Around The League 2021-22 season - part IV

[Hisch13r]

lol

 

[Captain3rdLine]

The devils or somebody has to throw a 4.1M offersheet at Kakko. Absolutely no reason not to.

The devils have to if someone else doesn’t. It’s win win for the devils. The rangers either don’t match and the Devils get Kappo Kakko for a second round pick which not only be a complete steal but also hilarious. Or the rangers match and they’re spending 4.1 of their 13.5 in cap space on him and basically have less than 9.5M to sign players with 9 or 10 other contracts expiring (including Strome, Copp, Georgiev) Gotta think their 2nd line center alone will cost at least 5M and then they’ll have at most 4.5 million to resign Georgiev or another goalie and fill out the rest of their roster with at least another 4-6 players. They will be very tight this off-season cap wise no matter what but this would just throw on an extra million or two and squeeze them just a little more. Or we get Kappo Kakko for a 2nd round pick.

It’s hard to imagine them letting a 21 year old 2nd overall pick go for a 2nd round pick especially if it’s a rival who just happened to have picked the guy right ahead of him but,
they may not be able to afford to match.

 

[Hollywood Nosebleed]

I don't think you get a situation where they refuse to match in that range. If we really want to try and poach Kakko, it's going to cost us a 1st.

Agreed, but forcing their hand with Kakko might cost them Copp or Vatrano. Either way it puts them in a bind.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

I don't think you get a situation where they refuse to match in that range. If we really want to try and poach Kakko, it's going to cost us a 1st.

If they match at 4.1 than they have even less cap space. They’re gonna be tight on cap space. 4.1 is probably at an extra 1-2M more than they probably want to spend on him especially with how tight they are.

 

[My3Sons]

Yegor is a horse. I don't know why he just gets ignored.

He doesn't play like one. He's sturdy and strong - which is why he could take on Schneider in a fight he was wholly unprepared for and come out with just a bruise on his head - but he doesn't really do much to protect the puck and while he can win the odd one on one for the puck to my eyes he could win more of them. Now, he's still young, so maybe he can add a bit more of that element to his game. It would serve him well. I like Shara and hope he can be a Devil for a long time. That shot is a weapon and he moves well and passes decently.

 

[Hisch13r]

He doesn't play like one. He's sturdy and strong - which is why he could take on Schneider in a fight he was wholly unprepared for and come out with just a bruise on his head - but he doesn't really do much to protect the puck and while he can win the odd one on one for the puck to my eyes he could win more of them. Now, he's still young, so maybe he can add a bit more of that element to his game. It would serve him well. I like Shara and hope he can be a Devil for a long time. That shot is a weapon and he moves well and passes decently.

Which brings up a different. Why does he need the “beef” if he’s already so successful without it? His best linemate in his career has been a guy smaller than him and with the NTDP as well it was with a guy smaller than him

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Further breakdown of the Rangers non-ideal situation:

Rangers roster going into off-season
Kreider Zibanejad Panarin
Lafreniere ______ _______
Goodrow _______ Kratsov?
_______ Chytil Reaves
Hunt ______


Miller Fox
Lindgren Trouba
Nemeth Schneider
Lundkvist?


Shesterkin
_________


It doesn’t look quite as bad when I do this but the notable missing pieces are a 2C and a 3C. I also pencilled Lafreniere into the top 6 and put Kratsov in on the 3rd line.

As I said we’re probably talking 5M+ to resign Copp or Strome. So, that would leave them at 8.5M in cap space. If they’re resigning Kakko at 4.1M it has to be to play him in a top 6 role because that’s what they need from him especially at that price. So let’s assume they resign him to play on the second line which probably isn’t what they want to do. They now have 4.5M to sign a 3C, a couple other decent bottom 6 guys, Georgiev or a replacement, and possibly another depth defensmen to replace Braun unless they’re really confident in Lundkvist.

FYI, I don’t think Schneider, Kratsov or Lundkvist’s cap hits are counted under the calculation of how much cap space they have so they could have another 2.75M less. Not sure.
Either way they’re very tight and are gonna have to work some magic even without a Kakko offersheet. Wouldn’t want to be them.

Their forward group could look pretty bad after their big 3, 2C signing and Lafreniere going into next season.

 

[Brodeur]

Further breakdown of the Rangers non-ideal situation:

Rangers roster going into off-season
Kreider Zibanejad Panarin
Lafreniere ______ _______
Goodrow _______ Kratsov?
_______ Chytil Reaves
Hunt ______


Miller Fox
Lindgren Trouba
Nemeth Schneider
Lundkvist?


