Speculation: Tavares Tells Toronto, "I'm YOUR Huckleberry Now". Fans leaguewide mourn.

[Dbrownss]

Speaking of Vegas....how in the Blue f*** is William Karlsson a 40 goal scorer...... He was a bottom 6 player and magically he's a top tier 1C when given the "oppertunity".

 

[Ranksu]

Speaking of Vegas....how in the Blue **** is William Karlsson a 40 goal scorer...... He was a bottom 6 player and magically he's a top tier 1C when given the "oppertunity.

What about Erik Haula? He was Wild bottom 6 forward ~25 point player and giving opportunity he's 60 point forward.

 

[PiggySmalls]

Speaking of Vegas....how in the Blue **** is William Karlsson a 40 goal scorer...... He was a bottom 6 player and magically he's a top tier 1C when given the "oppertunity.

Having nearly 24% shooting percentage certainly helps. No one knows. Jarmo really shit the bed in Blue Jackets’s fans eyes on leaving him exposed. But Torts didn’t give him long enough of a shot to prove himself. Good for wild Bill, he going to have huge expectations next season.

 

[wannabebluesplayer]

Like many others have said, many guys on Vegas are having career years. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see some regression. I also don't expect Perron, Neal, and a few other UFAs to go back to Vegas.

 

[Brian39]

Yeah I don’t see Vegas as a landing spot. They have a bunch of players that are gonna be UFA this summer. There are going to be such a high roster turnover that it signals a lot of unknowns.

Vegas has 6 guys who will be UFA at the end of the year. That number includes two guys who have spent the entire season on LTIR and Ryan Reaves. Neal, Perron, and Sbisa are the only other UFAs, so I wouldn't call that anything close to high roster turnover.

 

[PiggySmalls]

Vegas has 6 guys who will be UFA at the end of the year. That number includes two guys who have spent the entire season on LTIR and Ryan Reaves. Neal, Perron, and Sbisa are the only other UFAs, so I wouldn't call that anything close to high roster turnover.

Perron and Neal so far have a combine 107 points. Those would be 2 big players to lose.

 

[Brian39]

Perron and Neal so far have a combine 107 points. Those would be 2 big players to lose.

They have $27.5 mil in cap space and another $5.25 mil in potential LTIR relief to re-sign one and sign Tavares (plus whatever amount the cap increases by). That more than makes up for whichever one they let walk and is vastly different than a huge rate of roster turnover and unknowns.

 

[Dbrownss]

I want Vegas to crash and Burn next year....


Not really adding anything to the conversation but their success is an anomaly and needs to be destroyed


If they land John Tavares....

 

[PiggySmalls]

They have $27.5 mil in cap space and another $5.25 mil in potential LTIR relief to re-sign one and sign Tavares (plus whatever amount the cap increases by). That more than makes up for whichever one they let walk and is vastly different than a huge rate of roster turnover and unknowns.

If JT only cares about money so be it, he can let Vegas and Montreal have a bidding war and he can have fun watching them 2 jack the price up. Hopefully DA quickly walks away from that table. Vegas at the end of the day is a perfect storm, so many of their players are having career years by a long shot. No one predicted Vegas to do this good, it is a one of a kind season. If that is their selling point to JT and giving him the keys to the vault filled with money so be it.

 

[Dbrownss]

What about Erik Haula? He was Wild bottom 6 forward ~25 point player and giving opportunity he's 60 point forward.

None of it makes any sense......

Wouldn't be suprised to see a league wide vacation to Vegas with all the players using GN vouchers

Yes I'm insinuating they have actually bribed every player in the league to make them look better

 

[Kind Sir]

If I'm squeezing every possible $, how much do the Blues actually save by buying out JBo?

 

[Note Worthy]

If I'm squeezing every possible $, how much do the Blues actually save by buying out JBo?

Not enough to make a difference. It doesn't matter anyway because he'll be injured during the buy-out window so we wouldn't be able to buy him out even if we wanted to.

 

[PiggySmalls]

If I'm squeezing every possible $, how much do the Blues actually save by buying out JBo?

Dollar amount is like $1.8 Million. Cap saving wise is 3.6 for 18/19. But then cost them 1.8 in 19/20. It doesn’t matter though, he won’t be healthy during the buyout period in June.

 

[Kind Sir]

Dollar amount is like $1.8 Million. Cap saving wise is 3.6 for 18/19. But then cost them 1.8 in 19/20. It doesn’t matter though, he won’t be healthy during the buyout period in June.

So the only way to save any coin would be to convince another team to take him....with, like, all but 1 million retained? Or can you not trade a LTIR player?

