Speculation: 2018 Off-Season: We fell short again... now what do we do?

[JoVel]

McDonagh and Foote for Larsson? What else are we adding? Either that we wait til he's a UFA. I think at some point his desire to come here was genuine

I assume there's a typo here.

 

[Fabiobest]

Btw, I hope to resign Kucherov this summer without waiting the next year...

 

[These Are The Days]

I assume there's a typo here.

Auto correct strikes again

 

[dbieon12]

Team won't make it to the Finals in the next 2 seasons.

Keep:
Stamkos
Kucherov
Vasilevskiy
Hedman
Stralman
Sergachev

Decide to keep:
Anyone else

 

[Stammertime91]

Team won't make it to the Finals in the next 2 seasons.

Keep:
Stamkos
Kucherov
Vasilevskiy
Hedman
Stralman
Sergachev

Decide to keep:
Anyone else

I hope that your sarcasm is really high that I'm being low level at the moment and unable to recognize it.

You also misspelled Brayden Point. His last name is Point, not Stamkos.

 

[Rschmitz]

Only two of our defensemen have team control through next year, Heddy and Sergachev.

McD and Stralman are huge wild cards.

If we bring back McD, you have to think they'd take a serious look at Sergachev on the right side.

If we bring back Stralman, you have to think they'd want him to take a reduced rate as they slowly diminish his role over the length of his contract.

You also have to take serious the chance that Karlsson might be available and plan accordingly, it would be stupid not to prepare to possibly offer him a contract with so many free agent defensemen but it's also important to have contingency plans.

 

[T REX]

We entered this season with a goal of just making the playoffs.

I expected SCF or bust. Cooper needed to get to the finals or the season was a failure. It was. Injury free and another 3-2 leads in the ECF. Cooper is on life support.

 

[These Are The Days]

To pose a question that is as much of a hypothetical as it is a dream, would you take Subban at $9 million AAV or Karlsson at $10.5 million AAV? It would be extraordinate to acquire either man either way

 

[DFC]

To pose a question as hypothetical as it is a dream, would you take Subban at $9 million AAV or Karlsson at $10.5 million AAV? It would be extraordinate to acquire either man either way

Subban at the lower price and (assuming) fewer years.

 

[Sky04]

Guna love when this team under Cooper comes out flat with effort problems in the regular season next year because "only the playoffs will motivate them".

 

[Todd1a]

Guna love when this team under Cooper comes out flat with effort problems in the regular season next year because "only the playoffs will motivate them".

Jon cooper is Dan Bylsma 2.0

 

[These Are The Days]

Subban at the lower price and (assuming) fewer years.

Without checking I think Subban has between 3 and 5 years left. I'm probably in the minority but I would take Karlsson despite the salary. Call me suspicious or simply annoyed at our player habits but outside the obvious dominance of Karlsson I feel like Subban would come along and we'd see Stamkos try all new things that he's not good at as a consequence. He is already bad enough at that cross ice pass to Kucherov that he fails at half the time. Now just imagine Subban pinching in and Stamkos hesitates and then proceeds to put the puck into Subban's skates on a bad pass. Not that this can't happen with Karlsson but I digress because this is based on that I think Stamkos is too buddy buddy with Kucherov and worry that Subban could make it worse.

 

[Stammertime91]

Erik Karlsson. Hands down.

 

[Todd1a]

To pose a question that is as much of a hypothetical as it is a dream, would you take Subban at $9 million AAV or Karlsson at $10.5 million AAV? It would be extraordinate to acquire either man either way

I’d take subban he only has 4 years term left and is 29 years old. Karlsson has lost a step since that injury he had last year.

 

[DFC]

Without checking I think Subban has between 3 and 5 years left. I'm probably in the minority but I would take Karlsson despite the salary. Call me suspicious or simply annoyed at our player habits but outside the obvious dominance of Karlsson I feel like Subban would come along and we'd see Stamkos try all new things that he's not good at as a consequence. He is already bad enough at that cross ice pass to Kucherov that he fails at half the time. Now just imagine Subban pinching in and Stamkos hesitates and then proceeds to put the puck into Subban's skates on a bad pass. Not that this can't happen with Karlsson but I digress because this is based on that I think Stamkos is too buddy buddy with Kucherov and worry that Subban could make it worse.

