News Article: Cap increased to $71mil (MTL will have $27.5)

[Rosso Scuderia]

Am I the only one who actually would be happy if Phaneuf signed here?
He's physical, a leader in one of the hardest city to captain in, and has some pretty nice offensive talent as well.

He'd be a great fit here on our 2nd pairing if he was to agree to that kind of minutes.

He's a good defenseman forced to play 1st pairing minutes in a team that has no one better. We have Subban (and hopefully Markov) and he'd be a great fit behind those 2

Yes, he's a Leaf, yes I hate him, but come on he's not all that bad at all

He's also gonna get paid at around 6.5M$. Do you really want to pay that money for a 3rd defenseman?

I dunno why but I've never been a fan of Phaneuf. Not because he's a Leafs. Not because he's married to Elisha Cuthberg.. he just doesn't strike me as a dominant defenseman or a winner. He's not intimidating... he actually looks stupid for time to time.

 

[Hemlor]

pretty sure Subban is getting more than 7.5 AAV

 

[dkd]

Don't want Phaneuf here.

 

[Uber Coca]

Phaneuf is ridiculously underrated on this board. He averages 24:13 on a terrible defensive corps. Subban - Markov - Phaneuf would be a dominant offensive-minded defense. Not sure about the price.

 

[Kriss E]

He's also gonna get paid at around 6.5M$. Do you really want to pay that money for a 3rd defenseman?

I dunno why but I've never been a fan of Phaneuf. Not because he's a Leafs. Not because he's married to Elisha Cuthberg.. he just doesn't strike me as a dominant defenseman or a winner. He's not intimidating... he actually looks stupid for time to time.

I wouldn't mind paying him that much after we locked PK and Markov, if we have the funds. He would give our defensive core a whole new look.
Him and Girardi are two guys I'd gun for if they become available. Phaneuf is more offensive, Girardi is better defensively and is a righty. Either one though would really strengthen our defense.
Adding one of these guys would make Gorges way more expendable. We could wait to see how Tinordi/Beaulieu show up to camp, but I'm pretty sure they'll be capable of fighting for bottom pair minutes next year.
We should definitely be looking to add another top 3-4D, the better that guy is, the better for us.

 

[BLONG7]

We will have some room, which is nice to hear!!
How he spends it, should be interesting....

 

[Hullois]

- Markov; 3 yrs extention at 6.5 yr 1, 5.5 yr 2, 4.5 yr 3
- Deal Drewiske for 7th, offer Tinordi Murray's role and Beaulieu that of Bouillon's
- 5M left to bring gionta back at 3-4M or a better UFA if you free up more cash.

FORWARDS
Max Pacioretty ($4.500m) / David Desharnais ($3.500m) /
Alex Galchenyuk ($0.925m) / Lars Eller ($3.500m) / Brendan Gallagher ($0.685m)
Rene Bourque ($3.333m) / Tomas Plekanec ($5.000m) / Daniel Briere ($4.000m)
Travis Moen ($1.850m) / Michael Bournival ($0.660m) / Brandon Prust ($2.500m)
Ryan White ($0.750m) / Christian Thomas ($0.808m) /

DEFENSEMEN
Andrei Markov ($5.500m) / P.K. Subban ($7.850m)
Josh Gorges ($3.900m) / Alexei Emelin ($4.100m)
Jarred Tinordi ($0.870m) / Raphael Diaz ($3.000m)
Nathan Beaulieu ($0.925m) /

GOALTENDERS
Carey Price ($6.500m)
Peter Budaj ($1.400m)

BUYOUTS
Tomas Kaberle ($0.000m)
Scott Gomez ($0.000m)

SALARY CAP: $71,100,000; CAP PAYROLL: $66,056,667; BONUSES: $3,419,167
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $5,043,333

It would be awesome if we could sign Subban at a $7.85m cap hit!

 

[hototogisu]

Phaneuf is ridiculously underrated on this board. He averages 24:13 on a terrible defensive corps. Subban - Markov - Phaneuf would be a dominant offensive-minded defense. Not sure about the price.

Yeah...signing Phaneuf to be a #1 would be a mistake, but signing him where he'd be insulated with Subban and (presuming he returns) Markov? No problem with that.

