I tend to agree not trying to stop gap it anymore. However, I’m not overly optimistic that moving Scandella will be as easy as I had originally thought it would be 2 weeks ago.
We’re going to have to find a team that is willing to absorb cap in a downgrade. I’m not sure how many teams have that ability while having a LD that would fill the need
I don't think Scandella would be at all difficult to move. He's very much a #5 D man at 5 on 5 and he is very capable of being a top unit PK guy.
There is only 1 more year left on his deal and there are currently 94 D men locked in at a higher cap hit than him for 2023/24. He will absolutely be outside the top 100 after the first day of free agency and I'd bet money that worse D men get paid more AAV and more uncomfortable term as free agents this summer. If he hit UFA this Saturday, I think there is a very, very, very good chance that he would get offers north of $3.275M if he told teams he was willing to take a 1 year deal. I don't think his contract is an overpay for the player that he is right now.
If a team is just looking to sell their LD for straight futures, it should be pretty simple to move Scandella to a different team. I think he is either a positive-value asset or a zero-value (could be given away for nothing) asset at the moment.
But the defense...Man oh man.
Leddy-Parayko
Perunovich-Faulk
Bortuzzo-Tucker
Binny-Hofer
Lets say someone takes Krug and we retain 50% for basically nothing. Then this is basically what you're looking at with about 3 mil available in cap. I'd love to see them trade a late first (or both) for a D at 50% retained. Even if it's not a truly special player.
Marco Scandella is still under contract too. I don't think we have any interest in moving Krug with 50% retention. But even if we did, you still need to include Scandella in the above group. If you think Scandella is moved as well, then you are suddenly looking at about $7M in available cap space for that LD add you are discussing.
