Post-Game Talk: Panthers improve to 19-3-2 over their last 24 with a 3-2 OT win vs Ottawa

[Chaos2k7]

For the above posters who are all in on Ekblad next season, do you prefer him over Reinhart and/or Bobrovsky? Moving either Ekblad or Bobrovsky is pretty much the only way that the team has the money for Reinhart.

Which 2 of the 3 would you recommend Zito keep - Ekblad, Bobrovsky, or Reinhart?

Things are not that bad. Reinhart makes 6.5 now.

We will need 3 million max. Yandle and Darling buyouts being done are like 6.

 

[Dread Clawz]

For the above posters who are all in on Ekblad next season, do you prefer him over Reinhart and/or Bobrovsky? Moving either Ekblad or Bobrovsky is pretty much the only way that the team has the money for Reinhart.

Which 2 of the 3 would you recommend Zito keep - Ekblad, Bobrovsky, or Reinhart?

They should keep Ek and Reino. Bob will be 36 next season.

 

[Gentle Man]

For the above posters who are all in on Ekblad next season, do you prefer him over Reinhart and/or Bobrovsky? Moving either Ekblad or Bobrovsky is pretty much the only way that the team has the money for Reinhart.

Which 2 of the 3 would you recommend Zito keep - Ekblad, Bobrovsky, or Reinhart?

We have 28M for this summer.

I am going to ignore the season after for now because it's a f***ing nightmare lmao (Verhaeghe, Bennett, Ekblad), but at least the cap should go up. CapFriendly has it at 92, I think thats a safe bet considering the 4M in leap between this season and next. But let's cross that bridge later.

So for this summer, here is your list of contracts

Cousins, Lorentz, Stenlund, Lundell (RFA), Gadjo (RFA), Lomberg, Montour, OEL, Mahura (RFA), and Stolarz, Forsling, Reinhart.

For the sake of ease, let's go from lowest to highest, and Ill round up here to overstate contracts

Lomberg - 1M
Kuli - 1M
Gadj - 1M
Stenlund - 1.2

I think the margin of error here is + or - 400K between the 4? Even if not all 4 are brought back, the 4 players replacing them should be within the same margins.

So let's say 23M left

Let's address Lundy. If we go by the 1M for every 10 points bench marker, his next contract should be around 3 to 3.5M per. Being an RFA he can be cost controlled a bit, so he will probably be up around 2.8 but Ill round up to 3M

That leaves 20.

Cant predict on Stolarz (making 1.1 currently) without addressing the Knight situation. Those two are making a combined 4.5 (3.35 of Knight counts against the cap + Stolarz salary). But safe to say whether they bring another goalie or Knight joins the team, it will be for around 1.1M again

So that leaves around 19M left.

19 between

Cousins, Lorentz, Mahura, Montour, OEL, Forsling, and Reinhart. We can safely remove Cousins and Lorentz from the equation.

Safe bet would be 18M between Reinhart and Forsling (not an even 9M split mind you), that leaves 1M left

The final 1M is either for Mahura or Balinskis joins the team

OEL and Montour walks.

2025-26 Zito will have to choose to move out Bob (last year of his contract), Bennett, Verhaeghe, and Ekblad.

You move Bob out then that gives you about 15 M to play around with letting you keep 2 out of 3 of the skaters and about 4M for a replacement of the other.

 

[Prominence Problem]

They should keep Ek and Reino. Bob will be 36 next season.

If Bob puts his everything into this Playoff and they win the cup, I wouldn't put it past him to ride off into the sunset.

 

[Dread Clawz]

If Bob puts his everything into this Playoff and they win the cup, I wouldn't put it past him to ride off into the sunset.

Also possible.

 

[TotalHomer]

Literally the only knock on Ekblad is his injury history, but he is not injury prone per se, just had some freak accidents.

Guy is a warrior and the heart and soul of our D, every player to be paired with him except for Soupy when he was a rookie, puts up career years.

