Bergevin Discussion Part VI [Mod Warning Posts #450, #906]

[habalifeok]

I agree with you. And I resent that the state of affairs makes us sounds like a broken record, while the team is squandering Price and Subban's best years.

Subban and Price have agreed to play for the Habs and in return receive ample compensation for their services.They are treated like royalty and are reverered (for the most part) by countless fans. And the team is squandering their best years how?

 

[Winter Eclipse]

Kassian isn't a guaranteed top 6 winger, but he is probably going to be deployed like one and he does have the skill to be one right now. He actually currently has the skill to be a top 6 winger, it's just inconsistency and injuries that have plagued him.

Again, based on what? His 16 point effort last season?

As for Patrick Sharp, you went as far back as 6 years to claim why he is good. Everyone knows Patrick Sharp is a good player. But the most important season is the most recent season he played, and that has been his worst season in almost a decade.

So one 51-point season is an unequivocal sign of decline? And if "the last season" is the most important, why is Kassian's 16 point, 31 point pace a strong sign of Top 6 potential?

Even Hawks fans were saying they were disappointed in his season this year, and as he gets older, there really isn't much room for improvement, is there?

Again, 51 point pace, 3 Stanley Cups, coming from a REAL no excuses, championship team environment. I'm really struggling to understand how all that is somehow less valuable than a 24 year old, injury prone, inconsistent, career .33 PPG player.

Add in a 5.9M dollar contract, and his age, declining stats, and cap hit are all very unappetizing. I personally would rather Kassian, who costed us nothing and gained us a draft pick, whose cap hit is barely existant, and give him a chance in the top 6 instead of handicapping our team with another big cap hit in Sharp.

Again, you keep saying he's "Top 6" but have literally provided zero arguments supporting that assessment.

He had 16 points last season.
He was on a 31 point pace last season.
He's injury prone.
He's a career .33 PPG player.

He cost us nothing and has a non-existent cap hit for a reason, man.

Man, for Kassian, 27 games in his first season is nothing to go off of. Collberg isn't a bust, but he is 21 and his NHL career doesn't look promising. Some have written him off, some haven't, but it isn't at all comparable because Kassian actually played 27 games at 20 years old. Sekac played double the games that Kassian played, and he was 23, after having already played pro hockey. It's not even comparable. You saying Kassian "couldn't meet his potential" at 20 years old, playing 27 games as a rookie in his first stint as a pro, is just not genuine. Your point makes no sense. Complaining about his 27 game callup in Buffalo? Come on, man.

Kassian has 198 NHL games to his credit and is 24, and has abysmal "Top 6" stats. Downplaying his actual performances is ridiculous. I don't care how young he was when he first played in the NHL, I care how he's played in the NHL, and he's played like a stick of gum: serviceable, but sure as **** not a steak.

He's done nothing to show Top 6 potential. Absolutely nothing.

His injury history is clearly not a good thing, and is probably part of the reason he got traded, along with his inconsistency. Apparently though, management believes he is past his injury issues. All we can do is be hopeful they are right, because he has the skill to be an impact player today, and continue to improve tomorrow.

Inconsistent.
Injury prone.
.33 PPG career player.
.38 PPG last season.
16 points last season.

Honestly, the only thing he's done that demonstrates Top 6 potential is being acquired by Marc Bergevin.

Would you rather have traded for Sharp or for Kassian, and why?

I would've preferred Sharp. "Worst season of his career" was a 51 point effort. He brings what I believe would've been a great attitude from a REAL championship team, and as a LW he essentially forces the lazy, laisse-faire management to seriously look at our Center situation.

Kassian is another Bergevin Special: safe, low-risk, bottom 6.

People shouldn't see the Kassian acquisition as a final piece. It's just being negative to be negative.

Going into the playoffs for 2016 we'll have kassian and Hudon, Andrighetto, McCarron, Scherbak, etc... pushing at the door.

Not to mention trade deadline acquisitions.

It's entirely possible the top 6/9 looks better as the season goes on. Even if Kassian should bust completely(I think he'll be inconsistent but not a complete bust) there will be younger and more talented players knocking on the door anyway. Add in the obvious potential for a trade as the season goes on and there's plenty of reason to believe things can be addressed. It's not like MB has shied away from deadline deals. One might argue he got the best fish available 2 years in a row.

I've seen this movie before; do you want spoilers?