The thing is, Phaneuf will assuredly make more than $7m on his next contract. So is it smart to have your #3 guy making that much money? Not sure.

 

[Avengers*]

Marc Bergevin should try to sign Marian Gaborik or Thomas Vanek.

 

[c3z4r]

Phaneuf is ridiculously underrated on this board. He averages 24:13 on a terrible defensive corps. Subban - Markov - Phaneuf would be a dominant offensive-minded defense. Not sure about the price.

Exactly, people don't realize that Phaneuf never had any help in Toronto. He's been playing with Gunnarson on the first pairing, who is basically Toronto's version of Gorges. Does everyone really think that Markov would play as well as Phaneuf has played with Gunnarson as his partner?

I would personally love to have Phaneuf. He plays some of the hardest minutes in the league and he's doing fine, despite not having a #2 as his partner.

Phaneuf with Subban would be arguably the best pairing in the league, both offensively and defensively. Markov on the second pairing with Emelin would be amazing as well. I mean how many teams can afford to put a guy like Gorges on the third pairing?

 

[WeThreeKings]

Phaneuf sucks.

The guy is a literal pylon. He can't even prevent cross-crease passes. He's brutal.

 

[Oleg Petrov]

pretty sure Subban is getting more than 7.5 AAV

8 years $76 million.
$9.5 per season.

Will be a lot in year 1 & 2, but will be a fair contract come year 3.

No way he signs long term at less then $9 million IMO

 

[Rosso Scuderia]

Phaneuf is ridiculously underrated on this board. He averages 24:13 on a terrible defensive corps. Subban - Markov - Phaneuf would be a dominant offensive-minded defense. Not sure about the price.

I wouldn't mind a top 4 with Subban-Markov-Phaneuf-Emelin.. but that would be quite expensive... Like Kriss E, said, if we can get rid of Gorges contract, then we'll talk..

Let's see if Elisha Cuthbert can do what Maripier Morin did with Prust and try to bring Phaneuf in her hometown.

Girardi would be a good solution for our top 4 too.

 

[Markowicz]

I wouldn't mind a top 4 with Subban-Markov-Phaneuf-Emelin.. but that would be quite expensive... Like Kriss E, said, if we can get rid of Gorges contract, then we'll talk..

Let's see if Elisha Cuthbert can do what Maripier Morin did with Prust and try to bring Phaneuf in her hometown.

Girardi would be a good solution for our top 4 too.

I tend to agree with the idea of trading Gorges. At 3.9m, he's a good value, but not on our team. I think he makes for a very decent 4th d-man on a mid-level team. If we want to win a cup, I think he'd be more like a 5-6 on our team, and at 3.9m he's too expensive to be holding down that role.

So we should try to trade him to a team like say the Devils or Sabres, who are in need of stability on D, but who aren't in serious contention for a cup any time soon. That will free up enough cash for us to get a serious top 4 d-man i suspect.

I don't really want to trade Gorges per say, but I feel like down the road this is the kind of trade you need to make to get to the next level.

 

[Rosso Scuderia]

I tend to agree with the idea of trading Gorges. At 3.9m, he's a good value, but not on our team. I think he makes for a very decent 4th d-man on a mid-level team. If we want to win a cup, I think he'd be more like a 5-6 on our team, and at 3.9m he's too expensive to be holding down that role.

So we should try to trade him to a team like say the Devils or Sabres, who are in need of stability on D, but who aren't in serious contention for a cup any time soon. That will free up enough cash for us to get a serious top 4 d-man i suspect.

I don't really want to trade Gorges per say, but I feel like down the road this is the kind of trade you need to make to get to the next level.

Same here. I have always been a fan of Gorges... but if we can get a legit top 4.. it pushes Gorges down in the bottom pair... and at 3.9M$ it's too expensive.

I still believe he's a guy that you win with. He's a warrior... and yersterday, Damphousse made me realize that Gorges is +36 since joining the Habs 7 years ago... That's pretty good for a defensive defenseman.

 

[Bryson]

8 years $76 million.
$9.5 per season.

Will be a lot in year 1 & 2, but will be a fair contract come year 3.