He's injury history combined with his lack of footspeed is a lethal combination as he gets older. That's the trade-off. He's been a warrior for the team but I'd rather trade him in the summer than have him for the next nine years. Yuck. Monty with his mobility and health is a much more appealing long term solution.

 

[ProjectPanthers]

Any ideas?

It might not sound flashy to people but Frank Vatrano would be a perfect deadline acquisition for the Cats.

I think he'd fit in this system really well and would provide a massive scoring punch and a ton of grit in our bottom 6. Also would slot up to the top-6 if there's any injuries.

Jason Zucker is another, much cheaper option but I hate his playoff track record and he's bit pretty underwhelming for the last few seasons.

Kubalik is another guy who would likely come cheap and would provide a great shot for the bottom 6.

Beyond that there isn't much out there that is openly available unless Zito sweeps in and grabs someone completely out of nowhere.

Also, if Boqvist is made available from the Blue Jackets I'd 100% be offering something for him as a depth addition on the back end. Dude has been underutilized in Columbus and I remember being very impressed with him back in the shortened season where we saw a ton of Chicago playing them 7-8 times that season. He stood out in every game.

 

[TotalHomer]

Thomas Novak is interesting. Could be too expensive though and Nashville probably wants to keep him. Also there are guys like Eberle, Bjugstad, Kapanen and Greenway. It's all about the fit though.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

You guys have to kidding me with this "Ekbad should stay"-nonsense. Have you already forgotten the injuries he sustained in the playoffs? A broken foot, two separated shoulders and a torn oblique. And he's not even getting headhunted, he's just putting himself into a vulnerable spot and/or can't see what's directly in front of him.



He's like two seasons away from becoming officially the next LTIR-Seabrook.

 

[I am not exposed]

You guys have to kidding me with this "Ekbad should stay"-nonsense. Have you already forgotten the injuries he sustained in the playoffs? A broken foot, two separated shoulders and a torn oblique. And he's not even getting headhunted, he's just putting himself into a vulnerable spot and/or can't see what's directly in front of him.



He's like two seasons away from becoming officially the next LTIR-Seabrook.

Can you change your profile picture back please. I don't like this new one.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

Can you change your profile picture back please. I don't like this new one.

I'll take that into consideration.

 

[Idiot Stick]

It might not sound flashy to people but Frank Vatrano would be a perfect deadline acquisition for the Cats.

I think he'd fit in this system really well and would provide a massive scoring punch and a ton of grit in our bottom 6. Also would slot up to the top-6 if there's any injuries.

Jason Zucker is another, much cheaper option but I hate his playoff track record and he's bit pretty underwhelming for the last few seasons.

Kubalik is another guy who would likely come cheap and would provide a great shot for the bottom 6.

Beyond that there isn't much out there that is openly available unless Zito sweeps in and grabs someone completely out of nowhere.

Also, if Boqvist is made available from the Blue Jackets I'd 100% be offering something for him as a depth addition on the back end. Dude has been underutilized in Columbus and I remember being very impressed with him back in the shortened season where we saw a ton of Chicago playing them 7-8 times that season. He stood out in every game.

do we have anything to get frank the tank? Dont see how the ducks part with him and his contract is good for them.

 

[I am not exposed]

I'll take that into consideration.

I keep confusing you with Gentle Man.

Your previous one was very unique.

 

[ShootIt]

I'm not saying we will need to extend Ekblad at any cost.

But, going into next season if Montour wants to cash out and want huge term/cap hit I rather rock with Ekblad on an expiring contract at 7.5mil than try to trade him(and somehow take very little back in cap) and keep a 30 year old Montour at a 8-9 mil cap hit on a 6-8 year deal.

If Ekblad can't stay healthy, let him walk, and we have more cap to deal with Swaggy, Bennett and other free agent forwards.

