going to be interesting to see what the plan is, they have to get us help. Suggesting to trade Weber isn't an option, it's just trolling. Anyone suggesting to trade the 2nd leading goal scorer on defense is either so stupid it's not funny or clearly has an axe to grind/crap to spew. This team needs goals so bad it's not funny and we should trade the guy that only 1 defensemen in the NHL has more goals. Right.
If the mission is to get more goals, we need a better transition player and - period. Damn right I have an axe to grind against the guy, his contract is a huge waving, fluttering red flag. 15 goals or no, it doesn't make up for losing so much of a transition game and his quickly plummeting footspeed leaves us at risk of having a pylon. I'd rather this organisation behave in a proactive, positive manner (take a cue from Bill Belichick & co.) and trade players when they have value and before they crash than after.
Thinking strategically or for the future, I know it's tough to do for some, Weber is a cap disaster. An iceberg slowly drifting toward our cap structure and everyone should be able to see it. Or maybe
be smart enough to see it, since you're insisting on bringing personal traits into it.
He's productive, yes. He scores goals on the PP, yes. But so did Souray and MAB. The second he loses his shot, he's going to be a one-dimensional defensive d-man. The second he loses his footspeed (even more) he's going to be a pylon with an eight million dollar cap hit.
I hope our future GM is
clever enough to cut his losses and close the book on this guy sooner than later.
Yeah Whiskey dont know whats up with you. But you should stop drinking Whiskey. Weber is fine. Theres no number 1 D who can play 6 months with Emelin and look good. AND with caprecapture like people said Weber will definitely be sent back to Nashville when he'll think about retiring.
Whiskey's fine. Everyone should enjoy it responsibly.
I don't care about Nashville
definitely taking Weber back, I want Weber to not be our problem at all. Not this year or next or the one after. If he's slowing down now, and he definitely is, it's very likely he'll be even worse very very quickly. He's getting called out every game now for his defensive flubs and lack of offensive talent. He's also clearly overrated in the intangible/leadership front considering this year's collapse. We need to remove whatever politics are associated with his acquisition and think pragmatically:
You have a declining asset on a toxic contract - maybe he won't retire, maybe he'll insist on playing, maybe he won't be able to be LITR'd - we
must find a way to deal with it.
Wade Redden was only mildly disappointing in year one of his contract with the Rags. By end of year two he was a disaster. Within two years he was in the AHL and was paid something like 23m to play in the minors. Here's a quote from him "I think maybe making that money there and being the player I am… I felt like the first little while, things were going pretty good, and then they kind of fell off. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough, and like I should have been doing more. Once I started feeling that way, I think I just got away from the things that made me successful. Things just kind of snowballed from there." Sounds awfully likely to happen to our own overrated, handsomely paid "elite" Canadian d-man.
I don't care for the excuse that he's playing with Emelin so all is forgiven at all. He should make it work, he's paid the money of someone who should make it work. If your counter-argument is to say that we need someone to play next to him, mine is going to be that it's impossible to commit even more money to D and expect to compete for anything. We have a very expensive d-corps and Weber makes a ton of money. PMDs are more valuable (for obvious reasons) and whoever we get will need to be paid handsomely to carry that pairing... leading to the natural and inevitable conclusion that Weber is a cap anchor and a disaster waiting to happen. Through little fault of his own (well... he did sign that offersheet).
Honestly folks, do you really not see it? Hockey is moving in a very obvious direction, Weber clearly isn't. He's always been overrated but at this point we're very close to a precipice where a very bad trade will turn into a horrific acquisition.
Cap recapture disucssion is five years away. SW's salary is 12M next year, then 6M/year for four more. Only in the last four years does the salary get down to the point where Weber retiring/cap recapture becomes a possibility ($3M salary in 22-23, then 1M, 1M, 1M).
I'm concerned that the current state of the contract becomes like the Leafs with Phaneuf. Player is fine, just not worth the big cap hit. It's reasonable to argue the Habs haven't gotten a 7.8M cap hit's worth of value of Weber THIS YEAR. Even going forward into years 2/3/4 of the contract it's very possible you see a clear gap between the level of play and the cap cost.
Weber still has the aura about him, though, he's has been largely unscathed through the collapse the past three months while people piled on Therrien, Galchenyuk, Plek, and Price. If he still has "Team Canada Gold Medal Defenseman" value around the league I'd be all for using him as the chip to acquire a top centre and signing someone like Shattenkirk at about $6-7M to fill the void.
Trading him and not replacing him somehow on D of course isn't the answer, but W7 isn't offering that. If you traded him for a bag of pucks you'd still have a 7.8M cap hit freed up to go sign any UFA defenseman you wanted. If you traded him for valuable assets and signed a UFA you probably come out ahead.
Oh, and has been noted several times, the guy Weber was traded for worked a #1 pairing with Gorges, Cube, Gill etc and was perfectly fine. The idea that our $8M #1 D needs help in the form of a higher end PMD vs. making people around him better is somewhat concerning.
It's more than somewhat concerning, it's clearly delusional.
Pointing to his goal total without taking context into account is what dummies do. Weber is more than his goal totals and while he'd be a good-to-great #2 he clearly isn't a #1 (and no, point totals aren't an indicator of #1-ness) and is paid like one. Therefore we need to cut our losses before the inevitable happens.