KIRK
Registered User
- Aug 2, 2005
- 109,700
- 51,216
Getting rid of Vitale would be REALLY stupid. He's an excellent faceoff guy, he brings immense speed, tenacity, forechecking ability and physical play. He is pretty much the PERFECT 4th liner, despite the fact that he's not 6'4, but he certainly plays bigger than his size. He brings energy and momentum to this team on 100% of the shifts he plays, which is something we need. And I believe he has upside as a very good PKer one day, and can play RW if needed.
We all know Adams has 1 year left in him tops on this team, and who knows if we'll re-sign Glass. Factoring that in, and especially with Jeffrey gone, losing Vitale would be a terrible move. And the other guys who might have a shot at being 4th liners on this team (Rust, Macaroni) are at least 2-3 years away. I have no problem paying him in the range of what Tanner Glass or Max Talbot makes on a 4-5 year deal. Anything less than that $ would just be gravy.
Obviously, when you're talking about young guys who have upside, it's the buying out of UFA years that's going, to drive the price up, but I don't see us doing this with either of these 2 players, because it's still too soon to gauge where just how good they're going to be and how soon. I believe we'll do bridge deals on both these players so their next contracts will expire before they hit UFA status.
I see Despres at 2 or 3 year deal (year one $1.5, year two $1.75 and year three $2.0), and Megna on a 2 year deal averaging right around $1million or less over those 2 years (i.e. year one $800k, year two $900k-$1million)
Yes you do know.