they are so out of sync, they dont know what to do, im not excusing the coaching heck no, i want hak gone because he's killing the rest of players confidence but when it comes to the team itself hextall has to go out and get more leaders on this team and not scrub no name players especially on defense.

 

[requiredusername]

I am expecting Hextall to blow up the team. Actually, I hope it happens so we don't have to go through another year of this BS rebuilding on the fly.

I would love to see Lehtera bought out and Weise buried in the minors. How we kept icing Flip/Lehtera/Weise as a $12 million fourth line and no penalty kill boggled my mind this season.

Read was buried for most of the year and looked good on the PK when he came up. We can't find a better fourth line of PK guys?

We need to clean out the bottom of the roster and just call guys up to play hockey.

We need more leadership on offense as well. Amac and Flip getting A's spoke volumes about the room to me. A guy who used his NTC to block a trade to Toronto because he did not want to be rushed into a decision instead taking a trade to a non-playoff team gets an A? WTF?

On defense, guys have to learn their roles and play more physical. The up and down stuff is nice but our defense needs to learn to play defense. They need to clear the front of the net and kill penalties. Basic stuff. What Tucson said, leadership on defense.

We are pretty much stuck in goal until Hart is ready.

I don't expect any free agents until Hextall locks up Provy, Hagg, Sanheim, TK, and Patrick.

Hextall is too wedded to his plan.

 

[Starat327]

I am expecting Hextall to blow up the team. Actually, I hope it happens so we don't have to go through another year of this BS rebuilding on the fly.

I would love to see Lehtera bought out and Weise buried in the minors. How we kept icing Flip/Lehtera/Weise as a $12 million fourth line and no penalty kill boggled my mind this season.

Read was buried for most of the year and looked good on the PK when he came up. We can't find a better fourth line of PK guys?

We need to clean out the bottom of the roster and just call guys up to play hockey.

We need more leadership on offense as well. Amac and Flip getting A's spoke volumes about the room to me. A guy who used his NTC to block a trade to Toronto because he did not want to be rushed into a decision instead taking a trade to a non-playoff team gets an A? WTF?

On defense, guys have to learn their roles and play more physical. The up and down stuff is nice but our defense needs to learn to play defense. They need to clear the front of the net and kill penalties. Basic stuff. What Tucson said, leadership on defense.

We are pretty much stuck in goal until Hart is ready.

I don't expect any free agents until Hextall locks up Provy, Hagg, Sanheim, TK, and Patrick.

Hextall is too wedded to his plan.

I fail to see how this is relevant to his character at all. He didn't want to go to Toronto. If your work called and said "Hey, we're moving your position to Mexico, have fun", would you just go?

 

[requiredusername]

I fail to see how this is relevant to his character at all. He didn't want to go to Toronto. If your work called and said "Hey, we're moving your position to Mexico, have fun", would you just go?

He signed a contract and had an opportunity to go center the third line last year on a team with Auston Matthews. Apparently, that was not attractive for him?

It is not a situation like being asked to moving to Mexico. He was asked to go to one of the up and coming teams in the NHL and said no. He chose to come to a team in the middle of rebuilding who missed the playoffs.

 

[Starat327]

He signed a contract and had an opportunity to go center the third line last year on a team with Auston Matthews. Apparently, that was not attractive for him?

It is not a situation like being asked to moving to Mexico. He was asked to go to one of the up and coming teams in the NHL and said no. He chose to come to a team in the middle of rebuilding who missed the playoffs.

And? The point is he was asked to go somewhere he didnt want to go, and refused. He earned that right by negotiating a NTC. That doesnt mean he has poor character. It just means he doesn't like Toronto, or Babcock, more presumably.

You realize that this is his job right, and wanting to do a job in a city of our choosing is a right that we all have?

 

[Tripod]

Playing fast is not the same as skating fast.

It's reductive to boil "speed" down to a physical thing. We have too many players who don't think OR skate fast.

Playing fast is just as much about what the 5-man unit does, not the individual.

Just as an example, but look at how quickly Pitt passes the puck on PP's compared to us.

 

[Rebels57]

He signed a contract and had an opportunity to go center the third line last year on a team with Auston Matthews. Apparently, that was not attractive for him?

It is not a situation like being asked to moving to Mexico. He was asked to go to one of the up and coming teams in the NHL and said no. He chose to come to a team in the middle of rebuilding who missed the playoffs.

With that tan of his, he probably didnt want to deal with Canadian weather lol

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

I hate Filppula but criticizing him for using his NTC on Toronto is dumb.

 

[Striiker]

Some really bizzare complaints in here.

I’ve also never understood why pros get shamed for taking advantage of a part of their contract. They didn’t fight for that in their contract for show. They’d be stupid not to use it.