 

[FireBurningBin]

Subban and Price have agreed to play for the Habs and in return receive ample compensation for their services.They are treated like royalty and are reverered (for the most part) by countless fans. And the team is squandering their best years how?

Because our offense isn't good enough to win a cup, and as it seem, Bergevin is looking for prospects who are several years away to be the solution, as he so far hasn't shown much will to pay the price for top 6 talent unless things fall into his lap like Vanek.

And even then, our coach has shown a lot of distrust in integrating young offensive talent into the lineup.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Did I?

You most definitely did. I'm not sure if it was unintentional or not but you missed the point completely.

Most people agree that the Kassian trade was a good one. Just like most people agree that the Weiss trade was a good one. But neither of them are core players. He still hasn't done anything in this regard for the top six. It's a legitmate argument and you keep trying to avoid it.

Because I'm pretty sure the rest of his post was filled with sarcasm without any actual point, something Lshap just finished warning against doing. My point was that he exaggerated everything, and look what he ended up doing!

If you have an issue with a post... report it. Don't sit there and lecture on what LSHAP warned people about.

As far as I can see there's ZERO wrong with that particular post other than the fact that he disagrees with you and is doing a good job raising some solid arguments against your position.

Read the damn post!

Take your own advice.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I think this is incredibly, probably even foolishly, optimistic. I'd be outright shocked if more than one of those four players made the team out of camp; doubly so if Therrien doesn't very quickly bury them on the 3rd/4th lines and not give them offensive opportunities to succeed.

Does nobody remember what Therrien did to Andrighetto for pete's sake? 3 points, 3 games, 4th line for you! Banished to Hamilton, never recalled again. Why would we expect Hudon to get treated any better? Why would we expect Therrien to give a guy fresh out of major junior much leash? If they don't play 'da system' right away, to Therrien's liking, into the doghouse they go, and they could be a long, long time getting out of it. If ever.

Unless MB does add another top six player, I don't see how the coach will have a choice. He'll HAVE to play some of those kids.

He described the prospects as "Pushing at the door", as in getting closer, not all of them making the team.

And despite the melodrama in your post, just last season we saw no less than three prospects, Beaulieu, Pateryn, and De la Rose, join the roster under Therrien. This year will be no different -- expect a few prospects called up and at least one to make the team.

Right, but on the flipside though... how were they used?

Beaulieu played his best hockey of the season when he was used heavily because of injuries. He was our 3rd best blueliner last year, but when we got healthy it was back to the bottom pairing. Therrien certainly hasn't helped these guys. And as far as I'm concerned, MT is MB's biggest mistake.

I agree with you. And I resent that the state of affairs makes us sounds like a broken record, while the team is squandering Price and Subban's best years.

If we don't add to the top six...this will be a legit concern. We can't afford to squander another year. A guy like Kessel was exactly what we needed. We can speculate on whether or not the Leafs would've dealt him to us but there's no denying that they got very little from the Pens. To me, that's a missed opportunity.

Flip it around though, if MB does make a big trade... this offseason winds up looking great.

My biggest concern is this... I think we'll need a great trade if we want to win a cup. I think we'll need a good first line RW to make a real run at it. Even if we made the finals it'll be LA or Chicago to go through and we're not strong enough to do it even with Price playing Godlike. It's not enough for Bergevin to be merely good now... we need him to really step up. Otherwise he will be remembered as the GM who squandered our best core since '93.

 

[Miller Time]

think there's a few posts you didnt read...


I mean, come on man, you justify paying 2.9M for a bottom pairing D and turn around and talk about missed opportunity and mistake cause we're overpaying for one of the best D in the league, our best player after Price...

Gilbert got market value, & delivered on par or above expectations. UFA's that aren't reclamation projects generally don't come cheap.

Emelin or dd would be more appropriate criticisms, since MB paid unnecessary premiums there.

Pk isn't even overpaid. We just could have had him cheaper at a time that would have been incredibly fortunate.

 

[ECWHSWI]

Gilbert got market value, & delivered on par or above expectations. UFA's that aren't reclamation projects generally don't come cheap.

Emelin or dd would be more appropriate criticisms, since MB paid unnecessary premiums there.

Pk isn't even overpaid. We just could have had him cheaper at a time that would have been incredibly fortunate.

2.9M on the third pair...

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Gilbert got market value, & delivered on par or above expectations. UFA's that aren't reclamation projects generally don't come cheap.

Emelin or dd would be more appropriate criticisms, since MB paid unnecessary premiums there.