 

[Gentle Man]

I keep confusing you with Gentle Man.

Your previous one was very unique.

Mine is clearly a live picture of me.

I dont get the confusion

 

[Dread Clawz]

It might not sound flashy to people but Frank Vatrano would be a perfect deadline acquisition for the Cats.

I think he'd fit in this system really well and would provide a massive scoring punch and a ton of grit in our bottom 6. Also would slot up to the top-6 if there's any injuries.

Jason Zucker is another, much cheaper option but I hate his playoff track record and he's bit pretty underwhelming for the last few seasons.

Kubalik is another guy who would likely come cheap and would provide a great shot for the bottom 6.

Beyond that there isn't much out there that is openly available unless Zito sweeps in and grabs someone completely out of nowhere.

Also, if Boqvist is made available from the Blue Jackets I'd 100% be offering something for him as a depth addition on the back end. Dude has been underutilized in Columbus and I remember being very impressed with him back in the shortened season where we saw a ton of Chicago playing them 7-8 times that season. He stood out in every game.

Actually I think Vattano will one of the more expensive acquisitions.

 

[WaitingForThatCab]

I want to see if Brandon Montour has another monster playoff performance before I say that we should probably let him walk after pricing himself out of town.

 

[TheImpatientPanther]

It might not sound flashy to people but Frank Vatrano would be a perfect deadline acquisition for the Cats.

I think he'd fit in this system really well and would provide a massive scoring punch and a ton of grit in our bottom 6. Also would slot up to the top-6 if there's any injuries.

Jason Zucker is another, much cheaper option but I hate his playoff track record and he's bit pretty underwhelming for the last few seasons.

Kubalik is another guy who would likely come cheap and would provide a great shot for the bottom 6.

Beyond that there isn't much out there that is openly available unless Zito sweeps in and grabs someone completely out of nowhere.

Also, if Boqvist is made available from the Blue Jackets I'd 100% be offering something for him as a depth addition on the back end. Dude has been underutilized in Columbus and I remember being very impressed with him back in the shortened season where we saw a ton of Chicago playing them 7-8 times that season. He stood out in every game.

It's a good thing Zito wouldn't have to deal with Ducks fans in a trade, seen some of them asking for two 1st rounders lol.

Zucker and Cousins may have to do "buckets" in the dressing room (hoping you know what that term means).

Mantha is out there too but he's so soft for his size.

I'd love Eberle but he'll cost too much.

Kubalik is an interesting case, his numbers are way down but IIRC his shooting is still in the 70th percentile?
Could be a decent buy low for a 4th?
His defense is horrid but should be offset by Luostarinen and Lundell a bit.

I'm just at the point where Zito uses the 2025 2nd + B level prospect for Eberle type or maybe slightly lower cost of Bjugstad? If not then just stand pat. Not sure some of these depth guys will make that much impact.

We obviously don't have the currency or willingness to give up Samoskevich etc to get the top flight guys.

 

 

[Mogo]

 

[Chaos2k7]

He's injury history combined with his lack of footspeed is a lethal combination as he gets older. That's the trade-off. He's been a warrior for the team but I'd rather trade him in the summer than have him for the next nine years. Yuck. Monty with his mobility and health is a much more appealing long term solution.

His lack of foot speed is vastly overblown, and he is far from some liability.

And where does this 9 year term come from? These 8 year deals for extra money are scenarios that just don't make sense, and are being used as reasons to move him. Seems all out of left field for me.

I wouldn't sign Ekblad or Montour for over 5 years. Gus 7 max.

 

[Chaos2k7]

I want to see if Brandon Montour has another monster playoff performance before I say that we should probably let him walk after pricing himself out of town.

Hopefully he goes bananas, but I see him as a target some team will give extra years and term to, then regret it.

If he wanted 5 for 30 I'd sign right now.

 

[KW]

Regarding Ek and Monty, there is one more option that nobody’s offered.

Sign neither.