I'm going to get crucified for this one, but different take on moving Backes contract.
To New Jersey: David Backes + Jaroslav Halak
To Boston: Cory Schneider + Miles Wood
I think Schneider is much better than his numbers the last 3 years have shown and even then his SV% is right there with guys like Martin Jones & Jonathan Quick. If you look at Schneider when he's on, he's a very good goalie that can put up Vezina like numbers. His last 3 years of products are not far of from where Halak was when he came to Boston...
JH - 2.82 GAA / .913 SV%
CS - 2.90 GAA / .907 SV%
The 3 years prior to this, CS was a completely different goalie:
CS - 2.14 GAA / .924 SV%
So who knows, maybe he can pull a Halak and improve his numbers. With the team built here, I think he could. And maybe he gets back to his playing form from his first 3 years in New Jersey. If it doesn't work out, you buy him out in the off-season 4yrs @ $2 million per.
As for the rest... Halak gives the Devils a solid goaltender coming off a good year and can pair with Blackwood. They also would not be committed to Halak long term and could target someone like Holtby should he make it to FA.
Boston may need to add for Wood to come back, but the way I was looking at it...
Backes Contract > Schneider Contract (Because its 1yr less and less real money owed)
Halak would be an upgrade over Schneider
Is this enough to justify Wood coming back? no idea.
Again, just another idea. Angrily reply away.
Only problem i see is next year when it becomes much more important to clear cap. Backes might be hard to move this year... hes alot easier next season
Bringing in a more difficult contract isnt the way to go... save our cash for debrusk/krug/coyle and the chara bonus penalty we will suffer this year
Its likely we will ltir backes... likely we will eventually trade miller and probably moore too... then prob max our cap due to new deals for mcavoy and carlo
Eventually bonus money earnt will push our cap over the year end limit and effect next season.
Krug/coyle/debrusk might be resigned during this season but tagging rules are tricky
We probably only have chara as someone coming up on a big contract who we are willing to lose... and he doesnt give us much room
It looks like miller/moore need to go soon (depending how ltir ends up being applied)
And then backes or krejci or krug or someone else in the 6 mill range has to go next year
And no one making more than elc can come in to replace these outgoing guys
If you want expensive additions... plan on trading someone currently making money other than backes/miller/moore
