What's your Goaltending for next year?

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The Stranger

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There was some discussion in another thread about keeping Darling and sending him to Charlotte as opposed to buying him out.

Can you pay Darling 2/3rds of his salary to go away, pay someone to replace him, and come out ahead? It's debatable, but I don't believe so.

1) Sign Helvig to ELC.
2) Sign best available UFA to a market value contract (don't overpay out of desperation).
3) Go into training camp next year with an open competition for the two roster spots.
4) If Ned beats out Darling, so be it. Send Darling to Charlotte. If Darling gets electro-shock therapy and reemerges as an NHL calibre goalie, great.

It's not pretty, but it's probably the best option.

Next Season
Canes - Best UFA and Darling/Ned
Checkers - Darling/Ned and Booth
Everblades - Helvig
 
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MinJaBen

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There was some discussion in another thread about keeping Darling and sending him to Charlotte as opposed to buying him out.

Can you pay Darling 2/3rds of his salary to go away, pay someone to replacement him, and come out ahead? It's debatable, but I don't believe so.

1) Sign Helvig to ELC.
2) Sign best available UFA to a market value contract (don't overpay out of desperation).
3) Go into training camp next year with an open competition for the two roster spots.
4) If Ned beats out Darling, so be it. Send Darling to Charlotte. If Darling gets electro-shock therapy and reemerges as an NHL calibre goalie, great.

It's not pretty, but it's probably the best option.

Next Season
Canes - Best UFA and Darling/Ned
Checkers - Darling/Ned and Booth
Everblades - Helvig

What if the Best UFA is....Ward?
 

bleedgreen

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I don’t know that I see them buying him out. Maybe Rask because he’s an easier buy out, but I would also think Rask may have value for some sort of trade.

Unless you’re made of money buyouts are painful, and just because this guy acts like he’s got tons of cash doesn’t mean he wants to deal with buyouts.

Ward/Darling is a distinct possibility. I could also see them trying a third guy who’s cheap and could go to the minors, and rotate him with Darling going back and forth.
 

The Stranger

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What if the Best UFA is....Ward?

Ward is a fine player. This team has done well in his starts.

He very well may be the best UFA. Maybe it's Raanta...I've seen very little of him and won't say one way or the other.

That's a bingo. Best UFAs with any kind of track record right now are probably Raanta, Ward, Halak, and Lehtonen in that order. If Raanta doesn't get to UFA Ward is the best option as sick as that is to say.

I'm guessing Raanta will require a Darlingesque investment. Are folks willing to do that again?

Not a fan of Halak.

Loved Lehtonen as a young player, looked like a future HOFer...lots of injuries and bad teams. Would be fine bringing him in.
 

Boom Boom Apathy

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What about Robin Lehner? I know the guy is a nut bar, but he's put up respectable numbers on a horrific Sabres team (this season has been a dip, but he's still better than Ward).

He's an RFA I think? So we'd need to trade for him although I'm not against trading for a guy though. (assuming Buffalo wants to move him). His numbers look good, but I haven't watch him enough in the past number of years to know anything about him, or if he'd work out here.
 
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I'm going to go against the grain here. I don't think Darling is back but I think Ward will be. The new owner and new GM have no ties to Darling and I think they'll cut their losses one way or another. Either buy-out or send to Charlotte, or trade with full 50% retention, or something like that.
This is why I have some faith that he is not coming back. Francis would have given him another chance. New GM will make these decisions, just because he is not responsible or invested in him or other roster players.
 

Boom Boom Apathy

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Well, he actually has 12M ties to Darling.

Not if he buys him out. ;) According to CapFriendly his cost would be $1.3M for 6 years ($7.8M total) vs. ~$4M / year for 3 years ($11.8M). That's not as bad as I thought it would be. Trading with max retention would still cost $6M, so not that much different than a buyout.

