Speculation: Jesperi Kotkaniemi - What is he worth this summer?

[Deebs]

That's because MB f***ed up the cap/roster situation at the deadline.

Right now we have $12.1m in cap space. The summer we have to sign Suzuki, we'll have almost $23m. Really don't see an issue with our cap. Suzuki might earn himself a $7m contract regardless of what KK does.

Already signed for next year:

Toffoli -- Suzuki -- Caufield
Drouin -- xxxxx -- Anderson
Lehkonen -- Evans --- Gallagher
Byron -- xxxx -- xxxx

Edmundson -- Petry
Chiarot -- Weber
Kulak -- Romanov

Price
Allen

We lose Chiarot in expansion draft so that gives us another $3.5m for $15.6m.

KK signs for $4.5m. Poehling signs one way at $800k, Perry at $850k. Armia $3m. That's $9.15m and gives us 13 forwards.

Fleury signs for $750k (minimum) and we sign another depth defenseman for $750k.

That leaves us $4.85m. We need bonus cushion for rookie contracts, so we probably have about $2.85m for a #4 D to replace Chiarot. If we only go with 7D then $3.6m is left to replace Chiarot.

It's tight, but doable. We definitely need Drouin to come back or trade him. We have no LW depth.

But, it's better for us to sign KK long term. He's UFA in 4 years, so if we don't want to pay the last 2 years of his 6 year contract we can buy him out cheap, or trade him, as there are always teams looking for centers.

Nice write up and i agree about our cap space being a minimal issue.

 

[abo9]

That's because MB f***ed up the cap/roster situation at the deadline.

Right now we have $12.1m in cap space. The summer we have to sign Suzuki, we'll have almost $23m. Really don't see an issue with our cap. Suzuki might earn himself a $7m contract regardless of what KK does.

Already signed for next year:

Toffoli -- Suzuki -- Caufield
Drouin -- xxxxx -- Anderson
Lehkonen -- Evans --- Gallagher
Byron -- xxxx -- xxxx

Edmundson -- Petry
Chiarot -- Weber
Kulak -- Romanov

Price
Allen

We lose Chiarot in expansion draft so that gives us another $3.5m for $15.6m.

KK signs for $4.5m. Poehling signs one way at $800k, Perry at $850k. Armia $3m. That's $9.15m and gives us 13 forwards.

Fleury signs for $750k (minimum) and we sign another depth defenseman for $750k.

That leaves us $4.85m. We need bonus cushion for rookie contracts, so we probably have about $2.85m for a #4 D to replace Chiarot. If we only go with 7D then $3.6m is left to replace Chiarot.

It's tight, but doable. We definitely need Drouin to come back or trade him. We have no LW depth.

But, it's better for us to sign KK long term. He's UFA in 4 years, so if we don't want to pay the last 2 years of his 6 year contract we can buy him out cheap, or trade him, as there are always teams looking for centers.

$4.5MM for KK is steep, considering that the coaches don't fully trust him...
Thing is, MB already gambled on a couple long-term contracts (Gallagher, Petry, Anderson namely). If KK is 4.5M and doesn't improve this team will go tits up real fast.

 

[montreal]

2-3 bridge deal imo, neither side should really want to be locked up long term. If you are KK why agree to it unless it's an overpay as clearly this coaching staff doesn't trust you yet so until that changes I know I wouldn't want to sign long term if I were him unless it was just too much money to pass up. For the Habs I could see the sense in locking him up if you can get him to agree to a cheaper deal but there's a good bit of risk if they do that since you really don't know what KK is yet.

I don’t agree since Evans and Poehling could just do the same thing for a fraction of the price if all he’s going to amount to is a 35-40 point player.

Evans just went 40 games without a goal and has had a few concussions already, Poehling has been terrible in the NHL so far, there's no way of knowing that either could or couldn't put up 35-40 pts.

 

[Miller Time]

2 year bridge is what I expect... if he's not traded before.

what I'd love to see, is the 6 years <5M$. he's not a risk to "cash in" and shut it down. At worst, he's a slightly overpaid for 2-3 years, and then a reasonably priced middle-6 C through the last 1/2 of the deal.
Likely... a bit overpaid for 1-2 years, then a bargain/value quality 2nd line C for 4-5 years, especially with the cap going up through that timeframe.

best case, a bit overpaid for 1-2 years, then breaks out into a high quality top-6C, eventually a legit top-line C, on an absolute steal of a cap hit through the last few seasons... the kind that would allow a competent GM to build a monster roster around him (& suzuki/caufield/romanov/ghule et et).

we gambled a few years ago, poorly, on Drouin. and got burnt.
we gambled in the other direction, with the forced bridge, on PK. and got burnt.

I hope at some point we have a GM who does a good job of talent identification and picks the right horse to gamble on... I think JKO, coming off of the season he did, is exactly that horse.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

2-3 bridge deal imo, neither side should really want to be locked up long term. If you are KK why agree to it unless it's an overpay as clearly this coaching staff doesn't trust you yet so until that changes I know I wouldn't want to sign long term if I were him unless it was just too much money to pass up. For the Habs I could see the sense in locking him up if you can get him to agree to a cheaper deal but there's a good bit of risk if they do that since you really don't know what KK is yet.

I think the prospect of getting KK at undermarket value for a while makes it worth signing him at longer term. I'd prefer that as I believe he'll be a solid player.

 

[Redux91]

The great news is he will definitely NOT be getting more than 2.5
Bridge him, re-evaluate after 3 years

 

[montreal]

I think the prospect of getting KK at undermarket value for a while makes it worth signing him at longer term. I'd prefer that as I believe he'll be a solid player.

I think it's a decent gamble for the Habs to take but if I were KK's agent I wouldn't go for it.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I think it's a decent gamble for the Habs to take but if I were KK's agent I wouldn't go for it.

I agree.

Then again, I never would've signed the contract that Max Pac did either.

 

[le_sean]

2-3 bridge deal imo, neither side should really want to be locked up long term. If you are KK why agree to it unless it's an overpay as clearly this coaching staff doesn't trust you yet so until that changes I know I wouldn't want to sign long term if I were him unless it was just too much money to pass up. For the Habs I could see the sense in locking him up if you can get him to agree to a cheaper deal but there's a good bit of risk if they do that since you really don't know what KK is yet.



Evans just went 40 games without a goal and has had a few concussions already, Poehling has been terrible in the NHL so far, there's no way of knowing that either could or couldn't put up 35-40 pts.

Which is why I said a bridge deal. You get to evaluate all three.