Salary Cap: Salary Cap + Roster building: " PPG with a clock in its wall|Tic Toc....! We there yet?"

[KIRK]

Geno is winning the Art Ross, I have foreseen it.

We just had the 2018-2019 season, so I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen.

And with another season of Jack Johnson assigned to his hip on the horizon, I less likely that Geno wins a third Art Ross than it is that he takes one of the ones he has, shines it up really nice, and sticks it straight up JR's candy ass.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

We just had the 2018-2019 season, so I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen.

And with another season of Jack Johnson assigned to his hip on the horizon, I less likely that Geno wins a third Art Ross than it is that he takes one of the ones he has, shines it up really nice, and sticks it straight up JR's candy ass.

Thank you for ruining my unicorn world.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

It's just a matter of how much you're willing to pay Hornqvist to be a third liner and net front presence on the power play. He won't play with Sid, and if he's with Geno, we need a more substantial scoring presence on the other wing than McCann or Rust.

Then you have to factor in his age and recent injury woes, which won't be getting better as time drags on and the injuries pile up.

I love Hornqvist. I think he contributes in ways that don't always show up on the statsheet, and I love the dude's passion. That being said, is he worth $5.3 million to this team, with how he'll be deployed, and when factoring in his play style/injuries? I don't know anymore. I'm inclined to say no, and if we find a suitable return for him, I think he should be moved.

 

[KIRK]

Thank you for ruining my unicorn world.

Truth be told, it's my raison d'etre.

 

[WayneSid9987]

I know everyone wants him gone but I'm not sure I'm on the trade Maatta at all costs boat. He was pretty serviceable the year before this.

I'd move him, but I wouldn't just cap dump him. He's not in JJ territory for me.

For me, with MP, Riiko and maybe Almari now behind Olli....he gone.
JJ is obviously a huge issue but you can still scratch him post Olli trade.

 

[Pancakes]

For me, with MP, Riiko and maybe Almari now behind Olli....he gone.
JJ is obviously a huge issue but you can still scratch him post Olli trade.

I just think Olli is serviceable enough that I don't want to just dump him. If we could get value or do something good with the cap space from moving him, I'm all for it. Otherwise, I'd rather move Guds or JJ before him.

 

[WayneSid9987]

I just think Olli is serviceable enough that I don't want to just dump him. If we could get value or do something good with the cap space from moving him, I'm all for it. Otherwise, I'd rather move Guds or JJ before him.

For me, it doesn't really matter who goes first. All 3 of Olli, JJ, Guds should go/gots to go eventually.
All of em are blocking the path to pay for a really GOOD 2nd pairing.
Let's say you just trade Phil. Keep Olli and the JJ/Guds's are immoveable. Then Edler becomes an option in FA'y but you can't afford 'em cuz you kept Olli...
Thats sorta what i'm getting at here.
Gots to open up the cash to potentially improve things quickly , imo.

Bottom line for me is Phil and a bigger salaried D goes before the UFA recruitment period.
Anyones up for grabs on D outside of Dumo-Tanger.
Had my way fully i'd get 2 of those D gone.

 

[Turin]

I just know that with Maatta, the team has generally been average at worst defensively. With Johnson we plummeted to bottom 10.

 

[DesertedPenguin]

Rossi has been writing Geno's biography for like the last 7-8 years.

Good biographies that feature original research and interviews take years to do.

Besides, it's not like journalism is a lucrative profession. I doubt any of the Pittsburgh folks at the Athletic are making six figures. So pretty tough to take a sabbatical to write a book while you're also working full time in journalism.

Or maybe he's waiting for the end of Geno's career to finalize it.

 

[WayneSid9987]

I just know that with Maatta, the team has generally been average at worst defensively. With Johnson we plummeted to bottom 10.

Well they did figure that out pre Game 1 of these PO's.
We'll see what they think from now til when training camp opens in 2019.

 

[Peat]

I'm probably stating the obvious here, but the biggest problem in the fanbase this off-season is blaming quality players with well-known warts for performing below-par when par was achieved under considerably different circumstances.

If people keep doing it, its not obvious. And it probably is overdone, although at the same time underperformance was clearly visible on the ice (including from Hornqvist). And in fairness, in the most obvious case of this criticism (Geno/Phil), the area they mostly fell down (PP/3v3) was the area where the circumstances changed least. Not that people (including me) have particularly bothered to make that distinction clear.

I just think Olli is serviceable enough that I don't want to just dump him. If we could get value or do something good with the cap space from moving him, I'm all for it. Otherwise, I'd rather move Guds or JJ before him.

Me neither, but I feel very confident that's how its going down.

