BigTramFan

The Smashville Predators are proud to select: Brayden Point @theo5789

It's not just the playoffs. They will not be cap compliant on opening night without moving out salary. Once the ruling on O'Connor comes through I believe they have a 48 hour period to decide on a buy out (or not) for a player earning $4m or more. Granlund seems to be the odd guy out. And not buying out Granlund is a big risk, as he would be expensive to move out in a trade. To be cap compliant on opening night it is either a buy out or they have some other trades lined up and agreed to. Buying out Granlund and taking the proposed trade saves them $4.5m in actual salary costs.

I like Beau, but we have too many wingers Alf. If we are trading one, it makes sense to bolster our defense and make some space for a 3C.

You started this discussion by saying Irwin was as good as Rutta, but now you've come full circle and claim that Rutta is worth more than Beauvillier!

Beauvillier has maintained an 18 goals per 82 games pace for his entire career. Plus has proven to elevate his play in the playoffs. Dubas has already addressed defense in his bottom 6 by signing Eller, Acciari and Nieto. Without secondary scoring in their bottom 6, PIT will be easily shutdown. If Dubas doesn't replace Granlund with someone that can score goals they will end up with either O'Connor (5 goals last season) or Nieto (4 goals) on the third line.

Irwin is not a top 6 Dman in any universe and he is not much of a PK'er. He's good for depth. Whereas Rutta is a top 6 Dman all day long and good on the PK, which is what we need on our third pairing imo. I agree that we need another top 6 guy on our roster (but certainly NOT Dumba). We need someone like Rutta that actually plays well defensively. He is exactly the kind of guy that would complement Myers. PIT should be looking for an offense orientated player to replace Granlund on their 3rd line. Eller + Acciari are good defensively but they need someone that can score. PIT has Eller, Nieto, Acciari and Rust to PK, they don't need to add another PK winger. The reality is that PIT will struggle to find a better player than Beau to replace Granlund on their 3rd line. This trade is a good option to move out cap from their bottom pairing defense and use it on a scoring winger. Beauvillier would also provide them with a player that is capable of slotting into their top 6 in case of injuries. Anyway, you have your opinion, I have mine. Thanks for your thoughts.

Correct, so they actually have 20 players on their roster with $895k in cap space. This is probably enough space to resign Pinto (although he's worth much more, his status as a 10.2(c) player means no one can offer sheet him and there's no arbitration). This brings them to 21 players. They can roll a 21-man roster, but they will probably try and get rid of Joseph if they can, as he has been a disappointment for them.

Rutta is a legit right-handed top 6 Dman that can play both sides. Has played top pairing with Hedman on a contender. Definitely an improvement on Irwin who, as you say, we don't know is good enough to crack the roster. We have a large pool of depth guys that are 7th Dmen at best. Rutta provides actual top 6 depth. PIT gives up the higher pick because Beau is the better payer. I felt this trade made sense for both sides because if PIT buys out Granlund, then they could use another winger. VAN has too many wingers and could use some proper top 6 D depth.

PIT seems poised to buyout Granlund once the O'Connor arbitration goes through. This leaves them with a bottom 6 that does not provide much secondary scoring. They have Rutta pencilled into their bottom pairing, and lots of depth on D with Ruhwedel, Ty Smith and Friedman currently as 7th, 8th, 9th Dmen. Proposed trade: To VAN: Rutta + 2024 2nd round pick To PIT: Beauvilier + 2024 4th round pick (NJD) This trade for Beauvillier gives PIT extra scoring in their bottom 6 and they still have plenty of depth on D. For VAN the trade is about moving out some cap, improving our picks in 2024, and adding some more veteran depth to our top 6 D. We finish off the roster by signing Suter ($1.6m) and Watson ($1m):

Are the details of front office budget spend posted publicly on the forum? Or is this kept confidential?

I assume that points are only accumulated during the regular season? And so the winner of the 'CDCGFL Stanley Cup' will be known before actual NHL playoffs occur?

I don't think they'll trade Pesce but if they did, remember Slavin and Deangelo were a great pairing for CAR in 2021-22 with a +23 rating. I wonder if they'd run with: Slavin Deangelo Orlov Burns Skjei Chatfield But they look much better with Pesce in the mix.

You don't have to pay your top players what they are worth. The other option is let someone else pay them, and just don't have any top players. In my opinion we can afford one top player. I don't think we need Boeser when we have Kuzmenko, Mikheyev, Garland, Hoglander, Podkolzin, Klimovich, Lekkerimaki, etc. The situations with TOR and EDM are very different. TOR paid 3 players (Matthews, Marner, Tavares) 11.6 + 10.9 + 11 / 81.5 = 41.1% of the cap. If they just stuck to one high paid guy, they could build a decent team with depth. EDM paid McDavid a contract that was 12.5/79.5 = 15.7% of the cap. If we paid Petey 11m then its only 11/87.5 = 12.5% and he is a one off on our team. The only other players pushing for big money are Miller and Hughes, both signed for decent term.

