Free Agency and Trades Thread: Post deadline wasteland

[ToneDog]

I just went to go look at the Leafs salary cap this season and beyond. We are capped out right now with the Plekanec trade. But moving forward to this off-season we do have some cap space. Based on what I saw we will have about 18.775 million to spend, it is broken down as follows:

Roman Polak - 1.1 million
M. Marincin - 225K
D. Moore - 1.0 million
L. Komarov - 2.95 million
T. Bozak - 4.2 million
JVR - 4.25 million

T. Gleason (Buyout ends) - 1.3 million
J. Cowen (Buyout ends) - 750K
Plekanec cap hit - 3 million

With really only Nylander being the need to sign this off season to an extension because we have another year to sign players like Matthews and Marner. I see a lot of money that we can spend to upgrade our team moving forward.

When we factor in cheaper players like Kapanen, Grundstrom. Johnsson taking up some roster spots, it gives us more to spend on experienced dmen and centers moving forward.

I guess my question is with all this cap space, why is there so much concern by some? We do also have assets that can be traded to fill out some needs like a Gardiner, or a Brown that can be replaced with cheaper players. Marleau may also one day be on Robidas island if we need the cap space. There are options. Not to mention cap will go up next season, and probably the next couple of seasons after that.

Just wanted to get some of your thoughts.

No capologist so I leave that to Lou and Pridham to worry about. IMO I think many are afraid of the impact on the cap the big 3 wil have. I personally trust Lou to get them done at team friendly numbers. Also think many are afraid they may have to move Willie or Mitch if they sign a JT. Nice problem to have IMO.

 

[AppsSyl]

Given Chia’s main goal seems to be finding a winger with speed to play with McDavid, would we be willing to move Kapanen for Klefbom?

I would look to move Connor Brown rather than Kapanen, and I think perhaps Chia would be more interested in him, given that he has already proven that he can play and thrive with McDavid. The last year they played together Brown won the CHL Top Scorer award and had:

2013-14

Erie Otters

OHL

68

45

83

128

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[SprDaVE]

I would look to move Connor Brown rather than Kapanen, and I think perhaps Chia would be more interested in him, given that he has already proven that he can play and thrive with McDavid. The last year they played together Brown won the CHL Top Scorer award and had:

2013-14

Erie Otters

OHL

68

45

83

128

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

I love Brownie and all but I'd move him in the right deal to bring in a defenseman for sure. Klefbom is a left shooting defenseman struggling and with health concerns.

I'd be wary of him, even if he does have potential to bounce back. I'd probably be fine with it but I would hate to see Brown go to be perfectly honest.

 

[AppsSyl]

I love Brownie and all but I'd move him in the right deal to bring in a defenseman for sure. Klefbom is a left shooting defenseman struggling and with health concerns.

I'd be wary of him, even if he does have potential to bounce back. I'd probably be fine with it but I would hate to see Brown go to be perfectly honest.

I agree. I really like Brown a lot, but if I had to choose between him and Kapanen on the roster going forward from a purely on ice perspective, I would go with Kapanen. Brown for Klefbom would be an interesting deal.

 

[BlueForever75]

Possible but why fix it if it ain't broken ? His cap hit is $850K.

Cap world every penny counts. We may only save 250k between what we have not and Sparks. But in the end we have assets to keep, and we need to make the team better where we need to. Having what we have is a luxury that isn't worth paying for if it means you have someone in the system that can do as good if not better if just given the opportunity.

 

[BlueForever75]

I agree. I really like Brown a lot, but if I had to choose between him and Kapanen on the roster going forward from a purely on ice perspective, I would go with Kapanen. Brown for Klefbom would be an interesting deal.

I too would go with Kapanen over Brown. And as mentioned by others Brown would be of more interest to Edmonton I would think because of his past experience playing on the wing with McDavid and producing. But again I do not believe we should be targeting a Klefbom unless its a larger deal. Our focus should be on RNH and if we can expand the deal to include Klefbom then great. But our need next season is filling the center slot as we do not have the organizational depth to fill from within.

If we could get RNH it saves us from overpaying for JT and in turn may mean we can keep the big 3 together long term. I would rather go out and acquire RNH and sign a dman like Carlsson for argument sake, then sign a JT and possibly have to trade one of the big 3 to fill other areas. Just saying.

 

[Walshy7]

I agree. I really like Brown a lot, but if I had to choose between him and Kapanen on the roster going forward from a purely on ice perspective, I would go with Kapanen. Brown for Klefbom would be an interesting deal.