Yeah, but the Karlsson contract is going to take him deep into his career, he's starting to pile up a bit of an injury history, and come off what wasn't exactly his best season that had some Sens fans on the main board wondering if he'll be back to his old self next year.

I just feel like Subban's contract would be less likely to bite us, whereas we'd still be getting a top 5/10 defenseman in the game, on the right side.

 

[Fabiobest]

To pose a question that is as much of a hypothetical as it is a dream, would you take Subban at $9 million AAV or Karlsson at $10.5 million AAV? It would be extraordinate to acquire either man either way

No, I won't acquire neither PK nor Karlsson.
I mean: they're very talented players and, in particular Karlsson, is not only a D-man. He is able to do very well everything on the ice.
But, first of all, we've to think to our guys with their contracts.
Kucherov, Point, Gourde, McDonagh, Miller and Erne.
If we will resign our top players and, after that, we'll have enough space in the salary cap, yes, I'll want to acquire one of these 2 great D-men.
But not now.

 

[Rschmitz]

Karlsson's puck possession stats on this team. I have a feeling the NHL would nix the deal for competitive balance

 

[HoseEmDown]

Cal Foote, Erik Cernak and acquire Adam Fox we'll be set on the right side for 10 years.

 

[ccman68]

What we really need to do is get Namestnikov back. Stamkos and Kucherov can't get past the red line without him.

 

[Hoek]

I'd gladly take either but Karlsson is just a better player hands down, gotta take him.

 

[These Are The Days]

Then to expound on the idea and review what we know. To trade for either man will require the loss of some salaries. We know we don't HAVE TO trade for a Subban or Karlsson. But we need to make changes to our defense. All you have to do is watch the Capitals/Lightning series again and you will see that one team had only 3 forwards attempting to generate offense while the defense stood still and the other team had 3, 4 and 5 players attempting offense depending on when Orlov/Carlson were on the ice. We are small and speedy at forward and a defensive corps that is experienced but does not do well handling the puck shooting it. We're good at one style of game and if we add even one more player on defense who can handle the puck in open space and shoot it we'll be better for it. Eventually Sergachev will be the catalyst we need who gets pucks through traffic but he's 19 and we don't have a time machine where we can speed up his development to him playing 20+ minutes a game. But I argue we don't have all that much time to wait. The championship window is open but for now it slammed on our fingers again and we're licking our boo boos. The only thing that opens the championship window back back up again will be another 6 months of our guys bored to tears of regular season hockey and then playing well in the playoffs.

I think to an extent we are already up against the clock to move some contracts at forward before July 1st because we have NTC's kicking in. Miller seems odd man out as well this point despite that he's an RFA.

These are the guys who I think have to go ASAP

Kunitz (UFA let him walk)
Miller (RFA trade)
Johnson (July 1st NTC)
Sustr (UFA let him walk)
Coburn (M-NTC)

****We could trade McDonagh (M-NTC) if we wanted to****

Again it doesn't HAVE TO be Karlsson or Subban but considering that the Sens shopped Karlsson in the spring and we have whispers around Subban then I wonder if amongst this list of non UFA's if this is not enough ingredients to make a draft day blockbuster. Of course this is all a dream but I gotta hand it to Yzerman for trying for Karlsson last spring. It showed he was not afraid of going for the big fish.

Of course the path of least resistence would be to sign another defenseman come July 1st but I don't want to extend Miller and an NTC for Johnson scares me to death. Killorn I can deal with. He is what he is and has been for years. Johnson is a yo-yo and I worry that the string is gonna snap off the toy sooner than later.

Your thoughts?

Also how the hell are we gonna get bigger up front? Who is our tallest forward anyway, a 6 footer? We need to get better at screening the goaltender and taking what the defense gives us in series like we had with the Caps

 

[Todd1a]

NHL Rumors: Lightning, Kucherov and Miller ... Rangers and Islanders

 

[BoltSTH]

Time of year to fleece the Habs. Killorn (grew up there) and Paquette (born there). I am sure SFY can convince the Habs that they had great chemistry with Drouin.

