Confirmed Signing with Link: [TBL] Yanni Gourde extended (6 years, $5.166M AAV)

[DFC]

We only have three that are actual regulars in the lineup: Point, Johnson, and Gourde. That’s not too many. Conacher’s in the AHL now and Martel has yet to get out of the pressbox. The problem isn’t the small forwards we have - it’s the power forwards we don’t.

Gourde's not even a finesse forward. Small, sure. But there's not much finesse at all in his game, which is a big reason why he's valuable to us. Because, even though his size is similar to a lot of our forwards, his playing style is very different.

 

[playasRus]

Good deal imo. Even if he regressed, it'll be market value. And even though im no professional scout, I would say his odds of regressing are less than likely.

Point's negotiations will be interesting. Envious of TB and their contracts + talent retention. Biggest losses they've had have all been in their twilight

 

[VinikToWinIt]

Oh man... Tampa has too many small finesse forwards. Nothing wrong with them but when you have lineup full of them it just won't work. I would trade this contract for Tom Wilson's who would give them something different.

You think Gourde is a finesse forward?

 

[Leonardo87]

The one thing I'd add is, even if we do lose somebody painful, we seem to have a knack for developing talent to replace them. Katchouk is looking pretty damn good right now, for instance, if we have to part ways with Miller. Miller's kind of a luxury at the moment. I mean, we're putting him on 4th line once in a while just for depth purposes.

That 4th line was really good with Miller and Callahan on there. When Palat returns wonder if Miller will be dropped which is not really a bad thing. Tampa ‘s depth is truly amazing and fun to watch.

 

[StreetHawk]

Close, but not quite. All three of Stralman, Coburn, and Girardi are almost certainly gone after this season. Miller will be traded after this season or potentially the next depending on what happens with Callahan (if we can clear Callahan’s entire contract that might buy us another year with Miller; conversely if we trade Miller after this season that should allow us to retain on Cally to make him easier to move and to decrease the price to do so. In any event with our organizational depth we can easily afford to give up a first or a good prospect if necessary.) The following summer Killorn’s full NTC ends and he can potentially be traded; if we have to we can retain about $1M to make him easy to move. And there’s also the expansion draft coming up that could potentially allow us to shed a big contract by leaving one of our ~$5M complementary players unprotected, though we don’t need to count on that to make the numbers work.

Point will be bridged at around $5M; when his bridge ends Palat will be off the books and Point will get PAID. Serg will either be bridged as well or signed to a moderate longterm deal - he’s shown flashes of the player he will become but aside from the last playoffs he hasn’t been playing at a level where he will earn a big contract when his ELC ends. Vasy is the wild card: it’s uncertain what the market is going to look like for top goalies in a couple years and I don’t know what his willingness will be to leave a little money on the table to help the team.

In short, while I’m not a fan of all the NTCs the organization keeps handing out, the situation is still manageable. We may end up losing somebody that hurts, especially if all our free agents start trying to break the bank, but there’s no guarantee that we’ll have to at this point.

If players who have NTC are “deemed to have taken a discount” to sign in TB due to the tax benefits, then that is the price you have to pay for the lower cap hit.

Cause the players only benefits from the taxes if he is playing for TB. If he gets moved to StLouis he loses the tax benefit.

So can’t complain about ntc if the cap number is good. For the elite guys I would have no issue with ntc but the likes of Killorn for example I’d rather just have paid him fair market value. Guys like him are easier to move on from.

 

[Sota Popinski]

We've done extensive research on this and know a lot more about our own team than you do. The No Trade Clauses are annoying, but our forwards are productive and tradable. We have full NTC's expiring from vets just in time to re-sign young players. Callahan will not cost nearly as much to send off as you think. We are also certainly going to lose a productive but paid forward to Seattle and we gain another ~2million from the Carle buyout penalty expiring in time to re-sign Sergachev and Vasy.

We have young and productive defensemen in the waiting to fill in for Stralman, Coburn, and Girardi. They can leave. Throw in possibly trading Miller and the cap inevitably going up and we are fine. The only potential obstacle is a new CBA.

