Salary Cap: Salary Cap & Roster Building - Locked in until July

[USMC607]

The hockey world would implode, Instantaneously.

 

[NMK11]

Why would the Islanders want Kessel? He's good, but they aren't one good winger away from a dangerous team, especially if they lose tavares.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I love hags dont get me wrong.

But

Hags, Sheary, Brassard or Sheahan out
Tavares in
Profit

Let's be real, there's no way that would actually fly. If Tavares would hit free agency, I really doubt he'd come to the Penguins. It would almost definitely have to be a sign and trade, and the Penguins only have Kessel as a guy they can trade that clears out that much salary. Teams aren't going to line up to take Hagelin or Sheary so the Penguins can afford Tavares. I would also rather only lose 1 player rather than 3 personally, I'd rather have Hagelin and Brassard over Kessel.

Why would the Islanders want Kessel? He's good, but they aren't one good winger away from a dangerous team, especially if they lose tavares.

Because in this case, it's Kessel or lose Tavares in free agency for nothing. A Barzal-Kessel duo is also pretty sick, and getting Kessel in helps alleviate the pain of losing Tavares a good amount. The Islanders have issues on defense and in net, at least getting Kessel while losing Tavares helps their offense not become garbage.

 

[Gurglesons]

Why would the Islanders want Kessel? He's good, but they aren't one good winger away from a dangerous team, especially if they lose tavares.

If they Islanders get a goalie and resign Tavares and off load some of their crap like Clutterbuck, I could see them being really good.

 

[USMC607]

Let's be real, there's no way that would actually fly. If Tavares would hit free agency, I really doubt he'd come to the Penguins. It would almost definitely have to be a sign and trade, and the Penguins only have Kessel as a guy they can trade that clears out that much salary. Teams aren't going to line up to take Hagelin or Sheary so the Penguins can afford Tavares. I would also rather only lose 1 player rather than 3 personally, I'd rather have Hagelin and Brassard over Kessel.



Because in this case, it's Kessel or lose Tavares in free agency for nothing. A Barzal-Kessel duo is also pretty sick, and getting Kessel in helps alleviate the pain of losing Tavares a good amount. The Islanders have issues on defense and in net, at least getting Kessel while losing Tavares helps their offense not become garbage.

Oh trust me I know. Just funny because of that link.

 

[Andy99]

Why wouldn’t the Islanders, who are terrible on D, prefer Letang? If they’re doing a sign and trade, they’d more likely ask for Letang, which some people on this board would be thrilled about....

 

[Empoleon8771]

Now, if the Islanders trade Tavares for Kessel, their issue will be that their center depth is crappy. Their winger depth would be absurd, and if you still think that Kessel can carry a line like he used to in Toronto, their offense would still be pretty good. Their top-9 winger group would look something like:

Lee--Eberle
Ladd--Kessel
Beauvillier--Bailey

That's a really good group, considering that they'd have at least a 59 point player from the previous year on their 3rd line (Eberle had 59 points, Bailey had 71 points and Kessel had 92 points), the problem is that they have no top-9 centers after Barzal. However, they also have a ton of cap space. With Kessel, they have about $30 million in cap space with 9 forwards, 4 D and a goalie under contract. If they could throw a bunch of money at someone like Bozak or Statsny (they might even have enough money to do both), I could see their forward group without Tavares being really good. Let's go high and say that Statsny is going to cost $7 million, they would have:

Lee-Barzal-Eberle
Beauvillier-Statsny-Bailey
Ladd-Cizikas-Kessel
XXXX-XXXX-Clutterbuck

They'd still have about $20 million in cap space if the cap ends up being $80 million.

Why wouldn’t the Islanders, who are terrible on D, prefer Letang? If they’re doing a sign and trade, they’d more likely ask for Letang, which some people on this board would be thrilled about....

Why are the Penguins, who are terrible on D, want to trade Letang for another center?

 

[Peat]

Why would the Islanders want Kessel? He's good, but they aren't one good winger away from a dangerous team, especially if they lose tavares.

You're asking the wrong question.