No way he signs long term at less then $9 million IMO

Wow that would make him the highest paid player in the league (cap wise). I would be disappointed with that. GMs need to be careful about handing out these crazy contracts or we will just be heading to another lock out in a few years again. Geez louise!

 

[Price is Wright]

I wouldn't mind a top 4 with Subban-Markov-Phaneuf-Emelin.. but that would be quite expensive... Like Kriss E, said, if we can get rid of Gorges contract, then we'll talk..

Let's see if Elisha Cuthbert can do what Maripier Morin did with Prust and try to bring Phaneuf in her hometown.

Phaneuf is a solid second pairing D being expected to be a first pairing D and wants to be paid like the best defenceman on a team.

He's like if Roman Hamrlik wanted to be paid $7M by us.

Wow that would make him the highest paid player in the league (cap wise). I would be disappointed with that. GMs need to be careful about handing out these crazy contracts or we will just be heading to another lock out in a few years again. Geez louise!

I'm guessing you missed my post on how much Joe Sakic made in the late 90s and how many players were making over $10M per season before the lockout.

High contracts are not going to lead to a lockout. That's why we have a cap. They actually have very little to do with why there are lockouts. Did you see all of the money dropped for buyouts? Money still goes to those players. Also, stop looking at the CAP HIT and look at the actual salary paid to the player. Also when the cap goes up, the percentage of how much that contract is for the teams total cap money decreases. Pay more attention to that than if the number is merely higher.

 

[Brainiac]

Despite a few contracts, the Habs are actually in good shape with the cap.

Here is the $/player available for 2014-2015:

http://capgeek.com/payrolls/?salary_cap=$71,100,000&charts_year=2014

27M to sign 5-6 players and maybe promote 1-2 guys from Hamilton. Quite sure Bergevin is not losing any sleep over this.

I'd say there's about 7-8 teams that could be in a squeeze, like Chigaco with 7M to sign 6-7 guys. Then you have a bunch of teams with way enough money to sign whatever is available.

And then you have the Capitals, with a 22 men roster and 9M! Hey, they could sign another Ovechkin!

 

[Smokey Thompson]

Wow I was expecting to have more than 2.5-3m after signing Subban, Markov, Eller, Diaz...

 

[PricePkPatch*]

Despite a few contracts, the Habs are actually in good shape with the cap.

Here is the $/player available for 2014-2015:

http://capgeek.com/payrolls/?salary_cap=$71,100,000&charts_year=2014

27M to sign 5-6 players and maybe promote 1-2 guys from Hamilton. Quite sure Bergevin is not losing any sleep over this.

I'd say there's about 7-8 teams that could be in a squeeze, like Chigaco with 7M to sign 6-7 guys. Then you have a bunch of teams with way enough money to sign whatever is available.

And then you have the Capitals, with a 22 men roster and 9M! Hey, they could sign another Ovechkin!

What contracts?

We are actually pretty solid when it comes to our current contracts; absolutely no real albatross.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

Call me crazy but I'm not opposed to being cautious on the UFA front. Unless it's Vanek or something I'd be content not spending to the cap and letting others make Clarkson esque mistakes in a bidding war.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Call me crazy but I'm not opposed to being cautious on the UFA front. Unless it's Vanek or something I'd be content not spending to the cap and letting others make Clarkson esque mistakes in a bidding war.

Taking our current line-up.. I'd trade Bourque since he's not getting any playing time and someone will likely give up a mid range pick for a somewhat productive player on a cheap contract.

Galchenyuk-Plekanec-???? (Gionta gone)
Pacioretty-Desharnais-Gallagher
Bournival-Eller-Briere
Prust-White-Moen

Markov-Subban
?????-Emelin
Gorges-Diaz

Price
Budaj

 

[Habs 4 Life]

Vanek would be a great addition and the goal scorer we desperately need

 

[PricePkPatch*]

Vanek would be a great addition and the goal scorer we desperately need

Vanek is 30 and will want at least 6 years, at 7+ million.

Can we afford that?

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

Vanek would be a great addition and the goal scorer we desperately need

If we want Vanek, we need to trade or not re-sign 2 of Diaz, Gorges, Markov and Bourque. I have not include Desharnais or Brière because i don't think we can trade them without receiving an equal cap dump.