Summer Wishlist Part 2: Let the UFA frenzy begin

[Unsustainable]

I wonder if for the first 9 games it will be Fleury / Gleason on the 3rd pairing?

 

[Blueline Bomber]

@THNKenCampbell

Wow. With $1.8 million a year he's getting in buyout $ from Leafs, Mikhail Grabovski will actually make $6.8 million each of next 4 years.

Dear god.

 

[DaveG]

Francis?

But yeah, he did. The problem is, JR would always say one thing, then many times do the complete opposite. I don't think we're used to the transparency from the GM and doing exactly what he says.

Meant to say Francis, still in old school mode. This is gonna take some getting used to for me.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Meant to say Francis, still in old school mode. This is gonna take some getting used to for me.

I'll wire something up to your keyboard to deliver an electric shock anytime you type JR or Rutherford when RF or Francis should be used. Or just come over and hit you with a rolled-up newspaper.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

"RF" just looks weird to me.

 

[Ole Gil]

The 3rd line isn't going to be awful, because it will have Jeff Skinner on it. And despite Riley Nash's limited abilities, that line scored at a VERY good rate.

Also, Terry isn't going to be on the NHL roster. So I'd expect room for one more player. (on top of any wheeling and dealing Ronnie may attempt)

 

[Ole Gil]

Is capgeek right? 6 million in space, with only upgrades to go?

Matt Karash, the hockeybuzz blogger, has been talking about a Harrison + for Coburn move, where Philly would be dumping cap. They have 8 NHL dmen under contract. He's made some pretty solid predictions in the past. Might be the kind of move that makes people not be sad anymore?

(an aside, as bad as Eklund is, Karash's writeups are top notch. If you're not reading him, you should be.)

 

[StormCast]

The 3rd line isn't going to be awful, because it will have Jeff Skinner on it. And despite Riley Nash's limited abilities, that line scored at a VERY good rate.

Also, Terry isn't going to be on the NHL roster. So I'd expect room for one more player. (on top of any wheeling and dealing Ronnie may attempt)

Agree about Terry. Skinner, however, will be in the Top 6. If he doesn't play responsibly without the puck he'll get temporarily demoted to the 3L but he isn't going to start there.

 

[Ole Gil]

Agree about Terry. Skinner, however, will be in the Top 6. If he doesn't play responsibly without the puck he'll get temporarily demoted to the 3L but he isn't going to start there.

Disagree for the block. Skinner has success when on the 3rd line. He is a giant failure on the top 2 lines. I predict the coach will choose success over giant failure.

With Eric (2014)
GF/20 .86
GA/20 1.1
With Jordan (2014)
GF/20 .4
GA/20 .933
With Nash (2014)
GF/20 1.1
GA/20 .76
With Jordan (2013)
GF/20 .69
GA/20 .92

 

[raynman]

Is capgeek right? 6 million in space, with only upgrades to go?

Matt Karash, the hockeybuzz blogger, has been talking about a Harrison + for Coburn move, where Philly would be dumping cap. They have 8 NHL dmen under contract. He's made some pretty solid predictions in the past. Might be the kind of move that makes people not be sad anymore?

(an aside, as bad as Eklund is, Karash's writeups are top notch. If you're not reading him, you should be.)

Might be 6 million in space but you have to think PK's internal budget isn't much higher than where it's at right now. He does "believe" in the team though so you never know.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Disagree for the block. Skinner has success when on the 3rd line. He is a giant failure on the top 2 lines. I predict the coach will choose success over giant failure.

Am I imagining that Skins and Finns was our second line at one point in time?

 

[Francis10]

So, counting Boychuk and Terry, they're are 13 forwards and 7 defensemen. I think we can say they're mostly done.

Skinner // Eric // Lindholm
Tlusty // Jordan // Semin
Gerbe // Nash // Boychuk
Dwyer // McClement // Malone
Terry

Sekera // Faulk
Hainsey // Liles
Harrison // Gleason
Murphy

Ward
Khudobin

If it's possible, I think they got worse, older, and slower.

Thats basically the line-up for next year.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

Am I imagining that Skins and Finns was our second line at one point in time?

erik cole and skinner were on the third line too probably

 

[Ole Gil]

Am I imagining that Skins and Finns was our second line at one point in time?

Depends on whether you call Sutter's all defense or Skinner's all offense line the '2nd' line. They played similar minutes.
(Sutter played 13:10 a game to Skinner's 12:55 or so) Calling them 2A and 2B would be fair, although the role of that 2nd line and the current 3rd line would be the same.

Again:

Tlusty-Staal-Lindholm
Gerbe-Staal-Semin
Skinner-Nash-Boychuk
Malone-McClement-Dwyer

If things are switched, it'll be the right wings. The left and centers should be locked into place. Nothing else makes sense.

 

[DougieSmash]

Remember one year ago what Rutherford said:

My intention is not to take offense away from Jeff, and his creativity," Muller said. "The challenge is to make him a plus player and make him more of a two-way forward. It was a perfect time at the end (of the season) to play around with that. In fairness to Jeff it wasn't (with) the right wingers.
"I still think it's a possibility. I think it has to do with what happens over the summer with the personnel and what comes in. I think he's capable of playing either the wing or at center, but he needs guys who are grinding, strong guys in support."

Muller noted at last year's World Championship, Skinner was on a line for Canada with a player much like the Canes' Tuomo Ruutu. That's what he would need at center, Muller said -- skilled, physical wingers.

