Langway
In den Wolken
- Jul 7, 2006
- 32,523
- 9,249
Ideally, yes, but if we're maintaining the same Cup level standard then at the salary slots they'll have remaining that's probably not going to happen. Boyd did well in a very limited soft minute role but could hardly crack the lineup in the playoffs even when the coaching staff had minimal trust in the fourth-line as it was. He likely has no business on a third line or being relied upon to be more than he was this past season. As much as these are relatively minor depth issues, it can be the difference between advancing or going home in a tight series (or even making the playoffs should other more fundamental issues exist). It may be inevitable that they won't have the pieces to seriously contend again until they've manufactured more energetic and effective forward depth, even if they do manage to retain Connolly. It becomes even more essential if they're relying upon a defense that's very bend-y and getting older rather than something younger and more assertive/downhill. That's the crux of the issue with Niskanen. He can do his job passably for the most part but is he capable of doing it at a Cup level going forward in a style likely to be successful? I'm not sure he is from an energy standpoint and the underlying trends are concerning. It might be a bit early to conclude that he's done contributing at a high enough level, particularly when Jensen hasn't proven a superior replacement, but it also may be inevitable that the defense won't truly allow them to contend again until there's a quality infusion of young legs capable of readily eating hard minutes.
Running the numbers, even in the most optimistic scenarios it looks like they'd have at most something in the area of $7.25M or so for Vrana & Connolly if they make no cap clearing moves beyond not giving Burakovsky & Jaskin QOs. It's not going to work as-is barring everything going in their favor when it comes to the cap rising another six percent, getting all other depth players done very cheaply and then also managing to perhaps bridge Vrana and persuade Connolly to take a hometown discount. Even then they'd likely be a third-liner short. That's even with a 22 player roster and there's no assurance the cap will rise that much again. That's not to say their window is closed but barring much better core and coaching staff performance overall, it's hard to see a thinner roster with a few key depth weaknesses enabling a long run. They're going to need to adapt the roster and probably in some ways shake it up. If they believe Niskanen's best days are behind him and can somehow still get what they believe is strong value then it makes sense. There's risk, sure, but they also may not believe the mix and general approach as-is has another deep run in them anyway.
You never know but it doesn't seem like Mahoney is a front-runner.