 

[DFC]

Then to expound on the idea and review what we know. To trade for either man will require the loss of some salaries. We know we don't HAVE TO trade for a Subban or Karlsson. But we need to make changes to our defense. All you have to do is watch the Capitals/Lightning series again and you will see that one team had only 3 forwards attempting to generate offense while the defense stood still and the other team had 3, 4 and 5 players attempting offense depending on when Orlov/Carlson were on the ice. We are small and speedy at forward and a defensive corps that is experienced but does not do well handling the puck shooting it. We're good at one style of game and if we add even one more player on defense who can handle the puck in open space and shoot it we'll be better for it. Eventually Sergachev will be the catalyst we need who gets pucks through traffic but he's 19 and we don't have a time machine where we can speed up his development to him playing 20+ minutes a game. But I argue we don't have all that much time to wait. The championship window is open but for now it slammed on our fingers again and we're licking our boo boos. The only thing that opens the championship window back back up again will be another 6 months of our guys bored to tears of regular season hockey and then playing well in the playoffs.

I think to an extent we are already up against the clock to move some contracts at forward before July 1st because we have NTC's kicking in. Miller seems odd man out as well this point despite that he's an RFA.

These are the guys who I think have to go ASAP

Kunitz (UFA let him walk)
Miller (RFA trade)
Johnson (July 1st NTC)
Sustr (UFA let him walk)
Coburn (M-NTC)

****We could trade McDonagh (M-NTC) if we wanted to****

Again it doesn't HAVE TO be Karlsson or Subban but considering that the Sens shopped Karlsson in the spring and we have whispers around Subban then I wonder if amongst this list of non UFA's if this is not enough ingredients to make a draft day blockbuster. Of course this is all a dream but I gotta hand it to Yzerman for trying for Karlsson last spring. It showed he was not afraid of going for the big fish.

Of course the path of least resistence would be to sign another defenseman come July 1st but I don't want to extend Miller and an NTC for Johnson scares me to death. Killorn I can deal with. He is what he is and has been for years. Johnson is a yo-yo and I worry that the string is gonna snap off the toy sooner than later.

Your thoughts?

Also how the hell are we gonna get bigger up front? Who is our tallest forward anyway, a 6 footer? We need to get better at screening the goaltender and taking what the defense gives us in series like we had with the Caps

I don't think we're going to make any sort of huge splash with a Karlsson or Subban deal. It turned out most of the Karlsson rumors were based on nothing.

We'll see how McDonagh looks with a full season as a 2nd pair guy, after a full training camp with the team. If we add another D, I would expect it to come in a TJ trade, but I could be wrong.

As for size up front, I really don't think we're going to actively look to get huge, but both Alex Volkov and Matthieu Josheph (who still needs to fill out, if his listed weight is correct) will hopefully make a case for themselves in October. Maybe Adam Erne. Maybe Mitchell Stephens. I feel like the size we add will mainly come from our prospect pool though, and maybe some kind of depth UFA signing to replace Kunitz.

The core of the team is what it is. Any steps forward we take are probably going to be dependent on Point continuing to improve, Kuch and Hedman remembering how to be playoff beasts, and, dare I say it, Stamkos figuring out how to step up when it matters. The core is the core, and I doubt it gets shaken up or added to.

ADD: But here's an interesting one: What if we went fishing for Valerie Nichushkin? We were rumored to be pretty high on him in his draft year, and he's scheduled to return to the NHL this coming season.

 

[DFC]

Time of year to fleece the Habs. Killorn (grew up there) and Paquette (born there). I am sure SFY can convince the Habs that they had great chemistry with Drouin.

Yzerman's biggest jedi mind trick ever would be convincing Killorn to effectively take a paycut to go anywhere else. Maybe the Panthers?

I just don't see it happening. I'm guessing Killorn's NTC is somewhat limited, but it might be hard to find a team that's also in a tax-free state, winning, and willing to take on his contract.