Alberta_OReilly_Fan
Bruin fan since 1975
This is going to be one huge wall of text for alot of you
but hopefully those who brave on have some fun
So I am a Boston Bruin fan. Im very confident these trades would make my team better. Im hoping the fans of the other teams might like my proposals though and even if they dont, im trying to use some logic. I think if theres some logic the entire thing is a bit more interesting. Sweeney and Neely are both talking big about changes on the team... and Bruins might have a lot of cap space if they move krug/rask. Bruins were known to be after Tavares and Kovalchuk in recent off-seasons so I think theres a long standing desire to improve a second scoring line. Theres also been some issues with an undersized defense that gets exposed at playoff time. And obviously the Rask situation is very unsettling for a cup contender.
Im targeting arizona and buffalo as both teams seam to be motivated to get cheaper. I also have columbus on the sights mostly because its hard to find places i think krejci fits at his caphit.
The Starting point for building a new 23 man roster with my own team is that Im planning on keeping 11 forwards currently owned by the team on next years 23 man roster... also keeping just 4 dmen... and im only keeping the 1 goalie...
my starting cap hit including all buyouts and bonus overage is $49,033,196 for 16 players
-i will have around 32 mill to add 7 outside players to complete a 23 man roster
-as a note, I wont be resigning UFA Torey Krug/Joakim Nordstrom.
trade chips currently on the bruins depth chart that will be moving
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$7,250,000 David Krecji
$7,000,000 Tuuka Rask
the rights to negotiate with Torey Krug}
$2,750,000 John Moore {i will retain 1.25 mill}
$1,600,000 Andres Bjork
$1,300,000 Chris Wagner
RFA Jake Debrusk
RFA Matt Grzelyck
prospect Urho Vaikainen
prospect Jacob Zboril
prospect Jeremy Swayman
and the exciting new replacements to make the team better after my 3 trades are
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$9,850,000 Taylor Hall {this is the same deal Tyler Seguin has}
$8,250,000 Oliver Ekman Larsson {upgrade over Torey Krug}
$4,500,000 Darcy Kuemper {if he works out hes our goalie of future}
$2,850,000 Brandon Montadore {offer him an extra year for slight le$$
$2,000,000 Michael Grabner {small retain from Arizona}
$3,000,000 Josh Anderson {modest 3 year deal}
$1,000,000 Zdeno Chara {the final piece to the puzzle}
Im also going to agree to take on the Brandon Dubinsky LTIR
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now for trade breakdowns
trade #1
From Arizona
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Oliver Ekman_Larsson $8,250,000 x 7 years
Taylor Hall UFA rights
Michael Grabner $3,350,000 x 1 year {arizona retains 1,350,000)
Darcy Kuemper $4,500,000 x 2 years
to Arizona
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Tuuka Rask 7,000,000 {give him half a year off to waive his NTC}
Andres Bjork 1,600,000
Chris Wagner 1,350,000
Jake Debrusk RFA
Matt Grzelyck RFA
Jacob Zboril
Urho Vaikainen minors
Jeremy Swayman minors
trade #2
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From Columbus
Josh Anderson RFA
Brandon Dubinsky LTIR {$5,850,000}
to Columbus
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David Krejci 7,250,000
trade number 3
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From Buffalo
Brandon Montador {supposedy they dont intend to qualify him}
to Buffalo
John Moore (1,250,000 retained making him a 1.5 mill hit}
conditional later pick based on Montador scoring
and then send Torey Krug for the best possible return elsewhere
free agent $igning$... {Im being generous but id negotiate and attempt to get better deals}
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Taylor Hall gets the big Tyler Seguin deal 8 years x $9,85 mill
Brandon Montador convince him to take a Brandon Carlo prove it deal 2 x 2.85
Josh Anderson gives up some ufa years 3 x 3 million
Zdeno Chara takes the chris chelious special... a 1 mill deal to hang around as long as he wants
NEW TEAM LINEUP after all the heavy lifting
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Taylor Hall/Charlie Coyle/David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand/Patrice Bergeron/Ondrej Kase
Sean Kuraly/Jack Studnicka/Josh Anderson
Nick Ritchie/Trent Federic/Michael Grabner
Par Lindholm/Zach Senshyn
Oliver Ekman Larson/Charlie McAvoy
Jeremy Lauzon/Brandon Carlo
Zdeno Chara/Brandon Montour
Conor Clifton
Darcy Kuemper
Jaroslav Halak
cap hit before the brandon dubinsky ltir is $80,733,196
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the rest of this is just some thoughts on a few of my ideas
1/Taylor Hall is underrated by alot of posters. The argument is he isnt a winner. His time in the OHL PROVES HE LOVES TO WIN. They say he was a lousy person in Edmonton... that entire locker room was dysfunctional. They say he didnt win in Jersey... the guy won the god damn league hart MVP award! Pastrnak has never really thrived with slow playmakers like Krejci/Bergeron. Give this kid a speed demon playmaker like Hall and I predict a 5-on-5 lethal combination.
2/Charlie Coyle is slightly miscast on top line... but another poster reminded me when Steven Rucchin used to center for Kariya and Selanne. Seems like its worth trying for us until Studnicka develops.
3/the 'second line' will still get plenty of icetime but Bergeron/marchand are better when allowed to focus more on defense. Let them continue their PP dominance but as they age let them save some energy not having to face the top checking everynight. Kase was a chance creating monster without alot of results on the 3rd line... no one is better at putting in chances then Bergeron/Marchand.