 

[PiggySmalls]

So the only way to save any coin would be to convince another team to take him....with, like, all but 1 million retained? Or can you not trade a LTIR player?

You can still trade him. You just got to find a team both willing to take him AND JBow will be willing to waive his NTC to go to. I would much rather retain 40-50% and trade him off if he was buyout eligible. I think that 1 year of JBow at $2.2-2.8 is attractive to teams. Recovering from hip surgery has help a lot of players.

 

[Kind Sir]

You can still trade him. You just got to find a team both willing to take him AND JBow will be willing to waive his NTC to go to. I would much rather retain 40-50% and trade him off if he was buyout eligible. I think that 1 year of JBow at $2.2-2.8 is attractive to teams. Recovering from hip surgery has help a lot of players.

Agreed. I figured the Blues would just play out the year, and drop 5 mil off the cap next year; I was just spitballing on the notion that the Blues needed juuuuusst one more million this year....

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

You’d think if we pulled off the playoff comeback with this depleted roster, that’s gotta be a good sign in the chase for Tavares.

 

[Note Worthy]

You’d think if we pulled off the playoff comeback with this depleted roster, that’s gotta be a good sign in the chase for Tavares.

It doesn't hurt although I think Tavares has the ability to understand our injured riddled season and can see the bigger picture.

 

[Dbrownss]

You’d think if we pulled off the playoff comeback with this depleted roster, that’s gotta be a good sign in the chase for Tavares.

It might be a "tipping point" if he was considering the Blues and another team or 2 equally.

I still think he has a very short predetermined group of teams he's looking at if he leaves NY

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

It might be a "tipping point" if he was considering the Blues and another team or 2 equally.

I still think he has a very short predetermined group of teams he's looking at if he leaves NY

That’s basically what I was inferring. I know if he’s willing to leave, Army will do whatever it takes. Wasn’t there a report that Pietrangelo was recruiting him at the ASG?

 

[Dbrownss]

That’s basically what I was inferring. I know if he’s willing to leave, Army will do whatever it takes. Wasn’t there a report that Pietrangelo was recruiting him at the ASG?

All that was said another teams captain was trying to sell him on his city. I could be wrong about the Captian part though

 

[PiggySmalls]

All that was said another teams captain was trying to sell him in his city. I could be wrong about the Captian part though

In Craig Custance’s article it said just a player. But I would not be surprised if it was Pietrangelo.

One player told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun he used his time with John Tavares this weekend to sell him on his city. Tavares is weighing a decision whether to sign a long-term contract with the New York Islanders or to see what's out there when his contract expires after this season.
There's a good chance that player wasn't alone.
“I dropped hints to every single player in this dressing room,” Stamkos said, smiling. “They were doing the same to everybody else. That’s the way it goes, when you get in a room and you start chatting. Nothing specific, obviously, but we’d love to have every single one of these guys if given a chance.”

 

[Alklha]

You’d think if we pulled off the playoff comeback with this depleted roster, that’s gotta be a good sign in the chase for Tavares.

You could say that seeing a GM selling 2 consecutive years that his team went to the playoffs was a bad sign. It's all about how you frame these things.

The biggest factor in getting Tavares will be players selling him on the area and organisation and the organisation selling him on their future and commitment to winning. He is going to get paid no matter where he goes, that will pretty much take care of itself.

If he goes to UFA then he will have a shortlist, and I'd be confident if the Blues are on it. The front office does a really good job in UFA. They are excellent at selling the benefits of living in the area. The reason we've missed out on players in the past isn't as willing to increase the term on deals as other GM's are.

 

[A Real Barn Burner]

Is the Front Office really that good selling St. Louis to free agents?

Outside of Statsny I can’t think of any, and he was from the area....

We missed out on Lecavalier and got Roy....

Who are the free agents we missed out on because Armstrong was being fiscally responsible?

I hope your right though.

 

[MissouriMook]

Is the Front Office really that good selling St. Louis to free agents?

Outside of Statsny I can’t think of any, and he was from the area....

We missed out on Lecavalier and got Roy....

Who are the free agents we missed out on because Armstrong was being fiscally responsible?

I hope your right though.

I wouldn't say fiscal responsibility is the only reason we miss out on free agents, but I think it is the most common one. The perception at the time (as I remember it) was that we were chasing Lacavalier and Filppula before settling on Roy, and that Lacavalier want too much of a financial commitment (in the form of term) and that Filppula wanted to stay in the East.

There are always going to be factors that are out of the control of any GM, but in Army's case I think he is more conservative than most when it comes down to players who are considering the Blues as an option in free agency. He tends not to give out bad contracts to players who aren't already a part of the roster. Now players he is "re-signing"? That is probably a different story based on your perspective.