Would you take a bad contract for draft picks?

[HugeInTheShire]

If you're Fitz watching teams scramble to find cap space, would you be willing to do them a favour by taking a contract off their hands if they were offering draft picks as compensation? If so what player and for what picks?

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[JimEIV]

If you're Fitz watching teams scramble to find cap space, would you be willing to do them a favour by taking a contract off their hands if they were offering draft picks as compensation? If so what player and for what picks?

Depends how long the bad contract is...

 

[Devilinlillinois]

It depend how bad is the contract and how high are those draft picks.

 

[hidek91]

If you're Fitz watching teams scramble to find cap space, would you be willing to do them a favour by taking a contract off their hands if they were offering draft picks as compensation? If so what player and for what picks?

Absolutely yes. This would be, in my opinion, the best way to use cap space.

This is something that worked really well for CAR who got Teravainen and #13 in the last draft (they picked Seth Jarvis).

 

[Blackjack]

As a fan? Yeah, I'd love it if they would do something like that. It's the owners that don't want to spend their money to eat a contract for draft picks.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

I'm assuming this isn't a Skinner bad contract, but more like a Paul Byron bad.. I don't think there are enough picks in the world to take Skinner

 

[Devils731]

Easy for me to say yes but as the owner I’d need a certain value to do so.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

I'll take Skinner for Buffalo's unprotected first. A chance at a first overall pick is a risk i'll take despite Skinner playing bad.

One, I think we can help turn Skinner's game around by playing with Hughes. This team needs more goalscorers and help on power play.

Two, if we can leave the draft with Clarke and one of Power/Hughes. The defense would be largely set for next 7 years.

 

[Blackjack]

I'm assuming this isn't a Skinner bad contract, but more like a Paul Byron bad.. I don't think there are enough picks in the world to take Skinner

I'd do, for example, Tyler Johnson for Kyle Palmieri and two first round picks (2022 & 2023).

 

[beekay414]

I'll take Skinner for Buffalo's unprotected first. A chance at a first overall pick is a risk i'll take despite Skinner playing bad.

One, I think we can help turn Skinner's game around by playing with Hughes. This team needs more goalscorers and help on power play.

Two, if we can leave the draft with Clarke and one of Power/Hughes. The defense would be largely set for next 7 years.

Call me crazy but I would need their 2022 unprotected 1st (Shane Wright) and Jack Quinn in order to take on that absolute albatross.

 

[Devils731]

I'll take Skinner for Buffalo's unprotected first. A chance at a first overall pick is a risk i'll take despite Skinner playing bad.

One, I think we can help turn Skinner's game around by playing with Hughes. This team needs more goalscorers and help on power play.

Two, if we can leave the draft with Clarke and one of Power/Hughes. The defense would be largely set for next 7 years.

I would need 3-4 first round picks for Skinner. Even then I’d have to seriously contemplate saying no.

Skinner is like 10% of your cap for the next 6 years. I think I can only talk myself into possibly saying yes by saying I could eat half his contract and flip him for 2 first round picks in 3 years. So I need at least the 4 picks now, maybe 5.

Skinner and his contract are the anti-McDavid right now.

 

[Blender]

2-3 years is probably the tops, and it depends how bad the contract is.

 

[Blackjack]

2-3 years is probably the tops, and it depends how bad the contract is.

Yeah, and even that is very rare, usually the team that eats a contract only eats one year. Skinner and Karlsson type contracts are impossible to move. Karlsson's contract might be the worst in league history at this point. Unbelievable.

 

[MartyOwns]

in principle, yes. but i couldn’t even imagine what the sabres would have to include to take on skinne’s contract

 

[Oneiro]

Before COVID, we could probably have gotten away with it these next 2-3 years.

Circumstances as they are, doing Skinner-level harm to cap flexibility at an inflection point for the team...that's going to require a concrete, absolute win. Even an unprotected No. 1 overall is not good enough.

 

[Brodeur]

Depends on ownership, not every owner will be gung ho about paying 3 million bucks for a 2nd round pick. When Toronto was shopping Patrick Marleau's contract, some teams balked at the 3.83 million in actual dollars required for his buyout. Carolina eventually bit and paid that (plus had a dead cap hit of 6.25 mil) and Toronto's 1st ended up being 13th overall (Seth Jarvis). Other teams probably projected Toronto's pick would have been later in the draft.