Ok, but thats the point. Losing Stralman, Coburn and Girardi is probably going to make your team worse.

 

[Sota Popinski]

Close, but not quite. All three of Stralman, Coburn, and Girardi are almost certainly gone after this season. Miller will be traded after this season or potentially the next depending on what happens with Callahan (if we can clear Callahan’s entire contract that might buy us another year with Miller; conversely if we trade Miller after this season that should allow us to retain on Cally to make him easier to move and to decrease the price to do so. In any event with our organizational depth we can easily afford to give up a first or a good prospect if necessary.) The following summer Killorn’s full NTC ends and he can potentially be traded; if we have to we can retain about $1M to make him easy to move. And there’s also the expansion draft coming up that could potentially allow us to shed a big contract by leaving one of our ~$5M complementary players unprotected, though we don’t need to count on that to make the numbers work.

Point will be bridged at around $5M; when his bridge ends Palat will be off the books and Point will get PAID. Serg will either be bridged as well or signed to a moderate longterm deal - he’s shown flashes of the player he will become but aside from the last playoffs he hasn’t been playing at a level where he will earn a big contract when his ELC ends. Vasy is the wild card: it’s uncertain what the market is going to look like for top goalies in a couple years and I don’t know what his willingness will be to leave a little money on the table to help the team.

In short, while I’m not a fan of all the NTCs the organization keeps handing out, the situation is still manageable. We may end up losing somebody that hurts, especially if all our free agents start trying to break the bank, but there’s no guarantee that we’ll have to at this point.

Lol at point signing for $5 million

 

[Sota Popinski]

Do you realize we've seen people post this kind of thing every single year for about four years? "Yeah, TB's good, but they're gonna lose everybody to the cap." ...And so far our only cap casualty (Drouin) was traded for an improvement.

That was before they gave every guy on the team a no trade clause

 

[DFC]

That was before they gave every guy on the team a no trade clause

Not really.

 

[DFC]

Ok, but thats the point. Losing Stralman, Coburn and Girardi is probably going to make your team worse.

Stralman, yes. The other two are replaceable. And my guess is we wind up keeping Stralman and moving Miller, who's more/less a luxury.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Ok, but thats the point. Losing Stralman, Coburn and Girardi is probably going to make your team worse.

Stralman I'll give you. He loves living in Tampa so I can see him taking a real friendly hit to stay. Coburn and Girardi are easy to replace for less.

 

[IPS]

@DominicBoltsFan Might be a little more accurate with his predictions on Goude than I may have thought. I've paid attention to Tampa lately and Gourde is a very good player this year.

We'll see how he keeps up though, late-bloomers like him are rare but they are out there.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

That was before they gave every guy on the team a no trade clause

The difference is, a complete no trade clause and a list. If we have a list, it isn't as bad.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

@DominicBoltsFan Might be a little more accurate with his predictions on Goude than I may have thought. I've paid attention to Tampa lately and Gourde is a very good player this year.

We'll see how he keeps up though, late-bloomers like him are rare but they are out there.

Anyone that's a bolts fan knows the value of Gourde. Hence why not a single one is calling this a bad signing.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

@DominicBoltsFan Might be a little more accurate with his predictions on Goude than I may have thought. I've paid attention to Tampa lately and Gourde is a very good player this year.

We'll see how he keeps up though, late-bloomers like him are rare but they are out there.

Dude is good, he’s got speed to burn and always brings it 110%. Great hands at the net too and gets himself into the scoring positions often. And what he lacks in size, he makes up for in toughness as he’s always the guy who gets involved in the scrums and irks opponents.

 

[AndreRoy]

Lol at point signing for $5 million

That’s more than any other Tampa player in recent years has gotten on his bridge deal. Yes, Point could refuse to sign a bridge deal, but it’s unlikely - he’s a team player and he knows if he keeps up his level of play his next contract will be $10M+. Personally I’d rather lock him up long term at $7-8M if possible but our cap situation likely precludes that.

