I don’t think next year is that big of deal necessarily. The deficit is all but caught up, so the cap will finally go up. We won’t have any upgrades, and one of Holloway/XB/Lavoie will have to step up and replace Brown, but we’ll basically be sitting there with like 4.5-5 million to extend Holloway, Broberg, and Foegele, which could be very doable
The way that I look at it is we have 10 NHL forwards signed, 7 NHL D and 2 goalies we have $7.1575 million to get Bouchard, McLeod and 1-2 forwards signed.
Let's say that Bouchard takes $4 million AAV x 2 years, that leaves us with $3.1575 million to sign:
McLeod and 1-2 forwards.
Let's say that McLeod takes $2 million AAV x 2-3 years, that leaves us with $1.1575 million to sign 1-2 forwards.
Let's say that we sign Lavoie to 2 years at $775,000, that leaves us with $382,500 left in cap space with a potential of $4,725,000 in bonus overages. $3.25 million for Brown that is very likely happening, $650K for Holloway and $850K for Broberg.
Holloway and Broberg may need raises next season and we could see more than the entirety of the cap raise gone up in smoke before July 1st for us. Only Foegele, Janmark, Brown and Desharnais will be coming off the books next offseason. In theory that is just $5.2875 million for 4 players + $850K of Smith's bonuses coming off the books for a total of $6.1375 million or $1.534 million on average for a 3rd liner, 4th liner, 2nd liner and a bottom pairing D.
So if we replace all of them with league minimum players next season (guessing $800K for a round number) that would mean that we'd have $2.8875 million in cap. Brown's bonuses alone eclipses that number. Even if we don't add any more cap and have a carry over of $382,500 in cap space from this season we are still in the hole for $363K. The only way that we are not completely screwed or squeezed is if the cap goes up to like $90 million next season.
How was the Kostin deal decent. Got to consider Yamamoto buy out on top of the 2M. Kost them 2.5M per season for a largely unproven player. (Punt intended)
Glencross was a largely unproven player at one time too. Kostin showed glimpses of being a guy that can score 20 and hit and fight. There is a premium on such players, just look at what Tampa just gave up for Jeannot.
If the goal has shifted to just keeping Connor happy this isn't a good thing. As I stated neither McD or Drai are good judges of which players would help here and I can't find one instance where they have been. With McD its been I love Drake, I love Foegele, I love Brown, McD even convinced himself, somehow, that Manning was going to be helpful here.
On Drais part several experiments with Reiders and Kahun didn't work out and Drai "loved" Yams and Kassian.
its high time to stop listening to who these players want in the lineup. Ultimately they want a championship. Don't lose sight on that. Pro clubs shouldn't be friendly confines where you're playing with friends and people there because you like them, as if you're throwing a party. My own take is that conflict makes teams as much as familiarity and friendly does. We've had too much of the latter. jmo
I agree, maybe throw them a bone once in awhile. At the end of the day the goal is to win a cup. As for Manning, IMO that and the Koskinen contract was Chia burning things to the ground because he knew that he was on his way out.