Pk isn't even overpaid. We just could have had him cheaper at a time that would have been incredibly fortunate.

Yup.

I find there's way too much black/white arguments in terms of MB right now. There are legitimate critcisms that can be made against him. The coaching/lack of big moves/contract negotiations... but on the other hand he has made some savvy trades. He's not the disaster that some have argued but on the other hand he also hasn't been great and he gets too much credit from some people for a core that he didn't really have a hand in building.

The moves he has made this offseason have been good. I just think people want to see more from him. I think we'll need more from him if we want to legitimately make a run for the cup too - and that's why people are antsy right now.

 

[habalifeok]

Because our offense isn't good enough to win a cup, and as it seem, Bergevin is looking for prospects who are several years away to be the solution, as he so far hasn't shown much will to pay the price for top 6 talent unless things fall into his lap like Vanek.

And even then, our coach has shown a lot of distrust in integrating young offensive talent into the lineup.

Hudon,Andrighetto are on the verge this year,Carr could make it and Scherbak and McCarron are not far off.
And Therrien hasn't played young offensive players like Galchenyuk,Gallagher as well as defensive youngsters like de la Rose, Beaulieu and Patteryn?
All the while if Montreal Could have scratched out 6 more goals in certain games last year to post 2 more victorys, Top team in the whole friggin NHL Baby.
Quit selling this team short!!!!

 

[Cole Caulifield]

Something tells me the Chicago Blackhawks will be a Cup Contender again next year, while the Dallas Stars will continue to fight to get into the playoffs

But yeah...sure...It's the Stars who are benefitting here

Edit - as for cap space...the Hawks have been a 'cap team' for years, yet have won their 3rd Cup in 6 years. Funny how that works???

The Hawks have identified their core and they've spent massive amounts of money to keep them, they realize that everything around that core is moving pieces and because they well and make astute trades, they're able to operate successfully while being a 'cap team'.

Cap space, or lack their of, doesn't seem to matter to them...but bah! what do they know!

Without the cap they could have retained players like Campbell, Ladd, Byfuglien, Oduya, Sharp, Leddy, Brouwer, Bolland, Saad...

Perhaps they'd have more than 3 cups in 6 years, especially when you consider how close they came when they lost in 7 to the LAK in 2014 ?

To say the cap hasn't affected them or "doesn't matter to them"... it's misguided at best.

 

[Andy]

Without the cap they could have retained players like Campbell, Ladd, Byfuglien, Oduya, Sharp, Leddy, Brouwer, Bolland, Saad...

Perhaps they'd have more than 3 cups in 6 years, especially when you consider how close they came when they lost in 7 to the LAK in 2014 ?

To say the cap hasn't affected them or "doesn't matter to them"... it's misguided at best.

Totally agreed. Talon did a great job at building the club, but Bowman has been masterful at finding ways to endure cap causalities and keep the Hawks competitive. Like you said, it doesn't correspond to reality to think the Hawks haven't been affected by the cap. In an ideal non-cap world, I'm sure the hawks would have preferred to have kept all those players. Could you imagine how dominant they would be? My god.

There is no doubt the cap forces some really hard decisions. Keeping a core together becomes an extremely hard thing to; and keeping that core competitive by surrounding it with the necessary depth to win a cup is even harder.

 

[ECWHSWI]

Totally agreed. Talon did a great job at building the club, but Bowman has been masterful at finding ways to endure cap causalities and keep the Hawks competitive. Like you said, it doesn't correspond to reality to think the Hawks haven't been affected by the cap. In an ideal non-cap world, I'm sure the hawks would have preferred to have kept all those players. Could you imagine how dominant they would be? My god.

There is no doubt the cap forces some really hard decisions. Keeping a core together becomes an extremely hard thing to; and keeping that core competitive by surrounding it with the necessary depth to win a cup is even harder.

the obvious is, "cap doesnt matter" as in, it doesnt prevent them from making changes to their roster and it doesnt prevent them from being contenders AGAIN...

as opposed to these parts of HF where people complain we ONLY have X amount of cap space left, will we have enough to get a top 6 play, or this D or that back up G.

 

[417]

Without the cap they could have retained players like Campbell, Ladd, Byfuglien, Oduya, Sharp, Leddy, Brouwer, Bolland, Saad...

Perhaps they'd have more than 3 cups in 6 years, especially when you consider how close they came when they lost in 7 to the LAK in 2014 ?

