Merrill’s not going to be available, so we only have 6 healthy defensemen to start the season now. Even for just injury protection, it’d make sense to keep Kulikov on the team.
Kulikov plays the left, Merrill the right. Kulikov wasn't going to play in place of Merrill. Addison would. They'll use AHL depth if needed to fill in on the left. Spot call ROR for example.
Yes, forgot about him. You take him as a call up over ROR/Hunt all day long, for the present.
Merill is a LD that had to play the right. Our 3rd pair shouldn’t have been seen as set in stone. For as bad as Kulikov was in the playoffs, Merrill was worse. The plan should’ve been to go into camp with Kulikov and Goligoski playing for the 3LD spot. Even rotate them as needed to keep them fresh. Based on the regular season, I thought Kulikov looked decent for large stretches of it. Definitely better than Merrill.
He’s fine, but I don’t think Goligoski is alright for the 3LD spot. Given the subtractions from this roster, I would’ve preferred more options than less. I’ll wait until the off-season is over to make any final judgements though. There might be more moves to come.
I think you severely overrate Kulikov.
I don’t think I’m overrating Kulikov at all. If the choice is between nobody and Kulikov, then why wouldn’t you keep Kulikov? What benefit is there to losing him?
Completely agree, but once Guerin re-signed Merrill and Goligoski during the season you knew that Kulikov was the odd man out.
The choice was Goligoski or Kulikov IMO, they chose Goligoski. Id have chosen otherwise, but that ship has sailed. Kulikov was the odd man out for a long time coming.
That cap space becomes less useful in-season. Toews was traded prior to the 2020 season. If Guerin is going to utilize this extra cap, it should be prior to the start of the season. That’s exactly what he should be targeting though, I agree there. It’s just a matter if he’ll actually be able to pull that off.
You're both right. Truth is, Merrill, Goligoski, and to a lesser extent, Kulikov, were mediocre defenders last year. Above Pateryn, Hunt, and Bittetto, for sure, but not by much. I'd rather have Soucy over all three of them.
I'm wondering is he isn't going to do something like move Dumba/Zuccarello for an even bigger contract coming back. This extra cap space allows him to do that, maybe. No idea who that would be.
Goligoski is old and was completely out of gas by December. He was nothing but a liability the 2nd half of the season and there was a reason he was a healthy scratch more often than not by the trade deadline.
part of me wants this to happen... and at the same time i dont simply because of dead cap and the possibility of it being someone overpaid and underperforming his old reputation.
Ah, I see it now. This is how Guerin will justify that he, himself, still has something left in the tank. He will sign himself to a 2x2 contract to play 1st line- wait no, let's be realistic, 2nd line RW. He'll prove his value by beating out vaunted top 6 players like Sam Steel and Tyson Jost.