4/Put Kuraly with Studnicka to help with the heavy lifting. Josh Anderson gets a fresh start. Two big wingers to help studnicka until he bulks up.
5/Tell Nick Ritchie he is fighting for his NHL future... let him see if he can get in shape. Either he wants it or he doesnt. Meanwhile break in Federic so the onus on fighting doesnt lay with just 1 guy. Grabner single handled adds more scoring threat to the 4th line than its had in years.
6/Lindholm is a great depth guy who can play any position if someone needs a night off... Senyshn will lose on Waivers if we dont carry him. He can bump Grabner to LW if Ritchie doesnt respond and keep his spot} Im letting the popular Nordstrom go to open up some room for less expensive kids here
7/I would invite some training camp tryouts just so that Federic has some competition... shouldnt hand him a job} Karson Kuhlman is NHL ready imho but he can still clear waivers... he would be my first call-up) Anton Blidh should pass through waivers and would probably be my second callup
8/Oliver Ekman Larsson has gone from being one the most over-rated dmen in NHL when fans said they wouldnt trade him straight up for Austin Matthews... to now one of the most underrated. Has playing in that dogturd organization out in Arizona deheartened him? I daresay it seems obvious. Did you know he has gone to the world championships 4 of the last 6 years and in 34 world championship games for a decent team he has 9 goals-23 assists for 32 points?!?
as a comparable Krug and Larson are both 29 now. Krug has played 523 career games and has just 67 goals and 337 ponts. in larsons last 545 regular season games he has 108 goals and 297 points. Larson had to do it without any help but hes a MUCH MUCH MUCH better goal scorer than Krug! He is a 3-zone all-situation 23.30 min per game stud. The contract is scary... but hes 1 of the top 15 dmen in the league... they are all going to get paid. Hell the talk is Krug wants over 7 mill himself... Larsson is a much much better player.
9/i have Lauzon slotted in second pair... if that doesnt work we will simply have to move Chara up to compensate. Luckily Larson loves icetime and can play 30 mins on nights we run into problems.
10/The Montour thing... I like it. This kid obviously stunk in Buffalo but he tore up juniors and AHL. He was so good in Anaheim they gave up Theodore to keep him. Then Buffalo was an iceberg... but look how Bogosian stunk there too? I dont think Buffalo is a very good place to play for 75% of players. Im offering him slightly less than his qualifyer but im giving him the security of a 2 year deal. My prediction is he will light things up in Boston and be picked by Seattle in the expansion... but thats OK. That would spare us from losing Lauzon. I think we can only protect 3 dmen and those would be Larson, McAvoy, Carlo. If we tried to keep a guy like Grzelyck we could manage for a year but we'd lose him anyhow. Luckily we made some astute college free agent signings on defense. Jack Ahcan can move into the Montadore spot next year. I wouldnt be surpriced to see Nick Wolfe in contention to replace Chara when Chara finally hangs them up.
11/Darcy Kuemper is probably still unknown to some...
-since start of 2017 Kuemper has the best save % in nhl of guys that started more than 12 games .924 in 113 games
-hes won 55-lost just 38 on some very bad teams... 15 ot loses
-his goals against is 4th behind just binnington/bishop/rask
-he is considered an excellent handler of the puck too... and they say he has some flaws in his game a goalie coach might fix.
-this is still basically a guy with upside even though hes 30
-trading swayman would bother alot of people... but Kuemper can be our goalie of the future for 5-7 years and vladar has shown enough to me i feel save going with him as a backup and see just how much upside he has {after halak goes of course... i think we will need to resign halak next year so we have a goalie under contract to expose?}
i feel the benefits to us are rather obvious. its a cap-compliant team. scoring is massively upgraded. team 'toughness' is addressed/improved. team speed is improved. Brandon Carlo is the only new contract next year and we will have the Backes money and the cap overage money off the books. its not until 2 years when we have to afford McAvoy that we might be in tight. Possibly that would mean letting Kase go? Grabner can be replaced and save us a million. Halak could save us over a million if we replace him. I think we will be able to sign McAvoy without wholesale changes to the team.
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so... why does Arizona do this?
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Wagner for Grabner is a straight cash savings and gives them a warm body with a pulse... im giving them zboril for the rights to a guy they cant sign... Im giving them a goalie Swayman and the rights to Tuuka Rask they can flip at the deadline... and a pretty useful cheap forward Andres Bjork for their goalie Kuemper who will be in his mid 30s by the time their rebuild is done now... and that means i am offering jake debrusk/urho vaikainen, and Matt Grzelyck for ekman larson.
Arizona will end up paying around 12 mill estimated for 5 guys Debrusk/Grzelyck/Bjork/Wagner/Zboril {once they flip rask}
instead of 15ish mill for just 3 guys Larson/Grabner/Kuemper
so why does Columbus do this?
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honestly im not sure if Dubinsky's contract is insured or not... if it is the deal becomes slightly less desirable for them. But Krejci is the must better player now than Anderson. Anderson needs a change of scenery. Columbus needs a legitimate second line scoring center. Im not 100% sure about their cap situation though
so why does buffalo do this?
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at a 1.5 caphit john moore has some value... Montadore has no value at all if they arent going to qualify him. Im throwing in some additional value in a conditional pick. I think Montadore can QB the second PP and theres a chance he could actually do even more if he bounces back. he is a speedy puckmover too and chara needs a partner with mobility.
so... any thoughts... i dont expect anyone to tackle this entire wall of text but im interested in any breakdowns you might have. Fire away.