To say the cap hasn't affected them or "doesn't matter to them"... it's misguided at best.

You realize that teams can't keep EVERYONE... So no, they couldn't have kept all those guys even if they wanted too

3 cups in 6 years and you're saying what? They could of has 6 cups in 6 years??

Jeez lol

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

And you don't think they would have spent that 'extra cap space'?

Uh... yeah. Duh. But they could have spent it on PK AND another player (or at least a portion of his salary) instead of just PK, in this alternate world where he is in the middle of a 5x5 contract instead of early days of an 8x8. That's kind of obviously how that works.

 

[Cole Caulifield]

You realize that teams can't keep EVERYONE... So no, they couldn't have kept all those guys even if they wanted too

3 cups in 6 years and you're saying what? They could of has 6 cups in 6 years??

Jeez lol

Why not ? What do you mean ?

How about the '76 habs ? They kept all the good players they wanted.

Do you remember the Detroit/Colorado teams of old ? They kept everyone they wanted, and had LOADED rosters... always looking to add more.

The wings at one point had Hull, Shanahan, Fedorov, Robitaille, Yzerman, Datsyuk, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Chelios, Hasek, Draper...

Rosters like the 01-02 wings and 76 habs would be impossible nowadays.... because of the cap. To deny it is ludicrous.

And yeah man, if they could have kept all these players, they likely would have beat the LAK in '14... would at least have 4 cups instead of 6.

 

[417]

Totally agreed. Talon did a great job at building the club, but Bowman has been masterful at finding ways to endure cap causalities and keep the Hawks competitive. Like you said, it doesn't correspond to reality to think the Hawks haven't been affected by the cap. In an ideal non-cap world, I'm sure the hawks would have preferred to have kept all those players. Could you imagine how dominant they would be? My god.

There is no doubt the cap forces some really hard decisions. Keeping a core together becomes an extremely hard thing to; and keeping that core competitive by surrounding it with the necessary depth to win a cup is even harder.

But we are in a cap world... So that means it's impossible to keep everyone, there's a price for success, the better your team, the harder it is to keep it intact

Smart teams like the Hawks, identify their core and move parts around it

The Hawks have Kane, Toews, Hossa, Keith, Seabrook, hjalmarsson and Crawford as their core players, the rest is moving parts

Thats the reality of the cap these days.. No one, not even I, has argued that the cap is not important

It's just that fans these days think teams can't make moves cause they're up against the cap, which, isn't true at all... If you draft well, develop players the right way, make astute trades, managing the cap is pretty much just a numbers game... They pay people a whole lot of money to manage that

The Hawks will always be competitive because even if they have to move complimentary parts, they still have tons of prospects to take over and they also do a great job of getting value back in their trades (Saad trade, imo, is a perfect example)

 

[habalifeok]

Not sure how Oduya will do in Dallas. Hes best remembered in Winnipeg for a line out of a Claude Noel interview following a Habs-Jets game. Early in the game Oduya served up the puck to Camalleri of the Habs. Camalleri buried it. Noel referred to the play as Oduya serving up a big free slice of pizza. Thus some people in Winnipeg still remember him as Johnny "free pizza for everyone" Oduya.
Then he turns up winning 2 rings in Chicago. Like who knows. Cant say if Dallas did ok on this signing. Time will tell.

 

[Cole Caulifield]

Thats the reality of the cap these days.. No one, not even I, has argued that the cap is not important

Earlier you said the cap doesn't matter to the hawks... now you say it's important ?

I guess I don't understand what you're trying to say then..

 

[PricePkPatch*]

Uh... yeah. Duh. But they could have spent it on PK AND another player (or at least a portion of his salary) instead of just PK, in this alternate world where he is in the middle of a 5x5 contract instead of early days of an 8x8. That's kind of obviously how that works.

If we were in the middle of this 5x5 contract, we would be panicking at next year's massive increase in pay Subban would potentially get and the possibility he goes UFA

 

[LyricalLyricist]

I think this is incredibly, probably even foolishly, optimistic. I'd be outright shocked if more than one of those four players made the team out of camp; doubly so if Therrien doesn't very quickly bury them on the 3rd/4th lines and not give them offensive opportunities to succeed.

Does nobody remember what Therrien did to Andrighetto for pete's sake? 3 points, 3 games, 4th line for you! Banished to Hamilton, never recalled again. Why would we expect Hudon to get treated any better? Why would we expect Therrien to give a guy fresh out of major junior much leash? If they don't play 'da system' right away, to Therrien's liking, into the doghouse they go, and they could be a long, long time getting out of it. If ever.

