If we signed Semin to a 2/3 year deal at 7 million per, we would have 42 million tied up in 7 players by 2014-2015 (Staal's, Skinner, Ward, Semin, Ruutu and Gleason).
Factor in Faulk raise: Let's say he gets a 5 year, 25 million dollar deal. That's 47 million in 8 players.
Now,
Dwyer at 1 million.
Jokinen (resigned) at 3 million.
Pitkanen (resigned) at 3.5 million.
McBain/Harrison at 2 million.
Jiri Tlusty/LaRose at 1.75 million.
Bowman at 1 million.
63 million in 16 players. We still need:
2 forwards.
1/2 defenseman.
A backup goalie.
(bare minimum to ice an NHL roster)
At around 5-8 million dollars, or an average of less than a million per player.
Given how our prospect pipeline looks, only Rask and Murphy will contribute as anything above solid NHL'ers on cheap ass contracts, so I would be wary of signing Semin to 7 million a year. If he regresses at all, we are screwed. We need him to be a PPG winger. So far, he has done slightly below that, but given the amount of iron he has hit, the woeful success of our power play and general learning curve, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
But enough beating around the bush: if we sign Semin, then this is going to be our core for the next 5 years. No turning back. The question is, do we want to go into April year in, year out with an offensive attack that features the Staal's, Skinner and Semin? Are we comfortable with the defense as it stands? If we sign Semin to a longer term deal, then we simply won't have the money to get a significant upgrade to our defense, which is concerning given that Pitkanen is close to 30. His freakish stamina won't last forever.
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