Yes, restructuring the team would take moving out some core pieces. Some guys that "hurt." That's EXACTLY why people were proposing a trade around John Carlson. He's the core piece that hits that best blend of valuable in a trade and potentially replaceable by a UFA (Hamilton). Some folks are still clamoring for Kuznetsov to be moved, even despite the lack of replacement options.
I'm all for treating your stars with respect. But that doesn't mean you never trade any core pieces. Carlson isn't on that Ovechkin or Backstrom level. Additionally, if the plan is to never trade any of the core players, I don't know why they aren't trying to shave off more AAV off their contracts by giving them full NMCs. Instead they go for partial NTCs. Why give them a defacto NMC without the potential negotiation and cap benefits of a full NMC?
But did they? Fehervary has a clear spot now. That's about it unless Kempny is gimpy and Alexeyev beats out Irwin for the other spot rather than put a RD on the left. I guess McMichael could beat out Sheary but there's been no signal they actively intend to go young. It could happen. They haven't been completely blocked. But I'd be somewhat surprised if there were more than one rookie on a healthy roster next season.
You're speaking conventionally, but again, this is going from a scenario where the cap was projected to rise yearly (and at a pretty good rate)to a screeching, jarring halt. They went into the compressed year with a new coach and no camp to speak of. This is not regular. It does not necessarily demand adherence to conventional wisdom, especially when considering the human elements in play. Conventionally I don't think the Capitals would have traded Vrana and taken a little more time to be patient, but the flat cap forced an alternative. You can't take big swings if the foundation isn't there, and resetting that takes time. It's just not fair to ask him to get it done in one year and also not lose any of the transactions (which we would also judge him on).
I don't think he's ever demonstrated a tendency to think he did a good job and should stand pat if the team isn't performing well, but he's also not willing to put himself at a disadvantage. If they're not taking swings now it's because they needed to get a handle on the flat cap first, and I think that's largely done after signing their big guys and moving bloat potential for cost control (Vrana for Mantha). It takes time to do that without tipping your hand, losing trades, paying assets, etc. and GMBM doesn't play one year at a time. Now I think he's in a good position to have the next 3 years managed and can start to play within the understood margins like he was doing before.
All the teams are playing by the same flat cap rules. Just because the cap is flat doesn't mean you can't attempt to make major moves. It adds constraints to work with, but every team is dealing with those constraints and a couple teams (Arizona, Chicago, Detroit) have demonstrated their willingness to be brokers to get things done. I'm certainly not whining that GMBM should have gone out and willy-nilly signed UFA contracts with cap hit that didn't exist, but making salary-out and salary-in trades is not impossible, especially if you make pieces like John Carlson available.
First part is kind of bananas to me.
Preach. You are saying everything I can’t eloquently put into words.
How do you bitch about people around here arguing in bad faith and then act like pulling a Chicago has anything to do with winning three cups, and not taking those teams and painting themselves into an obvious corner in basically the blink of an eye? They could have been dominating the decade and challenging the Penguins instead of just now getting out of (some of) their mistakes to the point that all your “if’s” pretty much put them squarely less good than (but let’s give you on par with) a healthy Capitals team at the moment anyway, and they took a route that kept them successful instead of that little tour of the bottom.
That’s not true. They painted themselves into a corner over the span of several years, and the moves that have been by far the most harmful to their success have been the same type of moves you’re lauding the Capitals for (giving huge contracts to the star players that helped them achieve their success). They didn’t just up and decide after they won to start tanking. Chicago is bad because of the cap hell that the Toews, Kane, Keith, Hossa, and Seabrook contracts put them in.
Which is pretty depressing. If all people care about is the goal record, good for them. I’d rather see the team win another championship.
Last time the rebuild was done via trading all valuable players. Now they cant do that and therefore cant be serious about the cup for the time being. Lets be reality.