No idea what this has to do with anything. Even if you're unsure about our prospects fitting in ASAP there's still trade deadline acquisitions.

As for our prospects fitting in. Gallagher and Galchenyuk got consistent top 6/9 roles since they were rookies. Never on 4th line, never sent down.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

Which is a failure on Bergevin's part. He could have brought someone in like Jacques Martin as a consultant to help familiarize himself with the roster.

Bringing in the coach who just got fired doesn't always end up with unbiased results.

I agree with you though, he should've fast tracked it a bit.

 

[JohnLennon]

Again, based on what? His 16 point effort last season?

So one 51-point season is an unequivocal sign of decline? And if "the last season" is the most important, why is Kassian's 16 point, 31 point pace a strong sign of Top 6 potential?

Again, 51 point pace, 3 Stanley Cups, coming from a REAL no excuses, championship team environment. I'm really struggling to understand how all that is somehow less valuable than a 24 year old, injury prone, inconsistent, career .33 PPG player.

Again, you keep saying he's "Top 6" but have literally provided zero arguments supporting that assessment.

He had 16 points last season.
He was on a 31 point pace last season.
He's injury prone.
He's a career .33 PPG player.

He cost us nothing and has a non-existent cap hit for a reason, man.

Kassian has 198 NHL games to his credit and is 24, and has abysmal "Top 6" stats. Downplaying his actual performances is ridiculous. I don't care how young he was when he first played in the NHL, I care how he's played in the NHL, and he's played like a stick of gum: serviceable, but sure as **** not a steak.

He's done nothing to show Top 6 potential. Absolutely nothing.

Inconsistent.
Injury prone.
.33 PPG career player.
.38 PPG last season.
16 points last season.

Honestly, the only thing he's done that demonstrates Top 6 potential is being acquired by Marc Bergevin.

I would've preferred Sharp. "Worst season of his career" was a 51 point effort. He brings what I believe would've been a great attitude from a REAL championship team, and as a LW he essentially forces the lazy, laisse-faire management to seriously look at our Center situation.

Kassian is another Bergevin Special: safe, low-risk, bottom 6.

Oh man, come on dude, you're making completely illogical comparisons in every single one of your posts. It's too much. You compare multiple players in completely different situations and hold them to the same standards... it makes absolutely no sense. You literally complained that Kassian didn't show enough in his first 27 games in the NHL, which makes no sense already as is, and then compared him to Collberg, who hasn't played an NHL game, and Sekac, who already had loads of pro hockey experience. Now, you're comparing Kassian to Sharp?

Sure, let's do it. Yes, 51 points is good on paper. But when you consider that he played on the best top 6 in the entire league, his entire season was criticized by fans of his own team, he is turning 34 and only going to continue to decline with age, and is paid 5.9M, there's very little reason a team like the Habs should even attempt to trade for him. The only justification you have is that you hope his stats won't continue to decline and he won the Stanley Cup. It doesn't address the fact that it would completely ruin our salary cap, and you conveniently keep ignoring that extremely important fact. Patrick Sharp for 5.9M is simply not worth it, especially when he is getting older and his play has gotten worse, both statistically and from what his own fanbase observes.

I only said that Kassian has the skill level to be top-6 right now, and will probably be deployed like one, and that's just my opinion. He looked amazing with the Canucks at times last season, and has proven before in the juniors and AHL that he can be a top player. You can see by the way he plays that he does have high skill.,. it's as simple as that. He just hasn't proven that he can produce at the NHL level yet, which is why we were able to acquire him. There is simply no justification in not giving this guy a shot as opposed to screwing our cap issues even more with an aging, expensive and declining Patrick Sharp on our roster. Patrick Sharp does not belong on a team like the Habs, not at all.

You most definitely did. I'm not sure if it was unintentional or not but you missed the point completely.

Most people agree that the Kassian trade was a good one. Just like most people agree that the Weiss trade was a good one. But neither of them are core players. He still hasn't done anything in this regard for the top six. It's a legitmate argument and you keep trying to avoid it.

As you can see, the debate is still ongoing... If it's your opinion that I missed his point 7 posts ago, then it doesn't really matter anymore, does it? Basically all we are talking about is the top 6 right now, and yet you literally claim I'm "trying to avoid it". We're better than that here, man. You can just read our discussion and see that we are discussing the top 6 at length.

