For all you whiners, and people who just like to complain and be miserable instead of having perspective of a particular situation look at this...
Sakic had his hands tied this offseason. I've done my best to reply in some of the other threads over the last week and point this out, but most don't want to hear it or acknowledge it. He had a flat cap, a limited amount of space to work with and 3 big dogs (two of which wanted top dollar) to extend. In addition to a couple other role players. Not sure what most of you expected him to do. When all is said and done he did great, especially if Kuemper pans out. The most important part is we are still one of the top 5 teams in the league this year, which is all you want to do....give yourself a shot, but he didn't do anything to screw us for the next few years. What do I mean? Here you go
If you take the forwards and defenseman we already have under contract next season, and assume we will spend about $7 million combined on our two Goaltenders, we are sitting at about $63.5 million if we assume O'Connor gets around $2 million/year. That's WITH EJ on the books. Let's assume he retires, we trade him, or for the sake of this conversation we buy him out. That drops us down to right at $60 million. At that point we have 8 forwards, 4 defenseman, and 2 goaltenders signed.
For the sake of this conversation let's say the cap goes up to $83.5 million. And the 5th/6th defenseman we sign are someone like a MacDonald but maybe costs a little more. We are sitting at about $63 million with a full set of D, both goalies and 8 forwards even with JTC factored in. Let's assume we still have him as a worst case scenario. We have about $20 million we can spend for 4 forwards....that's an AVERAGE of $5 AAV per forward. So if one of the ones we sign is a fourth line type for say $1 million we can go get 3 guys at about $6.5 each.
Most of you need to chill. We can win a cup with this roster. If we have learned anything the last few years, it is that you don't have to be the best team up and down the lineup to make a run. You need to have a good team with some talent, that works hard, gets hot at the right time and gets timely goaltending (were never going to get that with Grubauer). We have given ourselves a chance now with this lineup and have the ability to improve dramatically next offseason while other teams have bad contracts due to overspending this offseason (while Sakic didn't). And if the cap goes up again in 2023 we shouldn't have much of an issue having space for Mackinnon and Byram. Compher alone coming off the books combined with the cap going up to $85-$86 alone creates the extra money for Mackinnon. Then just have to make sure we have some money for Byram.
Your choice if you want to complain with no perspective on the overall situation Sakic faced. He did great
Not sure attacking people's opinions rather than hearing them out and counter arguing the "topic" is the way to put your point across mate? Just my opinion of course. In regards, to next season, I'm thinking we break it down like this though.
+ Top line is still the top line (possibly best in the league)
+ Still have the best defensemen (in my opinion) in the league (and tbh, best forward - again, opinion)
+ EJ is basically a new player to the squad. He's still actually relatively young, and on his day, a ,top pairing D.
+ Francouz is basically a new player (people forget this but he was pushing Grub for the starting spot) Bednar had to confirm (through the media) that Grub was his guy.
+ Calvert has been replaced by Maltzev. While I think Matt was a better player, we still go forward, because Matt never really played?
+ I loved Bellemare. When he signed elsewhere I'm like there goes the lockeroom guy. We got Darren Helm (who has wheels for his age and is faster)
+ Jost improved substantially last season. I copped it left, right and center a season and a half a go for saying he'd come good. I still think he has miles of improvement in him.
+ At SOME point, we have to blood (fulltime) Kaut, Bowers, Newhook & others, they are too good a talent for the juniors, and you don't want too many older players taking their spot. Who knows what their trajectory is, but if it comes off, they could be anything.
BUT, I can't be ALL positive. I hated losing our players. Just hated it, and I went off / bananas on social media. I think we need ONE more buy to balance the team out (you need cheap, but someone with high potential) - i.e. Parise.
This team challenges for the Cup next season (top 2-3 in the league too) - remember people laughed when I said first overall?
Landeskog - Mackinnon - Rantanen
XXXXXX - Kadri - Burakovsky
Jost - Newhook - Nichushkin
Maltzev - Helm - Compher
(Note, EVERY line can score there - 4 forwards I'd say are top 15 in the league - possibly the best potential rookie this coming season)
Toews - Makar
Girard - Johnson
Byram - Macdermid
(More skill, than any other defense in the league - I'd say leagues best)
Kuemper
Francouz
Where did we struggle last season? Size, grit and experience. That's been added to in every sense.
Think about our depth now as well. LOC, Macdonald, JJ are all amazing. Goes even deeper Kaut...and know who I actually loved last season? Middleton - total beast mode (if Macdermid or EJ go down).
Lots and lots to get excited about. Imagine we got say Parise, and he lit it up again on top of all that? Wow. What a team to watch.