Confirmed with Link: Connolly, Riley Stillman and Henrik Borgstrom plus a 7th Rd pick in exchange for Carlsson/Wallmark

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

I can’t believe we were able to get rid of Connollys contract.

 

[letsgrowcactus]

Cap space is twice as valuable in the current environment. IMO we overpaid to get Connolly off the books. I'm fine with this as long as we actually do something with the cap space (this year or the next two).

...unless the rest of the trade is smokescreen to get Carlsson who is about to be transformed into a top pairing D

 

[pb1300]

Risto and Hall. I’m down with that.

 

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

Cap space is twice as valuable in the current environment. IMO we overpaid to get Connolly off the books. I'm fine with this as long as we actually do something with the cap space (this year or the next two).

...unless the rest of the trade is smokescreen to get Carlsson who is about to be transformed into a top pairing D

How did we overpay? Stillman sucks and Borgstroms never gonna amount to anything.

 

[GrumpyKelly]

Borg is interesting, he was always considered a late bloomer. Maybe he is a REALLY late one, who knows. Has the skill and did more with his time in the nhl than Tippett for example but then fell off a cliff.

Really hard to evaluate his potential at this point but I gotta trust Z on this one.

 

[Mogo]

It's proration.

If the league started on Monday, we would only have 4.1 M in cap space. But due to number of games left, 4M is similar to 18M.

As an example, here is Taylor Hall

Left Wing

Cap Hit: $8,000,000
Daily Cap Hit: $68,966
Accumulated Daily Cap Hit

: $5,862,069
Remaining Daily Cap Hit

: $2,137,931

If we trade for him ON MONDAY, his remaining cap hit would be lower than the 2.1. Ordinarily, we wouldnt be able to fit his 8M cap hit. But due to proration, we can.

Thanks

Would his cap hit then be 1M$ if Buffalo eat 50%?

 

[Gentle Man]

Thanks

Would his cap hit then be 1M$ if Buffalo eat 50%?

yep. Exactly that

 

[RogerRoger]

It cost Borg and Stillman to get rid of Conn. It reminds me of the Bolland+Crouse deal. The Calculator came in and traded a prospect and contract the didn't like for a 2nd+4th.

It's not too shabby, it will make re-signing players this off season that much easier.

 

[Pigge]

Cap space is twice as valuable in the current environment. IMO we overpaid to get Connolly off the books. I'm fine with this as long as we actually do something with the cap space (this year or the next two).

...unless the rest of the trade is smokescreen to get Carlsson who is about to be transformed into a top pairing D

Indeed. The owners may enjoy the lower costs, but the team was better off with Connolly on the bench than a bag of cash. Even in this outlier down season he was a solid +4, which is better than most of our bottom 6 players.

 

[letsgrowcactus]

How did we overpay? Stillman sucks and Borgstroms never gonna amount to anything.

That's where we disagree, I guess.
It's not a bad trade as long as we use that cap space.

 

[GrumpyKelly]

That's where we disagree, I guess.
It's not a bad trade as long as we use that cap space.

Yeah Borg doesn't suck but many guys who can't make it in the nhl don't suck, their game just isn't suited for the NA game. Lots of skilled players playing abroad.

 

[violaswallet]

I’m curious if this means to at Barkov agrees to re sign and we need to clear some money out now so we can get more help next offseason

 

[Chaos2k7]

We have so much money tied up on the backend. Zitos focus should be there if at all possible

 

[ShootIt]

How did we overpay? Stillman sucks and Borgstroms never gonna amount to anything.

I still think Stillman can get better but yea, at this point he was well worth giving up to dump Con.

Hopefully Zito is showing he doesn't think every prospect is the next great untradeable player.

 

[RogerRoger]

I’m curious if this means to at Barkov agrees to re sign and we need to clear some money out now so we can get more help next offseason

3,5M in cap space can help for a bunch of different moves, but we don't have enough information to pin point which move it will be.

 

[PanthersHockey1]

I have to believe if yandle couldve been moved he already would have been. Zito isn't stupid that is for sure. No one wants that bum.