"Jeff's the kind of player who likes to let everything develop, then he comes in and gets the play and does his one-on-one stuff, which is his specialty," Muller said.
Rutherford said a decision on Skinner at center could affect the team's approach at the the draft in June, saying, "You've got some center-icemen in the top five (prospects)."

Could Skinner as a third line center happen? That would be disaster imo but...

 

[spockBokk]

So I'm guessing we'll see one more "value" signing before camp. The D I think is, unfortunately, set. I suppose Gleason at $1.2M is a whole heck of a lot more palatable than $4M, but like others, I would have much just preferred to give Bellemore that $$$ as opposed to Gleason. Ah well, let's just hope Timmy can get back most of his former self. Hopefully he'll be motivated, and at 31, he does at least have a chance at career redemption.

The "value" signing I hope will be se sort of 3rd line fwd (Santorelli) or reclamation project (Penner, Setoguchi, Mueller, Booth or maybe even Heatley?). Personally I am hoping for one of Santorelli or Booth and that we take a flyer on Mueller on a PTO.

The D I envision looks like this:

Sekera-Faulk
Hainsey-Liles
Gleason-Murphy
Harrison

I have a lingering fear that we may rush Fleury if he shows the slightest hint of being ready...

 

[spockBokk]

Depends on whether you call Sutter's all defense or Skinner's all offense line the '2nd' line. They played similar minutes.
(Sutter played 13:10 a game to Skinner's 12:55 or so) Calling them 2A and 2B would be fair, although the role of that 2nd line and the current 3rd line would be the same.

Again:

Tlusty-Staal-Lindholm
Gerbe-Staal-Semin
Skinner-Nash-Boychuk
Malone-McClement-Dwyer

If things are switched, it'll be the right wings. The left and centers should be locked into place. Nothing else makes sense.

Man, that 3rd line would look SO much better with Sutter in Nash's spot...ah well...

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I'm not going to lie, as crappy as that lineup looks it's refreshing not to see Bowman there, and the forward group isn't horrible if Boychuk and Terry can become decent players.

 

[Buenos Necas]

We've now jumped St. Louis in payroll, up to 8th in the league at 63 mil.

 

[StormCast]

Disagree for the block. Skinner has success when on the 3rd line. He is a giant failure on the top 2 lines. I predict the coach will choose success over giant failure.

With Eric (2014)
GF/20 .86
GA/20 1.1
With Jordan (2014)
GF/20 .4
GA/20 .933
With Nash (2014)
GF/20 1.1
GA/20 .76
With Jordan (2013)
GF/20 .69
GA/20 .92

The BP philosophy, adopted from Babcock, is to play your best skill players the most amount of time at ES. The only caveat is being consistent in all 3 zones, hence my point about a potential demotion to the 3rd line.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I'm not going to lie, as crappy as that lineup looks it's refreshing not to see Bowman there, and the forward group isn't horrible if Boychuk and Terry can become decent players.

Don't jinx it. He hasn't signed anywhere yet, has he?

Skinner-Nash-Lindholm has some good chemistry together last year. What about trying something like:

Boychuk-Staal-Semin
Tlusty - Staal - Gerbe
Skinner-Nash-Lindholm
Malone-McClement-Dwyer

Boychuk has to show he belongs in the top 6 first off and this would mean the top two lines aren't quite as strong, but it's much more balanced with no lines standing out as terrible.

 

[bleedgreen]

Wow. Having a solid fourth line really puts it into perspective how off our third is. Nash needs to grow this year badly.

Really our forward group overall is just odd and unbalanced. That just doesn't look like good chemistry. It looks like a lottery team to me, to be honest. Not trying to be dramatic. Gerbe shouldn't be more than a third liner, tlusty needs to be more defined as a player and I don't know that I like lindy as a winger.

I think we need another winger to go with skinner and lindy.

 

[bluedevil58*]

Jordan and Skinner's contract is looking better year after year.

 

[DaveG]

Wow. Having a solid fourth line really puts it into perspective how off our third is. Nash needs to grow this year badly.

Really our forward group overall is just odd and unbalanced. That just doesn't look like good chemistry. It looks like a lottery team to me, to be honest. Not trying to be dramatic. Gerbe shouldn't be more than a third liner, tlusty needs to be more defined as a player and I don't know that I like lindy as a winger.

I think we need another winger to go with skinner and lindy.

It's a weird situation for sure, we can go top-6 heavy with something like:

Skinner-Eric-Lindholm
Tlusty-Jordan-Semin
Gerbe-Nash-Boychuk
Malone-McClement-Dwyer

and the only obvious hole is the #3 center spot, though that would be entirely too dependent on Eric and Skinner actually stepping up in a big way defensively.

Or, if say we were to put Lindy on the 3rd line like this:

Skinner-Eric-Semin
Tlusty-Jordan-Boychuk
Gerbe-Nash-Lindholm
Malone-McClement-Dwyer

we could very well slot Lindholm in that center spot, but that would leave us with a hole for an offensive winger on that line.

 

[DougieSmash]

Jordan and Skinner's contract is looking better year after year.

5.75 for Skinner is not a bad deal but something like 5.25 is better deal for Carolina. 5.5 for Jordan is better. 6.5 for Semin i'm fine with it. Heck, Wardo contract should be nothing more than 5.5.