Kapanen is the perfect player to exploit todays NHL, hopefully his skills can translate once he gets a scoring role. Handing a playing of Kapanens speed to play with McDavid isn't a good idea. Kapanen may be the only player who will ever compete with McDavid in fastest skater contests

 

[ToneDog]

Cap world every penny counts. We may only save 250k between what we have not and Sparks. But in the end we have assets to keep, and we need to make the team better where we need to. Having what we have is a luxury that isn't worth paying for if it means you have someone in the system that can do as good if not better if just given the opportunity.

Would rather have Sparks/Pic wait a year than mess with a good foot soldier for $250K. Sends a bad message to the rest of the team. These guys are human like you and me and if you see mgmt mess with a competent co-workers, it will affect you negatively. Now if McBackup is not performing, you can make a move and nobody can question your motive. Just my opinion.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Would rather have Sparks/Pic wait a year than mess with a good foot soldier for $250K. Sends a bad message to the rest of the team. These guys are human like you and me and if you see mgmt mess with a competent co-workers, it will affect you negatively. Now if McBackup is not performing, you can make a move and nobody can question your motive. Just my opinion.

Not only that but McBackup has been freaking awesome this season so assuming we could put Sparks in his slot and get the same performance would be a huge mistake. Like you said earlier - if it ain't broke, don't fix it, especially when it comes to goaltending.

 

[showtime8]

I too would go with Kapanen over Brown. And as mentioned by others Brown would be of more interest to Edmonton I would think because of his past experience playing on the wing with McDavid and producing. But again I do not believe we should be targeting a Klefbom unless its a larger deal. Our focus should be on RNH and if we can expand the deal to include Klefbom then great. But our need next season is filling the center slot as we do not have the organizational depth to fill from within.

If we could get RNH it saves us from overpaying for JT and in turn may mean we can keep the big 3 together long term. I would rather go out and acquire RNH and sign a dman like Carlsson for argument sake, then sign a JT and possibly have to trade one of the big 3 to fill other areas. Just saying.

I still don't understand the reasoning behind acquiring RNH. 6mill for a 3rd line centre is not ideal. Also, the likeliness is that Edmonton is not going to retain because they're probably going to buy out Lucic this summer. That just compounds problems for their ownership/management group.

 

[showtime8]

Would rather have Sparks/Pic wait a year than mess with a good foot soldier for $250K. Sends a bad message to the rest of the team. These guys are human like you and me and if you see mgmt mess with a competent co-workers, it will affect you negatively. Now if McBackup is not performing, you can make a move and nobody can question your motive. Just my opinion.

The oddity is the way that the Leafs handled Sparks' deal this past off-season. They signed him for this year on a 2 way deal, and his 2018-19 salary is on a 1 way deal. So it was either believed that McElhinney might not have lasted the whole year and Sparks would have been up or they were looking to reward him for his time with the organization. I'm just not sure why they would have structured it like that.

Then, they acquired Pickard shortly after they signed both McElhinney and Sparks. Not sure the reasoning behind that, but maybe some insurance? But they had just signed Kaskisuo the season before.

Again, I don't really understand the logic of this amount of depth, but there has to be some sort of method to the madness.

 

[justafan22]

I wonder if we see something like this post july 1 with martin:

martin = 4th (whichever one of st louis or toronto) for a 6th no retention going to a floor team. His bonus gets paid then and rest of contract isn't that bad.

 

[Menzinger]

I wonder if we see something like this post july 1 with martin:

martin = 4th (whichever one of st louis or toronto) for a 6th no retention going to a floor team. His bonus gets paid then and rest of contract isn't that bad.

He’s likely traded for a late pick or for “future considerations” post July 1st due to how little actual salary he will have remaining once the bonus is paid

Detroit apparently tried to sign him when he was last a UFA, I can also see The Islanders having interest

 

[Menzinger]

Not only that but McBackup has been freaking awesome this season so assuming we could put Sparks in his slot and get the same performance would be a huge mistake. Like you said earlier - if it ain't broke, don't fix it, especially when it comes to goaltending.

Eh, I’d say chances are pretty high that both Sparks and Picard are better than McBackup already. Sparks in particular has been having a near historic season with the Marlies.

Id say tie should go to the younger guy

 

[ToneDog]

He’s likely traded for a late pick or for “future considerations” post July 1st due to how little actual salary he will have remaining once the bonus is paid

Detroit apparently tried to sign him when he was last a UFA, I can also see The Islanders having interest

All for moving Martin in the off season to clear cap space but if you can't there will be room for him on the 4th line with Brown and Aaltonen (assuming Leo is allowed to walk).

 

[Menzinger]

All for moving Martin in the off season to clear cap space but if you can't there will be room for him on the 4th line with Brown and Aaltonen (assuming Leo is allowed to walk).

There are NhL ready MArlies needing jobs - and Babcock has had him as a healthy scratch while he has a full lineup.