Shesterkin
_________

They'll have Samuel Blais next year, his QO is 1.6 mil. They signed 27 year old Swedish center Gustav Rydahl today. Not sure if he's a 4th line center type, but he's on a 1-way deal so he'd have the inside track to a roster spot.

Kreider-Zibanejad-Lafreniere
Panarin-(Strome?)-Kravtsov
Goodrow-Chytil-Blais
Hunt-(tbd)-Reaves
Rydahl-Gauthier

Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Nemeth-Schneider
Tinordi

Shesterkin-(Georgiev?)

That leaves a little less than 8 mil for Kakko, 2C, 4C, and a backup goalie. Georgiev's QO is 2.65 mil.

 

[Goptor]

Further breakdown of the Rangers non-ideal situation:

Rangers roster going into off-season
Kreider Zibanejad Panarin
Lafreniere ______ _______
Goodrow _______ Kratsov?
_______ Chytil Reaves
Hunt ______


Miller Fox
Lindgren Trouba
Nemeth Schneider
Lundkvist?


Shesterkin
_________


It doesn’t look quite as bad when I do this but the notable missing pieces are a 2C and a 3C. I also pencilled Lafreniere into the top 6 and put Kratsov in on the 3rd line.

As I said we’re probably talking 5M+ to resign Copp or Strome. So, that would leave them at 8.5M in cap space. If they’re resigning Kakko at 4.1M it has to be to play him in a top 6 role because that’s what they need from him especially at that price. So let’s assume they resign him to play on the second line which probably isn’t what they want to do. They now have 4.5M to sign a 3C, a couple other decent bottom 6 guys, Georgiev or a replacement, and possibly another depth defensmen to replace Braun unless they’re really confident in Lundkvist.

FYI, I don’t think Schneider, Kratsov or Lundkvist’s cap hits are counted under the calculation of how much cap space they have so they could have another 2.75M less. Not sure.
Either way they’re very tight and are gonna have to work some magic even without a Kakko offersheet. Wouldn’t want to be them.

Their forward group could look pretty bad after their big 3, 2C signing and Lafreniere going into next season.

They can grab a #2/3 center and then mix and match with Chytil. It wont be ideal but the rest of the roster can make up for the weakness at center.

Copp and Strome were never going to come back, along with Vatrano and also likely Motte. They'll probably have to go with an old guy like Thornton/Spezza/Marleau have been doing recently. An option would be Stastny on a cheap salary with some bonuses added that can be pushed. They'll have to fill out the 4th line with <$1m guys but there are plenty of those players available in UFA.

This year was their push for the Cup because they had a superstar defenseman on an entry level contract.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

They'll have Samuel Blais next year, his QO is 1.6 mil. They signed 27 year old Swedish center Gustav Rydahl today. Not sure if he's a 4th line center type, but he's on a 1-way deal so he'd have the inside track to a roster spot.

Kreider-Zibanejad-Lafreniere
Panarin-(Strome?)-Kravtsov
Goodrow-Chytil-Blais
Hunt-(tbd)-Reaves
Rydahl-Gauthier

Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Nemeth-Schneider
Tinordi

Shesterkin-(Georgiev?)

That leaves a little less than 8 mil for Kakko, 2C, 4C, and a backup goalie. Georgiev's QO is 2.65 mil.

Ya they’re not in a good spot. No guarantee they sign Blais for his qualifying offer though. Rydahl is an unknown but I wouldn’t expect anything much more than a 4th liner. Can put Chytil in as 3C but I’m not sure he’s a a good one.

They can grab a #2/3 center and then mix and match with Chytil. It wont be ideal but the rest of the roster can make up for the weakness at center.

Copp and Strome were never going to come back, along with Vatrano and also likely Motte. They'll probably have to go with an old guy like Thornton/Spezza/Marleau have been doing recently. An option would be Stastny on a cheap salary with some bonuses added that can be pushed. They'll have to fill out the 4th line with <$1m guys but there are plenty of those players available in UFA.

This year was their push for the Cup because they had a superstar defenseman on an entry level contract.

It actually sounds like they are gonna bring back one of Copp (more likely) or Strome. They have very little room to work with and Kakko on 4.1 would be far from ideal.

 

[Hisch13r]

Ya they’re not in a good spot. No guarantee they sign Blais for his qualifying offer though. Rydahl is an unknown but I wouldn’t expect anything much more than a 4th liner. Can put Chytil in as 3C but I’m not sure he’s a a good one.


It actually sounds like they are gonna bring back one of Copp (more likely) or Strome. They have very little room to work with and Kakko on 4.1 would be far from ideal.

