Speculation: 2014-15 Off-Season Talk

[DFC]

Sabres will buyout Ehrhoff. Could be a fit?

If we hadn't just brought Garrison in, I would have thought so. Now, he's another LHD. Not sure if we could go after him.

But wow, that's pretty big.

 

[Coopers Gum]

The tank is on in Buffalo. They aren't even trying to hide it.

 

[2 Weekes Notice]

I don't really want to be the team that wins the inevitable Ehrhoff bidding war, but this can be a really good thing. Could definitely drive the prices of Stralman, Fayne, etc down.

 

[Kramerica Industries]

Could be a great alternative to Stralman and Fayne, financially. We'll see what happens, but this does change the market a bit.

 

[The Wyzerhood]

Garrison was a great pick-up that will solidify the top 4, but is once again another LH shot. Hopefully we're in for one of Fayne or Stralman, however we don't have much cap room to play with. If I had to choose between the two, it'd probably be Stralman since he'd have the Swedish connection with Hedman and did reasonably well against the opposition's top lines last season.

If we could sign Stralman for 4 years around 5 mil/year, would that be worth it? Or does that handicap us too much in the future? We'll have some young guys to re-sign in a few years and I'm not sure if Stralman can sustain his play from last season or if he is the final piece of the puzzle to solidify our top 4...

 

[ThunderRoad]

If we hadn't just brought Garrison in, I would have thought so. Now, he's another LHD. Not sure if we could go after him.

But wow, that's pretty big.

True, but from what I have read Garrison can play the right side and Ehrhoff plays primarily the same side. Either could be paired with Hedman or Carle.

And Ehrhoff should be familiar with Bowness, which could be a good or bad thing depending on if he liked playing for him.

 

[The Macho King]

If we can get Ehrhoff too, we could roll:

Hedman-Ehrhoff
Carle-Gudas
Garrison-Sustr/Brewer/Barberio

Brewer is getting up there and could probably use a lesser role, and we let Sustr, Gudas, and Barbs earn their time. Flip that around as necessary.

 

[chasespace]

If we can get Ehrhoff too, we could roll:

Hedman-Ehrhoff
Carle-Gudas
Garrison-Sustr/Brewer/Barberio

Brewer is getting up there and could probably use a lesser role, and we let Sustr, Gudas, and Barbs earn their time. Flip that around as necessary.

All the left-handed defense

 

[The Macho King]

All the left-handed defense

Ehrhoff plays the right side fine, as can Garrison. I guess I'm less concerned about handedness than some. It would be nice if you could have 3 left and 3 right, but that's hard to pull off.

 

[Kusic]

With Garrison our defensive corps looks much better, but I am still hoping for adding another D-man.

Hedman - Stralman/Ehrhoff
Garrison - Carle
Gudas - Brewer
Barberio

 

[chasespace]

With Garrison our defensive corps looks much better, but I am still hoping for adding another D-man.

Hedman - Stralman/Ehrhoff
Garrison - Carle
Gudas - Brewer
Barberio

Sustr?

 

[Kusic]

Sustr?

Syracuse.. 1st callup.

 

[DFC]

Ehrhoff plays the right side fine, as can Garrison. I guess I'm less concerned about handedness than some. It would be nice if you could have 3 left and 3 right, but that's hard to pull off.

I didn't realize that about Erhoff, but it definitely makes you think about the possibility.

The thing about handedness, I think, is more something we're all aware of about Yzerman. He pays close attention to his Dmen's handedness, which was cited over and over as the main reason why PK Subban had a hard time making the Olympic team.

But anyway, I guess my only real concern is Erhoff would be asking for decent term and everyone's asking for a NTC these days, and I'm not sure we should be gung-ho about locking up too many 30ish D-men for a lot of years at the same time that we're trying to move some prospects in. I guess that's a bridge we'd cross when we came to it though.

 

[FDfranklin]

How much cap space do we have left? Don't we still have a few players to sign as well as pick up a back up goalie?

 

[DFC]

How much cap space do we have left? Don't we still have a few players to sign as well as pick up a back up goalie?

Yzerman snuck a little quote into a recent interview that he might be looking to move salary (forwards). One can only assume he means Teddy Purcell. However, I'm not sure if that gets us within reach of Erhoff. Unless we go with Kristers as a backup after all, but I doubt that happens.

 

[Kusic]

How much cap space do we have left? Don't we still have a few players to sign as well as pick up a back up goalie?

$4,154,565 per CapGeek but with Ohlund's contract.
.
.
$7,761,708 with Ohlund on LTIR.
.
.
...and $12,261,708 if we can trade Purcell without salary return.

 

[ThunderRoad]

$4,154,565 per CapGeek but with Ohlund's contract.
.
.
$7,761,708 with Ohlund on LTIR.
.
.
...and $12,261,708 if we can trade Purcell without salary return.

