Speculation: What Lightning player do you think Vegas will draft from us

[Lebowski]

From a Habs standpoint, would you guys be open to move Filppula within the division?

I'm assuming he could be had for relatively cheap given your situation .

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

From a Habs standpoint, would you guys be open to move Filppula within the division?

I'm assuming he could be had for relatively cheap given your situation .

Replacing DD?

 

[Sky04]

From a Habs standpoint, would you guys be open to move Filppula within the division?

I'm assuming he could be had for relatively cheap given your situation .

Ugh, I'd rather not given how well he's playing but I'm sure Yzerman is weighing his options as one of the bigger contracts needs to be moved this year and Fil has increased his value drastically.

 

[DFC]

Last resort, maybe.

If Flip can play like this all year, I really wouldn't be opposed to letting him play out the remainder of his contract, IF (and only if) we can find a way to move Callahan.

This season is sooooo 2013. Let's just hope it doesn't end in a Habs sweep.

 

[Sky04]

Last resort, maybe.

If Flip can play like this all year, I really wouldn't be opposed to letting him play out the remainder of his contract, IF (and only if) we can find a way to move Callahan.

This season is sooooo 2013. Let's just hope it doesn't end in a Habs sweep.

With Kuch signing cheap and hopefully others to follow, we very well could.

Drouin(4.5m)-Stamkos(8.5m)-Kucherov(4.77m)
Palat(5.2m)-Johnson(5.2m)-Point(0.687m)
Namestnikov(1.94m)-Filppula(5m)-Callahan(5.8m)
Brown(1.25m)-Paquette(0.825m)-Player X (1m)
Extra (1m)

Total Forwards: 45.67m

Hedman(7.88m)-Stralman(4.5m)
Koekoek (1.2m) - Coburn (3.75m)
Nesterov (1m) - Sustr(2m)
Extra (1m)

Total Defense: 21.33

Vasi: 3.5m
Backup: 1m

Total Goaltending: 4.5m
Carle Buyout: 1.83m

Total: 73.33M

Would require Vegas taking Killorn and moving Garrison, we'll be in great shape in 2 years though.

 

[DFC]

Agreed. The Kucherov contract was the single biggest key to solving our cap problem. It's suddenly feasible that we can keep the core (minus Bishop), because the Kuch contract gets us to the expansion draft with everyone on board.

 

[Felonious Python]

Nothing that couldn't be predicted, but GMGM expects a huge shakeup around the league to keep away the otherwise best exposed players.



On the other hand, every team is required to exposed a certain amount of players. Two forwards and one defenseman who have played 40+ games this year or 70+ the past two (as of the time of the draft), as well as a goalie. 40 games is a pretty high threshold.

 

[These Are The Days]

Trade Filppula after the season if you can get him to do so.

Protect

Stamkos
Kucherov
Johnson
Palat
Drouin
Callahan
Killorn (or Filppula if he does not waive)

Hedman
Stralman
Garrison

Vasilevskiy

If Koekkoek is draft exempt then don't worry about it. If he isn't then leave him exposed anyway. Your other choices include Coburn, Nesterov and Sustr. If you're Vegas you would pick someone like them as opposed to a guy who will have barely played more than a season of hockey in Koekkoek.

If I HAD to chose someone to picked off by Vegas it's Namestnikov. I've seen enough. I used to complain non-stop about Filppula because he would float around and do nothing and Namestnikov is even worse. Like Point, he's being gifted ice time and is doing almost nothing with it. I'd keep Point over Namestnikov because the latter has the vision of a carriage horse with blinders on it. At least Point actually comes CLOSE to scoring and creating chances. With a little bit of puck luck like Killorn has, Point would probably have about the same numbers as Palat with 4 goals, 8 assists but with a better plus/minus at about or 1 or 2.

I wish Point would get sent down and Conacher called up but I digress because I don't make the choices in the Lightning front office

 

[Kaibur]

Coyotes fan here. I think the Coyotes would make a great trade partner with the Lightning. They have a bunch of forward prospects that don't need to be exposed, but need some established young forwards. They have slots available to protect forwards or a defenseman in expansion. Hanzal (50%), Stone (50%), Vrbata all available as rentals for a Cup run, along with picks or prospects that won't need to be exposed. Yzerman/Chayka made the DeAngelo deal, so there's lines of communication there.