 

[WayneSid9987]

Theres very little below Dumo-Letang thats "serviceable" in the thought process of how you are gonna beat these other teams to get back on top of the mountain during this window AND the #1 guy is a bit iffy too moving forward with his injury history.
You wanna fix this D?
Acquire another Dumo-Letang pairing.
That should be the goal.
Gut the cash now.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I personally believe the only way to correct a tailspin is to keep wildly steering into it, so I suggest we panic some more, and then, panic even harder, but in new and innovative ways.

 

[Peat]

Theres very little below Dumo-Letang thats "serviceable" in the thought process of how you are gonna beat these other teams to get back on top of the mountain during this window AND the #1 guy is a bit iffy too moving forward with his injury history.
You wanna fix this D?
Acquire another Dumo-Letang pairing.
That should be the goal.
Gut the cash now.

I like this objective. I can think of a few players on the market who'd give us a Letang-lite - Spurgeon, Petry, Fowler - and while I can't think of Dumo-lites available, a ballsy mofo could stake a lot of hope onto to Pettersson/Gudbranson given their performances last year as guys who could be very solid shutdown D who move the puck adequately.

The problem arises with getting those guys. Unless the trading team in question takes an inexplicably high level of shine to an individual asset of ours, we simply don't have the horses to outbid someone serious about them.

I personally believe the only way to correct a tailspin is to keep wildly steering into it, so I suggest we panic some more, and then, panic even harder, but in new and innovative ways.

Panicking does seem to be a surprisingly successful tactic in the NHL though

 

[Son Goku]

Theres very little below Dumo-Letang thats "serviceable" in the thought process of how you are gonna beat these other teams to get back on top of the mountain during this window AND the #1 guy is a bit iffy too moving forward with his injury history.
You wanna fix this D?
Acquire another Dumo-Letang pairing.
That should be the goal.
Gut the cash now.

I don’t mind MP. He had blemishes but 99% of rookies do. Once he puts it all together he’ll be a damn solid d man.

 

[Lust for Life]

Yeah MP is absolutely fine, especially for the cap hit.
Him, Dumo and Letang are the ones I'm not moving on defense.

 

[WayneSid9987]

Yeah MP is absolutely fine, especially for the cap hit.
Him, Dumo and Letang are the ones I'm not moving on defense.

How i'd go about this is getting one of the D with value(Olli or Schultz) and JJ gone quickly.
Of course i understand they may keep 2 of the 3 to start next season but this is my way forward running past this next season and more in the timespan of a year from now when you may have all 3 gone with that stab at a really good 2nd pairing being the goal.

You could be sitting here next year with a very solid LD pick up and/or MP progressing and a good/great RHD option available in FA'y of 2020.

 

[Rakell67]

How soon will Almari be ready?

 

[Empoleon8771]

Pettersson's a top-4 defenseman already, if they'd actually run with it, I think a Pettersson-Schultz 2nd pair should be fine. The problem is that you're screwing over your bottom pair by having Johnson and Gudbranson on it, but I honestly may prefer that setup to Johnson on the 2nd pair.

 

[Will Hunting]

Pettersson's a top-4 defenseman already, if they'd actually run with it, I think a Pettersson-Schultz 2nd pair should be fine. The problem is that you're screwing over your bottom pair by having Johnson and Gudbranson on it, but I honestly may prefer that setup to Johnson on the 2nd pair.

That happens if no new defensemen come to the town.. That said, Pettersson + Schultz is still kinda borderline 2nd pair for today´s NHL, but at least it´s not terrible.

 

[Lust for Life]

A "complete" re-tooling of the defense will take several years, obviously.

Even if you manage to trade JJ and Gudbranson, you're not getting anything useful in return. Most likely you're not freeing up a significant amount of cap space either, but in JJ's case, it's addition by subtraction.
Olli is most likely not getting a better defenseman in return, but you might be able to clear most of the cap hit at least.
Schultz could walk after next year (which, depending on the situation next summer, is completely fine by me).

Which means you're left with Letang, Dumo and Pettersson at the NHL level, and not a lot of cap space to play with. It's not looking great.

 

[Jacob]

If we can’t revamp the D (and I agree we can’t) we should at least pay the D what it’s worth by subtracting Maatta & Johnson. That’s like 8 million saved and you’d get basically the same performance out of it.

 

[Andy99]

Imo, there are two approaches for the next three years rn: 1) start the rebuild ASAP like NYR did, trading off everyone you can around Sid and G (not Jake, Murr, McCann) starting first with the older and most expensive players, and getting back picks and prospects only. The advantage of this is if you hit on some young players, we could contend sooner but it likely won’t be while G is still around; 2) you take a mid level approach to this as Chicago is doing by trading off limited players and hoping to patch this up with hockey trades (better older players for worse younger ones with term) to try to contend now, while simultaneously trying to keep picks.

As you can see, it hasn’t really worked yet with Chicago but their core is younger. I lean towards #1 but I really don’t trust JR to do this rebuild