Chytil can definitely be a 3C. He's underrated. With how strapped they are I wonder if they sign Strome of the Dylan variety if he's not qualified. It doesn't seem like his value is all that high. He could be a cheap option and you run Strome/Chytil as the 2/3 and hope that can work. Strome's shown the ability to produce with talent

 

[My3Sons]

Which brings up a different. Why does he need the “beef” if he’s already so successful without it? His best linemate in his career has been a guy smaller than him and with the NTDP as well it was with a guy smaller than him

It’s never simple. I will say that if two players have the same skills and skating my guess is the overwhelming majority of hockey fans would prefer the bigger player.

 

[Mgd31]

lol

That guy is my new favorite Rangers fan on Twitter

 

[Hisch13r]

That guy is my new favorite Rangers fan on Twitter

I've followed him for a while. He's great

 

[Eggtimer]

The devils or somebody has to throw a 4.1M offersheet at Kakko. Absolutely no reason not to.

The devils have to if someone else doesn’t. It’s win win for the devils. The rangers either don’t match and the Devils get Kappo Kakko for a second round pick which not only be a complete steal but also hilarious. Or the rangers match and they’re spending 4.1 of their 13.5 in cap space on him and basically have less than 9.5M to sign players with 9 or 10 other contracts expiring (including Strome, Copp, Georgiev) Gotta think their 2nd line center alone will cost at least 5M and then they’ll have at most 4.5 million to resign Georgiev or another goalie and fill out the rest of their roster with at least another 4-6 players. They will be very tight this off-season cap wise no matter what but this would just throw on an extra million or two and squeeze them just a little more. Or we get Kappo Kakko for a 2nd round pick.

It’s hard to imagine them letting a 21 year old 2nd overall pick go for a 2nd round pick especially if it’s a rival who just happened to have picked the guy right ahead of him but,
they may not be able to afford to match.

I’m all for trying to offer sheet him . I don’t see anything negative about it if you keep the offer below the first round pick compensation .
End result is win-win for us . Either it screws the Rangers by forcing them to give up previous cap space on a player that is not their priority , lessens the amount they can spend on a 2c and pretty well much forces them to use Kakko in their lineup . I’m sure they won’t want 4.2 mil cap invested in a guy that sits in the press box . Might caused strained relations with the cisvjng staff or hard for them to find a place for Kratzov ( who they just signed to a one way deal ). If them matching an offer curved them to play Kakko over Kratzov , which results in the Rangers losing Kratzov then …. all the better .
If they walk away from matching the offer , then we get a hood prospect for a 2 nd round pick .
Only negative I can see is having to wait on the Rangers to make their decision . That’s a week of not knowing what’s happening with your cap at the 4.3 mil offer , which might effect how we act on UFA’s and trades ?

 

[Hisch13r]

I’m all for trying to offer sheet him . I don’t see anything negative about it if you keep the offer below the first round pick compensation .
End result is win-win for us . Either it screws the Rangers by forcing them to give up previous cap space on a player that is not their priority , lessens the amount they can spend on a 2c and pretty well much forces them to use Kakko in their lineup . I’m sure they won’t want 4.2 mil cap invested in a guy that sits in the press box . Might caused strained relations with the cisvjng staff or hard for them to find a place for Kratzov ( who they just signed to a one way deal ). If them matching an offer curved them to play Kakko over Kratzov , which results in the Rangers losing Kratzov then …. all the better .
If they walk away from matching the offer , then we get a hood prospect for a 2 nd round pick .
Only negative I can see is having to wait on the Rangers to make their decision . That’s a week of not knowing what’s happening with your cap at the 4.3 mil offer , which might effect how we act on UFA’s and trades ?

You can go 10% over in the offseason. We’re not a team that having 4.2 locked away will matter

 

[glenwo2]

Can we all promise not to be complete fools and scare this new guy away? TG had a surprisingly high tolerance for our fanbase.

I think it was the trolls at FIRE AND ICE that did that.

Ryan is going to end up getting poached to somewhere better before the season actually starts and we'll end up back to having nothing.

eh.

TG covered the Devils for 14 years before being "poached".

I doubt anyone will come calling right now for Ryan.

 

[Camille the Eel]

I’m all for trying to offer sheet him . I don’t see anything negative about it if you keep the offer below the first round pick compensation .
End result is win-win for us . Either it screws the Rangers by forcing them to give up previous cap space on a player that is not their priority , lessens the amount they can spend on a 2c and pretty well much forces them to use Kakko in their lineup . I’m sure they won’t want 4.2 mil cap invested in a guy that sits in the press box . Might caused strained relations with the cisvjng staff or hard for them to find a place for Kratzov ( who they just signed to a one way deal ). If them matching an offer curved them to play Kakko over Kratzov , which results in the Rangers losing Kratzov then …. all the better .
If they walk away from matching the offer , then we get a hood prospect for a 2 nd round pick .
Only negative I can see is having to wait on the Rangers to make their decision . That’s a week of not knowing what’s happening with your cap at the 4.3 mil offer , which might effect how we act on UFA’s and trades ?