 

[These Are The Days]

Coyotes fan here. I think the Coyotes would make a great trade partner with the Lightning. They have a bunch of forward prospects that don't need to be exposed, but need some established young forwards. They have slots available to protect forwards or a defenseman in expansion. Hanzal (50%), Stone (50%), Vrbata all available as rentals for a Cup run, along with picks or prospects that won't need to be exposed. Yzerman/Chayka made the DeAngelo deal, so there's lines of communication there.

I agree that we are ideal trade partners because you guys have players who would make excellent deadline acquisitions for us to bolster for a Cup run. But I don't know if it's appropriate for us to be trading.

Last year our prospect pool was about dried up. Save for DeAngelo (who apparently was a bad apple) Koekkoek, Brayden Point and the underperformming Adam Erne we had little to nothing happening. 2 years ago I WAS NOT a fan of drafting Mitchell Stephens, Matthew Spencer, Denis Yan or Mathieu Joseph. It seemed like we drafted a gaggle of project power forwards, an undersized winger and an unremarkable defenseman. If even one of those guys makes the Lightning I'll be impressed.

As of right this second with the most minimal of assessment done it looks like our last draft was slam dunk. Like good enough to rank us in the top 10 prospect pool rankings again. Howden, Raddysh, Ingram and Hajek are playing very well and Matheiu Joseph from last year's draft is shining like a late bloomer in the sense that he's a 4th round prospect playing like a 2nd rounder. Anthony Cirelli is playing well but we're not gonna know about him until he hits the AHL. The only other guy I wonder about is Boris Katchouk because he's not putting up the numbers one would expect out of him. But give the kid some time and I'm sure he will pan out.

All this is said with great irony because we desperately need to unload one or both of Callahan and Filppula for cap space purposes. If we could get more prospects it would be great because that's who we would want in return for them.

I think a trade at draft day is not out of a question though. I would lose my mind if we traded for Strome. But I know the Coyotes are too smart to deal him.

 

[tjs*]

Trade Filppula after the season if you can get him to do so.

Protect

Stamkos
Kucherov
Johnson
Palat
Drouin
Callahan
Killorn (or Filppula if he does not waive)

Hedman
Stralman
Garrison

Vasilevskiy

If Koekkoek is draft exempt then don't worry about it. If he isn't then leave him exposed anyway. Your other choices include Coburn, Nesterov and Sustr. If you're Vegas you would pick someone like them as opposed to a guy who will have barely played more than a season of hockey in Koekkoek.

If I HAD to chose someone to picked off by Vegas it's Namestnikov. I've seen enough. I used to complain non-stop about Filppula because he would float around and do nothing and Namestnikov is even worse. Like Point, he's being gifted ice time and is doing almost nothing with it. I'd keep Point over Namestnikov because the latter has the vision of a carriage horse with blinders on it. At least Point actually comes CLOSE to scoring and creating chances. With a little bit of puck luck like Killorn has, Point would probably have about the same numbers as Palat with 4 goals, 8 assists but with a better plus/minus at about or 1 or 2.

I wish Point would get sent down and Conacher called up but I digress because I don't make the choices in the Lightning front office

I agree with much of what you said, but why expose Koekkoek to protect a guy in Garrison who we are almost certainly going to have to move for cap reasons anyway?

Vegas is going to be looking to build a contender long term while still being as competitive as possible in the meantime; they are going to want high potential young players who can be part of their future, useful veterans they can flip for picks and prospects with the same goal in mind, and only after that will they take mediocre players who neither help their future nor make them competitive out of the gate. Coburn, Nesterov, and Sustr aren't part of the future for Vegas and aren't good enough to flip for futures or to be of any particular use on the Knights' roster - they're the sort of scrubs Vegas could easily take from any team and I don't see Vegas wasting a pick on them when young guys like Namestnikov and Koekkoek are available. We wouldn't shed too many tears for Vladdy but losing Koekkoek would hurt, so why take that chance?