Maybe Ilya can elevate his game. But Schenn was an exception rather than the rule. I think Soucy has more chance than Ilya of playing top pairing minutes. I would be happy to trade Beauvillier for Lyubushkin this off season. Let's see in 2023/24 if Ilya has the ability to pair with Hughes. And if not, gives us a decent option to replace Myers if he doesn't want to resign for $1.5 - 2.0m. Hirose will be 25 at the start of the 2024/25 season. Johansson will be 24. They might not be the 3rd pairing together but I hope that they will be ready to play in the NHL by then.

In 2025/26 the cap limit goes up by $4.5m. Also Boeser's $6.65m comes off the books. Gives us another $11m to utilise. No doubt we will be relying on our prospects to take a step up. And EP will have already resigned. I think a contract up to $11m x 8 for Pettersson is workable and fair for both sides. We are not going to find a better player than Petey. Most teams are going to be at or near the cap limit for 2023/24.

Yeah I didn't really make the post suggesting that would be our best roster for 2024/25. Just showing my working for why resigning Pettersson is affordable. I'm not convinced Lyubushkin can handle the minutes of a 1RD. He has been a 15 min/gp guy his whole career, usually playing 3rd pairing against lesser competition. IMO Soucy is getting paid too much to be a 3rd pairing guy.

Capfriendly showing $34m cap space in 2024/25 with 11 players signed. There will probably be some major moves prior to 2024/25 like moving out Garland or Boeser. But if no major moves, assuming we added Raty, Hirose, Juulsen to the roster (total $2.4m), then it looks something like this with 14 players signed (8 unsigned players in brackets) and $31.6m in cap space: Kuzmenko - (Pettersson) - Mikheyev Hoglander - Miller - Boeser (Podkolzin) - Raty - Garland (Aman) - (Blueger) - (Joshua) Di Giuseppe Hughes - (1RD) Soucy - (Hronek) Hirose - (3RD) Brisebois - Juulsen Demko - (Silovs) We have $31.6m to sign these guys: Pettersson - $11m Hronek - $7m 1RD - Stop gap UFA? $4m available - maybe one of Cole/Roy/Tanev/DeMelo/Hakanpaa Blueger - $2.5m Podkolzin - $1.5m Aman - $1.5m Joshua - $1.5m Silovs - $1.5m 3RD - maybe Woo/Johansson/McWard? $1m

To be cap compliant I think they will buy out Murray and trade Jarnkrok, Lafferty and Liljegren.

I would like Nashville Predators

Thanks for your thoughts. I understand Arizona has been looking for those kinds of deals for the past 5 years. But, for example, they just signed UFA Zucker to a $5.3m contract because they are looking to compete. I don't think it is unreasonable to assume that they would be interested in Boeser.

The other option for Toronto is to trade Nylander, which is much simpler but depletes their top 6

Jarnkrok has played center for most of his career

Thanks for the comments and thoughts. Arizona are looking to be competitive, so that is why they would be willing to trade some picks for a top 6 forward. They paid a 2nd round pick for Durzi, for example, which is market value even though LAK needed to move cap out. And VAN doesn't NEED to move Boeser, they only do Trade 1 if Arizona is willing to. I wouldn't take less than a 2nd + 3rd for Boeser. Toronto has painted themselves into a corner. They have made a QO to Samsonov, so they are going to have to do something with Murray once the arbitration hearing for Samsonov is completed on 21 July. A buyout of Murray seems imminent as I can't see many teams taking on Murray's cap hit. Let's pretend Samsonov gets awarded $3.5m, then after a Murray buyout, Toronto will have a 22-man roster but will be $1.9m over cap limit. I suppose they could trade Jarnkrok for a pick and waive Lafferty (who'd probably get claimed). Then they will have a 20-man roster with $1.34m in cap space. That's not enough to add 2 minimum salary players. Maybe they waive Timmins too and then have $2.44m in cap space, which gives them just enough space to add 3 minimum salary payers. It will be a poorer bottom 6 and they would only have a 22-man roster for the season, but they keep Brodie, so might be workable. My proposed Trade 2 gives just gives them another option.

Arizona are reportedly changing tack and wanting to be competitive. They need some more top 6 forwards to help with that. Toronto are $3.2m over the cap limit and probably want to resign Samsonov as their starter instead of Matt Murray. Trade 1 To ARI: Boeser To VAN: 2024 2nd round pick (from FLA) + 3rd round pick (from EDM) Arizona gets a top 6 RW to play on their top line with Hayton and Keller. Trade 2 To TOR: Pearson (50% retained) + Myers (50% retained) + Wolanin To VAN: Jarnkrok + Brodie + Lafferty TOR buys out Murray and has $5.2m cap left to sign Samsonov ($3.5m), Motte ($900k) and Aston-Reese ($800k). TOR lineup with $40k cap space: After the 2 proposed trades, VAN lineup with $183k in cap space with improved defense and a decent 3C:

If we trade him without any retention then his whole $6m cap hit is off our books. Doesn’t matter if that is before or after paying his signing bonus.