Detroit took on Marc Staal's contract (5.7 mil cap hit, 3.2 mil in remaining salary) in exchange for the Rangers' 2nd rounder this year. I'm guessing that Yzerman figured he could trade Staal for another pick at the deadline as well. Money seems tight around the league, so I'm not sure how many owners are going to willingly take on a bad deal. Florida's an interesting team since they run on a tighter budget than most. They've already waived Brett Connolly (2 more years at 3.5 mil AAV) and Anton Stralman (1 more year at 5.5) with the hope somebody might take them off their payroll. They're a team I could see mortgaging a pick/prospect to free up money rather than buy those guys out. Whereas I could see Vancouver just buying out Loui Eriksson (frees up 2 million against the cap) rather than giving up a high pick (to free up 6 million).

 

[Emperoreddy]

Before COVID, we could probably have gotten away with it these next 2-3 years.

Circumstances as they are, doing Skinner-level harm to cap flexibility at an inflection point for the team...that's going to require a concrete, absolute win. Even an unprotected No. 1 overall is not good enough.

Definitely not in this draft which has been really poorly scouted.

 

[Billdo]

If you're Fitz watching teams scramble to find cap space, would you be willing to do them a favour by taking a contract off their hands if they were offering draft picks as compensation? If so what player and for what picks?

All depends on term left on the deal as well as the compensation. If it's a pending UFA who makes too much for the original team to do something else and we get a decent pick then sure. If someone offered us PK Subban for a second with a year left on his deal I'd say no. I wouldn't take a few guys like Lucic, Neal, Okposo, Skinner, etc.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

All depends on term left on the deal as well as the compensation. If it's a pending UFA who makes too much for the original team to do something else and we get a decent pick then sure. If someone offered us PK Subban for a second with a year left on his deal I'd say no. I wouldn't take a few guys like Lucic, Neal, Okposo, Skinner, etc.

I'm sure if they took one they'd be hoping Seattle would take them off our hands, for a lesser price of course

 

[The Wumpus]

Cap space is at an absolute premium right now, so I'd really turn the screws on any team that wants to shed cap.

If we could pick up another 2nd, that could be combined with NYI's 2nd to pick up a solid player like the Devon Toews deal last year.

This is a year I wouldn't mind having a few extra mid-round picks as lotto tickets as well. There should be more mid-round steals than usual due to lack of normal scouting.

Skinner would take 4+ unprotected 1sts. That's how horrible that contract is. The combination of the money, the term, and his falling off a cliff are almost unprecedented. Even if he finds his way back to his career average, it's still an awful deal. The way he's playing now, it's a franchise-killer. Buffalo is seriously crippled until he's gone, and he's unmovable.

 

[Billdo]

Cap space is at an absolute premium right now, so I'd really turn the screws on any team that wants to shed cap.

If we could pick up another 2nd, that could be combined with NYI's 2nd to pick up a solid player like the Devon Toews deal last year.

This is a year I wouldn't mind having a few extra mid-round picks as lotto tickets as well. There should be more mid-round steals than usual due to lack of normal scouting.

Skinner would take 4+ unprotected 1sts. That's how horrible that contract is. The combination of the money, the term, and his falling off a cliff are almost unprecedented. Even if he finds his way back to his career average, it's still an awful deal. The way he's playing now, it's a franchise-killer. Buffalo is seriously crippled until he's gone, and he's unmovable.

Toews is a guy I desperately wanted.

 

[Nubmer6]

I wouldn't even take McDavid for taking on a contract like Skinner's, much less take Eichel or an unprotected 1st from Buffalo. I mean, if you think about it, would you sign McDavid for 9M more than his current contract?

 

[NJDevs26]

They should have done this years ago. The time has probably passed for that because they can't continue on the 'process' indefinitely when they have to try to get people back in the building next year. And like Eddy pointed out you don't even really want an excess of picks this year.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Teams have too many ways (cough LTIR cough) to get out of bad deals. Even last year no one sent out a 1st to unload a bad deal. Maybe the Devils could get Tampa Bay's (likely 20+) 2021 1st to take on Tyler Johnson's remaining deal ($5m x 3). I'd think long and hard about that even with the draft being so weak. Devils could legit use Johnson!

 

[Emperoreddy]

They should have done this years ago. The time has probably passed for that because they can't continue on the 'process' indefinitely when they have to try to get people back in the building next year. And like Eddy pointed out you don't even really want an excess of picks this year.

If they are going to eat a contract, it needs to be for players and not picks.

They need talented veterans to round the lineup out