Why would the Phil waive his 8 team list - which almost certainly doesn't include Islanders - in order to go there?

edit:

Why wouldn’t the Islanders, who are terrible on D, prefer Letang? If they’re doing a sign and trade, they’d more likely ask for Letang, which some people on this board would be thrilled about....

If that were to happen, you have to free up a lot of cap and get 1-2 really good dmen in immediately. If Letang goes, his cap hit needs to go to dmen.

 

[Empoleon8771]

You're asking the wrong question.

Why would the Phil waive his 8 team list - which almost certainly doesn't include Islanders - in order to go there?

I think it depends on how Kessel configures his NTC. In Toronto, I think he didn't want to leave Toronto, so he made his NTC teams that wouldn't be able to trade for him. Has he been in Pittsburgh long enough to not want to move elsewhere? I don't think we can really easily say. The safe bet is probably no, he wouldn't waive for the Islanders. I don't know who he would waive for, though.

 

[Peat]

I think it depends on how Kessel configures his NTC. In Toronto, I think he didn't want to leave Toronto, so he made his NTC teams that wouldn't be able to trade for him. Has he been in Pittsburgh long enough to not want to move elsewhere? I don't think we can really easily say. The safe bet is probably no, he wouldn't waive for the Islanders. I don't know who he would waive for, though.

Its a good question but in this case, I'd assume his list would be all contenders at the very least - which is probably no for the Islanders.

 

[Coach Travis]

Came in here to see if people are talking about Grabner, JvR maybe even James Neal and people are talking about Tavares as a 3C?! Are you guys nuts?!

 

[Empoleon8771]

Its a good question but in this case, I'd assume his list would be all contenders at the very least - which is probably no for the Islanders.

That's a safe assumption, I think he'd probably allow trades to teams like Nashville or Toronto. I don't think he'd make his NTC based on him being untradeable, he just wouldn't want to go to bad teams.

Came in here to see if people are talking about Grabner, JvR maybe even James Neal and people are talking about Tavares as a 3C?! Are you guys nuts?!

Friedman suggested it and we're just having a discussion based on that. It's very unlikely, but it's theoretically possible.

 

[Peat]

Friedman suggested it and we're just having a discussion based on that. It's very unlikely, but it's theoretically possible.

It is also theoretically possible that we're nuts mind.

 

[IcedCapp]

Friedman didn’t really suggest it. Friedman just said a lot of empty words

 

[USMC607]

I apologize for any eyeballs I burn out of their sockets.

It was just too good not to share when I ran into it.

 

[Peat]

Came in here to see if people are talking about Grabner, JvR maybe even James Neal and people are talking about Tavares as a 3C?! Are you guys nuts?!

I'd add... that while this is nuts and based on nothing that Friedman's hot air...

Tavares is less nuts than Grabner/JvR/Neal.

We don't have the cap to add a big name winger without sending out a fair amount and we've also got a pretty full roster there. JvR and Neal don't really change things enough there to be worth the hassle of changing that.

We do have the cap to add a decent bottom 6 winger, but Grabner seems wedded to New York.

Tavares on the other hand, seems wedded to nowhere and is good enough that he is worth the hassle of rearranging things. You can never have enough talent like Tavares.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Came in here to see if people are talking about Grabner, JvR maybe even James Neal and people are talking about Tavares as a 3C?! Are you guys nuts?!

Person sporting a Capitals' avatar asking the rest of us whether we're nuts.

Is this backwards day?

 

[Coach Travis]

I'd add... that while this is nuts and based on nothing that Friedman's hot air...

Tavares is less nuts than Grabner/JvR/Neal.

We don't have the cap to add a big name winger without sending out a fair amount and we've also got a pretty full roster there. JvR and Neal don't really change things enough there to be worth the hassle of changing that.

We do have the cap to add a decent bottom 6 winger, but Grabner seems wedded to New York.

Tavares on the other hand, seems wedded to nowhere and is good enough that he is worth the hassle of rearranging things. You can never have enough talent like Tavares.

Higher Cap minus Hunwick and, possibly, minus Sheary would allow quite a bit of cap room.

 

[Tom Hanks]

You're asking the wrong question.

Why would the Phil waive his 8 team list - which almost certainly doesn't include Islanders - in order to go.