Cap space is there to go after Ehrhoff. He will also be getting salary from Buffalo in the buyout, so may be bit more reasonable in asking price per year. Would he be interested in Tampa as an end destination would be the question. Really wonder what his relationship was with Bowness when he left Vancouver.

Ehrhoff would make our defense solid and Tampa a real contender without needing any one player to stand on his head during the season. And signing Christian could go along with allowing more development time for the youngsters, depending of course on how many years Ehrhoff's camp demands.

Regardless this is one situation that has popped up that would be great for Tampa, like how the Garrison trade came out of nowhere.

Plus, it goes along with the apparent destiny for Tampa to sign and reunite former Canuck defensemen.

 

[newham89]

Ehrhoff would be ideal for what we need!

 

[Lord Stan 2020]

id rather move purcell and connolly get pysyk pick and some middle tweeners for ahl who are physical forward types of guys etc.. for the salaries in out than erhoff he is gonna get paid 5 million im thinking at least.

sign a decent back up goalie.

i dont like pysyk as much as most but he is solid top four. dont see offense or physicality but makes few mistakes.

 

[Todd1a]

id rather move purcell and connolly get pysyk pick and some middle tweeners for ahl who are physical forward types of guys etc.. for the salaries in out than erhoff he is gonna get paid 5 million im thinking at least.

sign a decent back up goalie.

i dont like pysyk as much as most but he is solid top four. dont see offense or physicality but makes few mistakes.

Ya I like this move rather then add another heavy cap hit contract! We can't tie are contracts up too long stamkos and bishop are due for big raises down the years.

 

[Jacko95]

I would love Ehrhoff here, but he will look for at least 4-5 years as well and we can't lock up all our defenders so long. I mean at some point Koekkoek and Co will beat them out IMO and then we are stuck with the cap. Do not want that. We should leave the rest of the battle to cheaper younger guys. Maybe sign a reclamation project for cheap and hope he rebounds. Or just sign Zach Redmond and have a great battle for the last spot between him, Barbs and Sustr.

 

[BOLTMAN]

$4,154,565 per CapGeek but with Ohlund's contract.
.
.
$7,761,708 with Ohlund on LTIR.
.
.
...and $12,261,708 if we can trade Purcell without salary return.

How does this exactly work?

Why would we not want to do this and why has this not been done last season or the year before.

I grew up in simpler times.

 

[DFC]

I would love Ehrhoff here, but he will look for at least 4-5 years as well and we can't lock up all our defenders so long. I mean at some point Koekkoek and Co will beat them out IMO and then we are stuck with the cap. Do not want that. We should leave the rest of the battle to cheaper younger guys. Maybe sign a reclamation project for cheap and hope he rebounds. Or just sign Zach Redmond and have a great battle for the last spot between him, Barbs and Sustr.

Yeah, I think there's some long-term benefit to going with the younger guys. I wouldn't be opposed to going after Ehrhoff, and I assume Yzerman's going to kick the tires, but that would probably cost Sustr his spot wouldn't it? In the near-term, that would make us better, but there's something to be said for getting Sustr NHL experience. It would be different if he couldn't handle it, but it seems like he can.

 

[Leonardo87]

The tank is on in Buffalo. They aren't even trying to hide it.

Yes, but they have potential....

Garrison was a great pick-up that will solidify the top 4, but is once again another LH shot. Hopefully we're in for one of Fayne or Stralman, however we don't have much cap room to play with. If I had to choose between the two, it'd probably be Stralman since he'd have the Swedish connection with Hedman and did reasonably well against the opposition's top lines last season.

If we could sign Stralman for 4 years around 5 mil/year, would that be worth it? Or does that handicap us too much in the future? We'll have some young guys to re-sign in a few years and I'm not sure if Stralman can sustain his play from last season or if he is the final piece of the puzzle to solidify our top 4...

I think Stralman would be a good pick up, I've seen him play hundreds of games with the Rangers, and he is a solid top 4 D.

id rather move purcell and connolly get pysyk pick and some middle tweeners for ahl who are physical forward types of guys etc.. for the salaries in out than erhoff he is gonna get paid 5 million im thinking at least.

sign a decent back up goalie.

i dont like pysyk as much as most but he is solid top four. dont see offense or physicality but makes few mistakes.

I have not seen enough games to really make an opinion on Purcell like you guys have, but his numbers don't seem bad at all. Prior to this season he has put up excellent numbers and he is still in his prime.

 

[ThunderRoad]

Brewer only has one more year on his contract, last year on Prospal's buyout, Purcell's salary gets moved - will give flexibility the next couple seasons. Wouldn't think Brewer would be brought back so Sustr could move into a regular spot. Another year for Sustr in Syracuse wouldn't be a bad thing for his development.

If Tampa could get Ehrhoff for no more than 4 years that would be great. Of course if he wants a 5 to 6 year deal, then that becomes difficult to justify.