As for the leadership stuff... this is about as weak of a complaint as you can make. You have no idea what’s going on in the locker room or what each player does/says.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

I'm not sure what I want the lineup to look like, but I things I DO know I want:

Remove for sure: Filp, Read, Manning, Lehtera (despite cap hit), Neuvirth
Remove depending on deal: McDonald (needs retention), Gudas (purely for making space purposes), Simmonds.
Target in FA: Bozak, Grabner, Kunitz.

Trade is trickier, so I'm gonna leave that one open.

 

[requiredusername]

You forgot about Weise.

Amac is going nowhere.

Gudas is fine. They need to find him a partner. They tried Sanheim and teams just overloaded on Sanheim. Hagg was like oil and water because Hagg has a bad habit of chasing the puck out of his space.

Don't expect a big free agent. Guys from the AHL will fill the gaps which will freak everyone out here.

Flip chose to go to a worse team. Toronto is better than us and Flip had success under Babcock playing with Zetterberg. When he went to Tampa, his game fell apart.

So the defense of Flip becomes even more bizarre.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

You forgot about Weise.

Amac is going nowhere.

Gudas is fine. They need to find him a partner. They tried Sanheim and teams just overloaded on Sanheim. Hagg was like oil and water because Hagg has a bad habit of chasing the puck out of his space.

Don't expect a big free agent. Guys from the AHL will fill the gaps which will freak everyone out here.

Flip chose to go to a worse team. Toronto is better than us and Flip had success under Babcock playing with Zetterberg. When he went to Tampa, his game fell apart.

So the defense of Flip becomes even more bizarre.

I didn't forget Weise --- just didn't have a solution for him yet. I don't want to dump him due to cap -- I would trade him with cap retained, but that's about. Time will have to help heal that I think. Can send him to the AHL as well.

Gudas is terrific in my eyes. However, depending on moves, Gudas is a logical choice to move with Morin needing a spot IF the org feels he can fill those shoes (which I pray they do - otherwise he's done probably as a highly-touted pick).

I expect a significant free agent. We have the money and the holes. We filled gaps with AHL talent all year -- don't pretend that we had a team consisting only of geezers. Good vets have a huge part to play in success.

 

[deadhead]

My moves:

1) move Simmonds, one year left, not part of the rebuild and not a bridge player, hopefully get a late 1st, maybe a 4th to boot
2) listen to offers for Voracek, I'd like to get a fast young sniper to go with Patrick and a couple draft picks, I'd retain salary, but if people low ball I'll keep him
3) move out Read, Filppula, Manning, explore a buyout for Lehtera, bury Weise in the AHL, trade MacDonald for money retained, see if you can trade Weal for a late round pick
4) bottom six, Laughton at LW, NAK, Raffl, look at Bardreau, MV and Knight in camp, and give Frost and Vorobyev a shot, and if Ratcliffe plays well in the AHL playoffs, give him a long look. Buy a stopgap veteran and trade for a young fast center/LW who can PK
5) defense, Provorov, Ghost, Sanheim, Gudas, Morin, Hagg, MacDonald if you can't move him, Myers to start in the AHL unless he has a great playoff

If you move Simmonds, you have 3 #1 picks, so do some dealing, up and down, and come out of it with that fast young forward
If you move Voracek, it would only be for a solid sniper to play with Patrick or a top 4 RHD which would allow you to deal another D-man for that sniper.
Otherwise I'd avoid big money FAs, and trading a 1st rd pick for a player unless he's 22-24 and top six potential.
The team is still 2 years away so you don't put all your chips on the table this summer.

 

[MarAlain MongYeo]

How about Rick Nash if he doesn't stay in Boston? Not slow, good PKer and since he isn't lighting it up in the playoffs on the score sheet it may lessen his cap value

 

[BillDineen]

Fire: Hak, Lappy

Walk: Filppula, Manning

Buyout: Lehtera, Weise.

If Simmonds is traded for a prospect + pick, hopefully it someone who can step in and is a good even strength player.

Any UFA has to be short term (unless Tavares ).

Grabner helps the PK and makes us faster. 4th line of Grabner-Laughton-Raffl/NAK intrigues me. Rick Nash for a year or two would help the PK as well.

3C: Short term if possible Derek Ryan, Riley Nash or Bozak.

Older, still productive skilled forward on a 1yr deal is fine by me if no one else signed around July 1 and not blocking a prospect.

Goaltending? Not easy. Key here is not blocking Hart (see Bryzaster/Bod trade).

D wise. RHD as long as Myers isn't blocked. Morin has to play. Probably need a vet for depth/injuries that a new coach won't overvalue and overplay unlike our Beet Farmer.

... and to go full Holmgren, buying out AMac, Lehtera and Weise and signing Tavares as high as 12m and Carlson as high as 8m is cap compliant.