 

[Aoko]

Seems like a whole lot of money for 1 good season.

He's only played one full season.

12 points in 12 games this season.

Maybe, just maybe get a clue.

 

[AndreRoy]

Ok, but thats the point. Losing Stralman, Coburn and Girardi is probably going to make your team worse.

Coburn and Girardi not so much, but yes Stralman’s loss will hurt us to some degree. Just how much will depend on how Serg develops this season and whether or not Cernak can prove an effective partner for Hedman (if that is indeed the plan.)

 

[DFC]

Coburn and Girardi not so much, but yes Stralman’s loss will hurt us to some degree. Just how much will depend on how Serg develops this season and whether or not Cernak can prove an effective partner for Hedman (if that is indeed the plan.)

I still think one of Girardi or Coburn, maybe Koekkoek, will be moved before the TDL, opening the way for Cernak, so we don't throw him to the wolves next year. I think we want to know what we have in him before we make long-term plans. Because those plans get a lot easier if he looks like he can handle a significant role.

 

[Aoko]

Tampa can make it work. I would have said Killorn or Palat likely the odd man out, but Johnson having a seemingly renewed game so far may shoot him up the list for best value return.

If TB can make a miracle happen in terms of moving Callahan, it'd help them out.

May as well play russian roulette with Killorn, Palat and Johnson and whoever draws the bullet gets traded. Or just trade them all along with Callahan, sign Erik Karlsson in free agency, and laugh as everyone else complains about how Tampa is able to get away with it.

 

[Riptide]

That is an awfully long contract. Seems to be a trend to give role and depth players years over cap hit and pray it doesn't hurt at the end.

One typically doesn't describe 65pt players as "role and depth players". He had 64 pts last season and is playing at a PPG rate this season. That likely falls off as the season goes on... but it's still impressive none the less. Add in that he's a C/W and these are all UFA years, and this contract isn't all that outrageous.

 

[Djp]

I don't think you've watched him play a whole lot.

You never should give a long $5M+ contract to a one yr wonder. Should have waited.

 

[Riptide]

If players who have NTC are “deemed to have taken a discount” to sign in TB due to the tax benefits, then that is the price you have to pay for the lower cap hit.

Cause the players only benefits from the taxes if he is playing for TB. If he gets moved to StLouis he loses the tax benefit.

So can’t complain about ntc if the cap number is good. For the elite guys I would have no issue with ntc but the likes of Killorn for example I’d rather just have paid him fair market value. Guys like him are easier to move on from.

Yeah, but even with his NTC, it's still easier to trade him if he has a 4.5m cap hit vs a 5m one. The trick is to not give them super restrictive ones. I mean I think it's E.Kane that has a 3 team approval list. That's just stupid. Let them block 10-15 teams. That prevents them from getting traded to some crap team or somewhere they don't really want to be... but other than that those contracts are fairly moveable and teams can still get a decent return. But the moment you have a high cap hit and limited trade destinations, teams will get screwed return wise.

 

[Riptide]

I still think one of Girardi or Coburn, maybe Koekkoek, will be moved before the TDL, opening the way for Cernak, so we don't throw him to the wolves next year. I think we want to know what we have in him before we make long-term plans. Because those plans get a lot easier if he looks like he can handle a significant role.

Still expecting Tampa to sign Stralman for around 4-5m (depending on term) and move someone up front to find the cap space - especially with all the young forwards you have in your system. Replacing your 3D who's a RD is a harder thing to do. Girardi and Coburn meh, whatever. Some young guys can step in, and if it's not working make moves later on. But you need another good RD and Stralman is still a very good one to have around who can fill a lot of holes for you guys.

 

[Riptide]

You never should give a long $5M+ contract to a one yr wonder. Should have waited.

He's playing at a PPG pace so far this season (13pts, 13 GP)... how long do they wait before biting the bullet before his price just keeps going up? Because 60+ pt players who can play center are always in demand.