Agree that Chia is overpaid. I haven't given him a big raise. Maybe I shouldn't have gone even that far. I think the mistake was going to 1.4 in the first place.
But otherwise you are pretty limited in how much you can save. Squeezing a guy from 1 mil down to 900k isn't much of a saving. Doing that to 5 guys is still only a half mil. At least some of the time that you are squeezing the bottom and middle you are taking a quality hit to do it.
In my no bridge scenario I had 12 players at 5.3 or above. They averaged 6.335 = 76 mil. That left 11 mil for the other 11 players. I don't think you can have that sharp a divide between the top and bottom. Your depth is going to be terrible.
I still wouldn't do the 3 year bridge for Connor. Two gets the job done. I think Chiarot is easily enough replaced in a year from now.
We can sign JoMo long term without much pain. But then we bridge everybody else. So this whole thing becomes about JoMo. 2 bridge or not 2 bridge - him. I don't see that as being such a big issue. If Connor has a strong sophomore year it could turn out to be harder to bridge him than Morrissey. I am not afraid of bridging JoMo. I don''t think it will cost massively down the road. I don't think it will make him an unhappy camper. Two years at 3 mil+, followed by the rest of his career at 6.5+. It will retain some flexibility, room for bonuses and injuries. It will help establish the pattern of bridging just about everybody so that the next guy doesn't get his panties in a knot.
My main issue is more to do with creating positional stability. In most people's scenarios we are shelling out a significant amount of cash for the least important position on the hockey team in wingers. Laine, Ehlers, Wheeler are likely to cost $22 million or about 25% of the cap alone. Throw in a bridge to Conner and your over 30% on your top 6 wingers alone. That is balanced somewhat by the steal contract to chef.
Looking at the defense (A much more important position imo). As you mentioned bridging JoMo vs not bridging him makes little difference next season so lets look at 2019-20. We would be entering that season with only one dmen signed long term in Trouba (Provided we can take him at his word and he signs long term this sumner). An aging Buff would only have 2 years left. That would leave Morrissey, Niku, Kulikov and likely at least one of Morrow/Poolman one year away from needing a new contract. So you are looking at a summer in 2020 where Chevy will need to sign or replace 5 dmen. Of them one will likely be his best all around dmen in JoMo. Niku if he plays as we hope he can will be established in our top 4. Morrow, Kulikov and possibly Poolman will all potentially be UFA and need to be reupped or replaced. That to me is a very messy and untenable situation to be in.
It is compounded by the fact that the Jets will have likely allocated far too much in the way of resources on the wings and not have as much cap to play with.
I sign Morrissey long term because:
1) It creates long term positional stability at position where none really exists atm in defense and it locks in our number 1 d pair. Both I see as important.
2) He also represents the only chance we have left for a potential long term value deal on the back end. Buff is at market value and Trouba and his agent won't take less then it on his next deal.