The obvious questions are what do you think of Kakko and do we want to pay him 4 million plus. I have no strong opinion of him either way but I do think letting roster decisions be made based, not upon the players proper merits, but instead on how offer sheeting him may screw the rival organization is not the right method.

So the question, do we want Kakko on our club next year, supposing the Rangers don’t match? Maybe there are better players to spend the 4 million on or towards?

 

[Hisch13r]

The obvious questions are what do you think of Kakko and do we want to pay him 4 million plus. I have no strong opinion of him either way but I do think letting roster decisions be made based, not upon the players proper merits, but instead on how offer sheeting him may screw the rival organization is not the right method.

So the question, do we want Kakko on our club next year, supposing the Rangers don’t match? Maybe there are better players to spend the 4 million on or towards?

Kakko at 4 mil is an overpay for what he currently is. On the other hand there's a lot more upside here than say Mikheyev who is another middle 6er I'd like for around that much. Mikheyev is better right now but give me the 21 year old 2nd overall pick who is already a quality 3rd line defensive forward and has top 6 offensive upside. Guys like Barkov and Rantanen broke out at 20 and 21. Now I don't think Kakko ever reaches that level or the Hossa-esque 70-80 two way beast that his pre draft expectations were but I think him becoming like a 60 pt two way wing is certainly possible. Maybe it's not that much and instead he tops out like 40-50. I still take that everyday over a 2nd rounder

 

[Eggtimer]

The obvious questions are what do you think of Kakko and do we want to pay him 4 million plus. I have no strong opinion of him either way but I do think letting roster decisions be made based, not upon the players proper merits, but instead on how offer sheeting him may screw the rival organization is not the right method.

So the question, do we want Kakko on our club next year, supposing the Rangers don’t match? Maybe there are better players to spend the 4 million on or towards?

I’m not sure what to think . Him or Puljujarvi wouod be the type of low’ish cost and high potential deal I’d like to see . Both fill needs ,are young , haven’t reached their potential yet . Might be a situation where you buy low and get a hell of a player . Like a Bennet deal .
I don’t think either are that bad as they currently are . Even if they don’t break out I think they have value . Maybe not 4mil per value but you are betting on some improvement and that 4 mil could be a bargain .
So do we gamble on a player like that at 4 mil or slightly overpay on a Nuke type signing fir 5-6 mil ? Or maybe Neiderrieder for slightly less ?

 

[NJDevs26]

I think it was the trolls at FIRE AND ICE that did that.


eh.

TG covered the Devils for 14 years before being "poached".

I doubt anyone will come calling right now for Ryan.

I mean the Athletic still doesn’t have a ‘full time’ writer for us so maybe they’ll wind up hiring this guy and Shayna can go back to the Rangers lol

 

[glenwo2]

The obvious questions are what do you think of Kakko and do we want to pay him 4 million plus. I have no strong opinion of him either way but I do think letting roster decisions be made based, not upon the players proper merits, but instead on how offer sheeting him may screw the rival organization is not the right method.

So the question, do we want Kakko on our club next year, supposing the Rangers don’t match? Maybe there are better players to spend the 4 million on or towards?

Kakko is just 21 and he was among the better players in the playoffs (if we go by that recent tweet).

No reason not to AT LEAST toss an offer sheet his way and see what the Rags do.

As @Captain3rdLine pointed out, it's either the Rags matching and making s--t more difficult for them to re-sign players OR we get Kakko and have both the #1 and #2 picks from that draft playing on the Devils. Win/Win

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

much rather sign someone for the middle 6 than trade anything for Kakko tbh.

 

[OmNomNom]

He doesn't play like one. He's sturdy and strong - which is why he could take on Schneider in a fight he was wholly unprepared for and come out with just a bruise on his head - but he doesn't really do much to protect the puck and while he can win the odd one on one for the puck to my eyes he could win more of them. Now, he's still young, so maybe he can add a bit more of that element to his game. It would serve him well. I like Shara and hope he can be a Devil for a long time. That shot is a weapon and he moves well and passes decently.

Agreed, if he was more physical it would be great. Fortunately, his frame looks like there's room to fill out

 

[jkrdevil]

While Kakko is better than Dryden Hunt, I have no interest in investing in him to stick it to the Rangers.