Phil has his reasons.

 

[PensandCaps]

Now, if the Islanders trade Tavares for Kessel, their issue will be that their center depth is crappy. Their winger depth would be absurd, and if you still think that Kessel can carry a line like he used to in Toronto, their offense would still be pretty good. Their top-9 winger group would look something like:

Lee--Eberle
Ladd--Kessel
Beauvillier--Bailey

That's a really good group, considering that they'd have at least a 59 point player from the previous year on their 3rd line (Eberle had 59 points, Bailey had 71 points and Kessel had 92 points), the problem is that they have no top-9 centers after Barzal. However, they also have a ton of cap space. With Kessel, they have about $30 million in cap space with 9 forwards, 4 D and a goalie under contract. If they could throw a bunch of money at someone like Bozak or Statsny (they might even have enough money to do both), I could see their forward group without Tavares being really good. Let's go high and say that Statsny is going to cost $7 million, they would have:

Lee-Barzal-Eberle
Beauvillier-Statsny-Bailey
Ladd-Cizikas-Kessel
XXXX-XXXX-Clutterbuck

They'd still have about $20 million in cap space if the cap ends up being $80 million.



Why are the Penguins, who are terrible on D, want to trade Letang for another center?

Rather lose Letang than Kessel.

 

[Peat]

Higher Cap minus Hunwick and, possibly, minus Sheary would allow quite a bit of cap room.

Rust's and Horny's rises will wipe out most of the cap rise. Any money saved on Hunwick probably goes right back to the defence - at most give an extra million to the forwards. 4m? That doesn't add up to JvR or Neal.

And then you still have a top 6, wing wise, of Horny/Guentz/Phil/Hags/Rust/Sprong with a couple of decent youngsters waiting.

 

[NMK11]

If they Islanders get a goalie and resign Tavares and off load some of their crap like Clutterbuck, I could see them being really good.

The scenario I was referring to was trading Tavares for Kessel, otherwise Id agree with you.

 

[ncm7772]

I apologize for any eyeballs I burn out of their sockets.

It was just too good not to share when I ran into it.

So stupid, you gotta chuckle.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Something needs to be done about the D. I could see if we didnt have the 4th highest paid blueline in the league, but we shouldnt have these issues with these guys getting paid that much.

Is it the players? Or is it the system ?

Do we need to go out and get faster dmen who can move the puck(and able to get back to prevent odd man rushes)? Make a trade?

These are things JR has to figure out. No reason we should have a problem on D with them taking up that much cap room.

The fastest defenseman we have - one of the fastest defensemen in the entire league - was our biggest problem on defense. Unless/until that's addressed, no amount of added depth on the blueline is going to fix what's wrong with it.

 

[JRS91]

I apologize for any eyeballs I burn out of their sockets.

It was just too good not to share when I ran into it.

I'm hoping Rutherford improves on the areas of weakness, which are surprisingly easy to fix.

The first is the defense. The Penguins are a decent third pairing defenseman away from being very good. Re-sign Oleksiak and then go from there. I've thrown around the idea of swapping Sheary for Michael Del Zotto. They both make $3M a season. Del Zotto is entering the final year of his contract and Sheary has another year of control after this season. I'm not sure if Vancouver has any interest in Sheary, but I'd be willing to throw in Jarry or a 3rd round pick.

Next comes signing or trading for a good backup goalie. I personally think the Penguins are going to target Cam Ward. Rutherford is familiar with him, he's still a solid goalie and he most likely would come pretty cheap. The only downside is he's gotten more injury prone as he's gotten older. Which is fine if you're a backup, but not fine if you're backing up Matt Murray. Murray has had some bad luck, but being injured is being injured.

Then all that's left is trying to figure out who re-signs and who doesn't. I'm hoping the Penguins re-sign Sheahan, Rust, Oleksiak and Sprong. Honestly, that's about all I'm interested in re-signing. I think they'll try to sign someone who can play center on the PK to play wing on the fourth line. If that means replacing Kuhnhackl so be it. I'd personally like to see Kuhnhackl back, but I'd understand why the Penguins would want some flexibility in that area.