For the record, I'd prefer we acquire an additional, established top 6 forward, but (as I've stated many times) I don't think those that were available this offseason were very good or worth the price. I'm very glad we didn't trade for Sharp, and although I would've like Kessel, that cap hit was just too much. Those were probably two of the biggest names out there, and neither would fit on this team. If Kassian can get 40 points next season, which is very doable in my opinion, I'll be very happy with this trade and think it will have addressed at least a fair portion of our top 6 scoring woes, as that is already an upgrade over PAP/Weise.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Oh man, come on dude, you're making completely illogical comparisons in every single one of your posts. It's too much. You compare multiple players in completely different situations and hold them to the same standards... it makes absolutely no sense. You literally complained that Kassian didn't show enough in his first 27 games in the NHL, which makes no sense already as is, and then compared him to Collberg, who hasn't played an NHL game, and Sekac, who already had loads of pro hockey experience. Now, you're comparing Kassian to Sharp?

Sure, let's do it. Yes, 51 points is good on paper. But when you consider that he played on the best top 6 in the entire league, his entire season was criticized by fans of his own team, he is turning 34 and only going to continue to decline with age, and is paid 5.9M, there's very little reason a team like the Habs should even attempt to trade for him. The only justification you have is that you hope his stats won't continue to decline and he won the Stanley Cup. It doesn't address the fact that it would completely ruin our salary cap, and you conveniently keep ignoring that extremely important fact. Patrick Sharp for 5.9M is simply not worth it, especially when he is getting older and his play has gotten worse, both statistically and from what his own fanbase observes.

I only said that Kassian has the skill level to be top-6 right now, and will probably be deployed like one, and that's just my opinion. He looked amazing with the Canucks at times last season, and has proven before in the juniors and AHL that he can be a top player. You can see by the way he plays that he does have high skill.,. it's as simple as that. He just hasn't proven that he can produce at the NHL level yet, which is why we were able to acquire him. There is simply no justification in not giving this guy a shot as opposed to screwing our cap issues even more with an aging, expensive and declining Patrick Sharp on our roster. Patrick Sharp does not belong on a team like the Habs, not at all.



As you can see, the debate is still ongoing... If it's your opinion that I missed his point 7 posts ago, then it doesn't really matter anymore, does it? Basically all we are talking about is the top 6 right now, and yet you literally claim I'm "trying to avoid it". We're better than that here, man. You can just read our discussion and see that we are discussing the top 6 at length.

For the record, I'd prefer we acquire an additional, established top 6 forward, but (as I've stated many times) I don't think those that were available this offseason were very good or worth the price. I'm very glad we didn't trade for Sharp, and although I would've like Kessel, that cap hit was just too much. Those were probably two of the biggest names out there, and neither would fit on this team. If Kassian can get 40 points next season, which is very doable in my opinion, I'll be very happy with this trade and think it will have addressed at least a fair portion of our top 6 scoring woes, as that is already an upgrade over PAP/Weise.

If the cap hit for Kessel is too much, get them to eat salary or give them a salary dump. It's not hard to do.

 

[Miller Time]

2.9M on the third pair...

Who played 2nd pairing minutes until petry arrived...

Who, for the season, averaged 30sec a night less than our 4.1M (rfa signed) "2nd pairing" guy...

Who we went into the year with as the #2 RHD on the roster....


& even if you want to emphasize Gilbert signing as more concerning, reality is that MB would have been able to target a better D-upgrade last offseason if he had access to the extra 3.5M

6.4M vs 2.9M significantly alters the pool of ufa/trade options you can consider.

(& yes, I realize there was a small cap buffer starting the season)

 

[dmanfish90]

Who played 2nd pairing minutes until petry arrived...

Who, for the season, averaged 30sec a night less than our 4.1M (rfa signed) "2nd pairing" guy...

Who we went into the year with as the #2 RHD on the roster....


& even if you want to emphasize Gilbert signing as more concerning, reality is that MB would have been able to target a better D-upgrade last offseason if he had access to the extra 3.5M

6.4M vs 2.9M significantly alters the pool of ufa/trade options you can consider.

(& yes, I realize there was a small cap buffer starting the season)

So who did you want to overpay for and give a long-term contract? Was it Dan Boyle? Brooks Orpik? Deryk Engelland? Or what about Matt Niskanen? Stephane Robidas? I could keep going if you like but do you get the point...?