He may very well stick around, but I’d say the smart bet is he’s moved this offseason. Particularly since the Leafs will start to need to save on capspace

 

[Gary Nylund]

Eh, I’d say chances are pretty high that both Sparks and Picard are better than McBackup already. Sparks in particular has been having a near historic season with the Marlies.

Id say tie should go to the younger guy

Fair point, I didn't realize Sparks was doing that well.

 

[Macallan18]

The oddity is the way that the Leafs handled Sparks' deal this past off-season. They signed him for this year on a 2 way deal, and his 2018-19 salary is on a 1 way deal. So it was either believed that McElhinney might not have lasted the whole year and Sparks would have been up or they were looking to reward him for his time with the organization. I'm just not sure why they would have structured it like that.

Then, they acquired Pickard shortly after they signed both McElhinney and Sparks. Not sure the reasoning behind that, but maybe some insurance? But they had just signed Kaskisuo the season before.

Again, I don't really understand the logic of this amount of depth, but there has to be some sort of method to the madness.

It may simply be stockpiling assets. Especially since a number of them can seem to sit in the AHL indefinitely. As well, Sparks' season this year, I believe, is stellar compared to his history. Perhaps someone can correct me if I am wrong.

 

[IBeL34f]

It may simply be stockpiling assets. Especially since a number of them can seem to sit in the AHL indefinitely. As well, Sparks' season this year, I believe, is stellar compared to his history. Perhaps someone can correct me if I am wrong.

His season this year is stellar compared to the AHL's history, let alone his own...

 

[Tarmore]

The oddity is the way that the Leafs handled Sparks' deal this past off-season. They signed him for this year on a 2 way deal, and his 2018-19 salary is on a 1 way deal. So it was either believed that McElhinney might not have lasted the whole year and Sparks would have been up or they were looking to reward him for his time with the organization. I'm just not sure why they would have structured it like that.

Then, they acquired Pickard shortly after they signed both McElhinney and Sparks. Not sure the reasoning behind that, but maybe some insurance? But they had just signed Kaskisuo the season before.

Again, I don't really understand the logic of this amount of depth, but there has to be some sort of method to the madness.

I'm gonna guess they structured the deal that way to minimize the chance a budget team would try to claim him on wavers as they don't like one way contracts.

 

[BlueForever75]

The oddity is the way that the Leafs handled Sparks' deal this past off-season. They signed him for this year on a 2 way deal, and his 2018-19 salary is on a 1 way deal. So it was either believed that McElhinney might not have lasted the whole year and Sparks would have been up or they were looking to reward him for his time with the organization. I'm just not sure why they would have structured it like that.

Then, they acquired Pickard shortly after they signed both McElhinney and Sparks. Not sure the reasoning behind that, but maybe some insurance? But they had just signed Kaskisuo the season before.

Again, I don't really understand the logic of this amount of depth, but there has to be some sort of method to the madness.

Look around the NHL and teams that are struggling with their goaltending depth. Playing goalies that have no reason to be in the NHL. The Leafs doing what they did was the right thing, build up depth and trade away for assets when teams come knocking. My guess still remains that Sparks will be in the NHL some place, preferably with the Leafs backing up Andersson. He's younger, not much cheaper but definitely can put up the same numbers as McEhlinney. My guess is he is traded this off season to a team looking for a quality backup since he has had a good season thus far.

 

[Walshy7]

There are NhL ready MArlies needing jobs - and Babcock has had him as a healthy scratch while he has a full lineup.

He may very well stick around, but I’d say the smart bet is he’s moved this offseason. Particularly since the Leafs will start to need to save on capspace

well next season specifically they don't need to save too much space, the eyar after is when Martin will start looking like a real bad contract when Marner/Matthews deals fully kick in and we are tight against the cap that $2.5M next to martins name will start looking real ugly. But I do agree he should be traded ASAP and I think the islanders will be after him, maybe a 5th or 4th if we are lucky.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Makes you wonder what their plan for him is. Would he have any trade value? Maybe we need to give him the backup job just to keep the asset. If McElhinney gets claimed so be it?

I let Sparks-McBackUp-Pickard battle it out in pre-season, maybe deal 1 in the off-season but i'd lean heavily towards Pickard or Sparks as they are a lot younger. If they suck though then you gotta go with who is going to get wins for the team. Babcock needs to use his back up a lot more then just back ups.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Yup. I've been anticipating that myself, and I'd want Leafs to be all over Klefbom if that happens.

Looks like we were right Nith

 

[htpwn]

Looks like we were right Nith

This is just... wow. Even if we are to assume there's no risk of further injury, what possible benefit is there in showcasing an injured player?