 

[I am not exposed]

He might rub off on somebody.

That is disturbing....I can see why he is traded often now!

 

[Fern111]

I always really liked Stillman, kinda bummed that he's gone.

Connolly was very hit or miss, I'm not heartbroken though.

 

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

This is definitely a precursor trade too

 

[Crossbar]

I'm only upset to see Stiller go, the kid was a real tough SOB to play against. Hoping we will replace him with another tough SOB, but with plenty NHL seasons under their belt. Borg has been a bust and Conn was a waste of cap space dating back to the 2nd half of last season.

"Walmart" was pretty good for us in the faceoff dot and PKing, so not a complete waste getting him back in this if it rids us of Conn, it probably also means we're not getting Glendening.

 

[TLEH]

Can stillman skate ?

 

[GrumpyKelly]

I have to believe if yandle couldve been moved he already would have been. Zito isn't stupid that is for sure. No one wants that bum.

I don't think he's moving until summer. They got a lot of bad press before the season started when there were rumors that he isn't in the starting lineup. Now they can't bench or trade him because they would "kill his streak".

 

[SoupyFIN]

Connolly - top9 forward, fell out of favour here because of the new guys coming in, rather have someone else on the 4th line.

Borgstrom - mystery box, good Liiga season, but little to no development in the two years prior to that. Also potentially bridges burned with FLA management.

Stillman - depth d-man, maybe solid 3rd pairing guy if things work out. I'm not loosing sleep over this.

Carlsson and Wallmark, thrown in to make the contracts work. I doubt either plays, especially Wallmark.

A lot depends how Borgstrom turns out, but I guess this was the price to get rid of Connolly. Fair trade IMO

I’d wager this is much less of clearing space for this deadline and much more of clearing space for the next two years.

Bingo.

I mentioned this earlier in the season, it's better to move Connolly while he still has some value, before he sits too much and is buyout material or costs us too much to get rid of.

He’s got the skill but not sure the mentality and maturity is there, maybe he gets there eventually (it wouldn’t surprise me).

Remember, he was fresh out of the Finnish junior leagues when we drafted him (AKA no real competition), played 2 seasons in college (AKA like 2 games a week, < 80 total games), and Dale rushed him right to the NHL. He should been in the AHL from day 1 after college (or maybe even went back for another season) and then stayed there for 2 full years minimum.

Idk why you're trying to put a DT angle on this, when it's not there.

Burning off a year from your ELC happens to almost every high profile NCAA guy coming in, and Borgstrom was arguably the most hyped college guy at the time.

Boughner deciding to play Borgstrom also isn't the GM's fault. If the GM supposedly forced a player into the line-up (which I doubt happened), the coach can just healthy scratch him until the GM is forced to send the player back to the minors. More likely that Boughner thought learning in the big league is the way to go, and that obviously wasn't the right choice.

I'd also like to put some blame on Borgstrom. "Our AHL team sucks" is a decent excuse, but when Borgstrom comes back at the end of the summer and he hasn't developed.. it's a two-way street. There was also that reported incident where he pouted about being sent to the AHL, after playing terrible training camp, terrible in the AHL, and terrible when he did get a chance in the NHL.

 

[GrumpyKelly]

I'm only upset to see Stiller go, the kid was a real tough SOB to play against. Hoping we will replace him with another tough SOB, but with plenty NHL seasons under their belt. Borg has been a bust and Conn was a waste of cap space dating back to the 2nd half of last season.

Yeah Stillman was a good soldier. He just doesn't have any playmaking or offensive ability, only defense. Those guys are replaced easily.

 

[SJSharksfan39]

Wait, this Hall to Florida thing might happen? I was trying to be nice in my original post, but if this is actually happening I won't be as nice. Hall comes across as a bit of a cancer to any team he is on. Edmonton sucked with him, Arizona, he was useless, and Buffalo has been a terrible team and Hall hasn't done much to actually improve. The Cats have a strong enough core that Hall coming in to disrupt that might be more detrimental than it's worth.