I said this in Smith's thread, but I think it's not completely "ball in their court" -- I think Grier will also push a sales job on them depending on an offseason UFA/trade plan and a coaching plan. Either way, we'll know quickly after the draft and before FA. Celebrini will sign right away, or if we get to Jul 1 and he hasn't signed then they're probably both going back and we're gonna likely have an ugly year.
With or without Celebrini and/or Smith, the team needs to revamp the blue line with emphasis on puck management. Guys like Thrun and Emberson are okay with it as depth defensemen and can probably be more reliable with more experience but everyone else is not NHL caliber at it and should be replaced. Granted, replacing four or five of your group of defensemen is a tall task in one offseason but this is the offseason to try and pull it off while you're transitioning to a new core.
Thank you. Still insane people are talking about it like it's much of a choice. It's not like these guys are earning Caitlin Clark NIL money. Unless there is a compelling reason, it would be foolish to take an injury risk with another year in NCAA before even signing your first NHL ELC. And all the more reason to get your ELC over with that much sooner, to get you closer to your second contract that much sooner, etc. Both these guys could come into the league and put up Eichel-like numbers, and then earn themselves an Eichel-like second contract (8 years, $80M total). It would be very much LOLSHARKSLOL for both of them to go back to the NCAA, only to both suffer career-destroying injuries.
Again, Smith will get the same money whether he signs right now or next April. And Smith and/or Celebrini are much more likely to get injured in the NHL than in the NCAA.
Yakemchuk is probably ideal. Buium is probably a bit out of our range to trade up to and not really worth the cost to do so. Something like 80% of trade ups are bad in retrospect
The downside is that you severely hamstring the coaching candidate pool by having to coach a team that has nothing and then rely on rookies to save your job in Year 2 when your predecessor got canned after 2 years of bad rosters. Celebrini is the biggest chip we have as it relates to getting a quality coach. Who wants to come coach a bunch of lame duck players rather than start building your core around player and coach?
Are you sure it’s the same money? I know he will burn a year of his elc either way but I would expect his salary for the 1st year would be pro rated for the time he is actually on the team. So, if I’m right, it is still costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars to go back to school.
It would be prorated based on days on the roster compared to the length of the season as defined in the CBA.
Lean into San Jose's Asian influence and call them the Typhoons
I mean, Caitlin Clark is an outlier, but how is anyone certain that the powerhouse school with the 1OA and the wealthy school with their famous 1C, both in a college hockey crazy region, both national championship contenders, can't funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to them through NIL? I'd be shocked if they're not making close to 100k at least.
