He was also our leading ES scorer the past two seasons.
Also, we're in cap hell. Do you honestly think this deal at the draft is for a "legit" scoring winger? The timing of this screams, let's get some assets (picks/prospects) and sign Iginla before 7/1.
If they trade Marchy, I'm guessing you can expect.
Lucic-Krejci-Iginla
Eriksson-Bergeron-Smith
Kelly-Soderberg-Fraser
Paille-Campbell-Florek
We'll hear that we wanted to upgrade in some areas but we're up against the cap (leaving out due to our own doing)
Any "legit" scoring winger that can be moved with a prospect is going to come at a higher cap hit than Marchand, one we can't afford.
Don't care about the regular season. He doesn't score in the playoffs. He's more of a liability than he is a contributor at this point, with the idiotic crap he does.
I know we're in cap hell, but the Marchand for legit winger deal hinges on everything else. You're right about the cap, but if they let Iginla walk, find someone who wants Kelly and get him to waive, deal McQuaid, then we should be able to afford it. We can fit a 5.5 million dollar player in there, right? I don't feel like doing the capgeek, but there has to be a way, as long as we can unload Kelly, McQuaid, Iginla. I know we have Iginla's cap penalty (something I hated from the jump, if he wanted to sign here he should've signed for less for a chance at the Cup, he's made enough money already in his career for him to sacrifice a couple of million for a real chance or two to win).
If we're still too close to the cap, and have to wait until mid season to get a scorer, fine. As long as we get one before the playoffs.
Kelly is valuable as a player, but the problems I see are:
A) NTC, limited suitors.
B) Coming off back surgery. Also two additional lower body injuries these past two years. What version of CK are you getting? He's 33 years old. 34 in November. Considerable risk there.
C) $3 Million/per cap hit for 2 years. Not a lot of contenders can absorb that contract. Bruins won't be retaining.
D) Most teams will look to free agency first. This pool is littered with quality bottom-6 PK'ers. Trade an asset for Kelly or sign Winnik, Mclement, Malholtra, MacKenzie etc?
Teams aren't lining up for Chris Kelly is all I'm saying. Another option is trading him to a team of his choice, taking a bad contract in return, then turning around and buying out that incoming contract. Don't know if that's possible or not.....
All legitimate points.
A) The NTC hurts, but I feel like it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Obviously he's not going to want to go somewhere awful and it certainly will be a factor, but I think the teams he has the most value to, are ones that want to win now. So I don't think they'll be dealing him to a bottom feeder or anything, which works in our favor because he's more likely to waive to a competitive team.
B) You're right about this. They'll be weary but he hasn't had a long history of injury problems, though recently he's had some bad luck in that department. Teams will be extra cautious and I'm sure will want to be assured of his health.
C) It's an obstacle for sure. If we retain money, does that count against our cap? I don't know, I'll have to check, because if JJ is willing to eat half of his salary, and it doesn't count against our cap, I think teams will be crawling over each other to acquire him.
D) Kelly is better than all of them, but yeah, I agree that they'll likely look there first and try to find a cheaper option.