SEASONSALARYINITIAL CAP HITACTUAL COSTSAVINGSBUYOUT CAP HIT
2018-19$4,750,000$4,150,000$1,316,667$3,433,333$716,667
2019-20$4,100,000$4,150,000$1,316,667$2,783,333$1,366,667
2020-21$3,000,000$4,150,000$1,316,667$1,683,333$2,466,667
2021-22$0$0$1,316,667-$1,316,667$1,316,667
2022-23$0$0$1,316,667-$1,316,667$1,316,667
2023-24$0$0$1,316,667-$1,316,667$1,316,667
[TBODY] [/TBODY]
 

The Stranger

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This is why I have some faith that he is not coming back. Francis would have given him another chance. New GM will make these decisions, just because he is not responsible or invested in him or other roster players.

Darling entered this season as the anointed one. Even if he's under contract next season and given the chance, I suspect the net will be awarded based on merit.. This will be an improvement even in a Ward/Darling/Ned scenario.
 

Boom Boom Apathy

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New Gm or not he’s spending TD’s money so the owner would have to sign off on it. Probably not the first player move he wants to be part of, subtracting a guy he’ll have to pay for the next few years.

Maybe not, but he doesn't seem to me to be a guy that would keep a guy around if he feels he's not part of the solution. If he (and the Canes braintrust and new GM) thinks Darling is salvageable, then obviously he won't buy him out. If they feel he isn't salvageable, then I can see him cutting his losses and moving on.
 

DaveG

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I'm going to go against the grain here. I don't think Darling is back but I think Ward will be. The new owner and new GM have no ties to Darling and I think they'll cut their losses one way or another. Either buy-out or send to Charlotte, or trade with full 50% retention, or something like that.
I get the feeling 50% retention will be option #1 no matter who comes in. Hell I get the feeling that even if Francis was still around that would have been option #1.

Ward-Lehtonen would be fine by me for a 1 year platoon if they don't think that Ned will be ready yet. I would like to see Ned get about 3-4 starts heading down the remainder of this lost season, see if we can't discover that he's a possible option to replace Darling for next year if we have to bury him in the minors. Also would not mind seeing a shot at Vehvilainen among others on the international side, especially if they're still young enough to get on an ELC even if it's for a year to get us a good bit of cap savings.
 

DaveG

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What about Robin Lehner? I know the guy is a nut bar, but he's put up respectable numbers on a horrific Sabres team (this season has been a dip, but he's still better than Ward).
RFA as mentioned above. Wouldn't mind trying to snag him in a trade for O'Reilly but that's about our best (only) chance at him.

I don’t know that I see them buying him out. Maybe Rask because he’s an easier buy out, but I would also think Rask may have value for some sort of trade.

Unless you’re made of money buyouts are painful, and just because this guy acts like he’s got tons of cash doesn’t mean he wants to deal with buyouts.

Ward/Darling is a distinct possibility. I could also see them trying a third guy who’s cheap and could go to the minors, and rotate him with Darling going back and forth.
I do think Rask has some trade value. Bad as it is to say he's still at least a semi-productive NHL player, just on a bad contract and a bad fit for what the team is doing both short and long term as he does not have the speed to project to play wing. Like at all. And it's fairly clear that he not only will never catch Staal on the depth chart but will almost certainly have already been passed by Necas and if Lindholm does move to center long term or we make a UFA signing he's a 4 million dollar 4th liner. That just can't be a thing in any kind of cap league, this isn't the 2002 Wings.
 
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Boom Boom Apathy

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I get the feeling 50% retention will be option #1 no matter who comes in. Hell I get the feeling that even if Francis was still around that would have been option #1.

Sure, but it would depend on what else it costs. If it's 50% retention and a 7th round pick (unlikely) it's one thing. If it's 50% retention and a 2nd round pick then I'm not sure it's worth saving the $1.8M over a buyout to do that.

Again, all this assumes the Canes thinks Darling isn't salvageable. I don't think he is, but could be wrong.
 
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