BigTramFan

All good questions for in 2 years time. I personally see Juolevi-Stecher and Tryamkin-Woo projecting as potentially very strong pairings, equivalent to two second pairings. But only time will tell. No point in throwing away all of their potential for a single pick IMO.

All very good points. But... NJD could make the proposed deal and improve their roster now. And even if they take on Eriksson and Baer they are projected to have about $30m in cap space next season to resign Hall, Hischier, Vatanen and Blackwood. I also think that improving their roster PRIOR to resigning Hall will help to convince him to stay with NJD when he reaches free agency.

I think Virtanen, Gaudette, Stecher, Tryamkin and Demko are key to the future of this club. There may come a time when JB has to make a choice between Marky and Demko, if both are clearly starting goalies and he may not be able to afford to keep them both. But there is a LONG way to go until 2021-22, don’t panic it could be something like this: Ferland (3.5) Pettersson (10) Boeser (7) Miller (5.25) Horvat (5.5) Podkolzin (1) Hoglander (1) Gaudette (2) Virtanen (2.5) Roussel (3) Beagle (3) MacEwen (1) Motte (1.25) Total F = $46m Hughes (6) Myers (6) Juolevi (2) Stecher (4) Tryamkin (4) Woo (1) Fantenberg (1) Rafferty (1) Total D = $25m Markstrom (5) Demko (2.5) Total G = $7.5m Luongo recapture = $3m TOTAL CAP HIT = $81.5m

I’d also like to see Jake get some serious PK time. I think he has natural skills for being an effective penalty killer. With Roussel on LTIR it is a perfect opportunity to give Jake the responsibility to hone his PK skills. Beagle, Sutter, Motte will be main PK forwards with Roussel out. I’d prefer to keep LE out of the lineup completely and I don’t see other potential bottom 6ers such as Leivo, Pearson, Baer as natural PKers. This could be a great chance for Jake to add a new dimension to his game. He would be a pain to give the puck away to, try and catch him on the breakaway!

New Jersey have cap space of almost $20m. They have 11 forwards under contract and will likely add RFA Zacha to make it 12. They have two plugs in Rooney and Hayden that are taking up roster spots and costing salary while contributing very little. Ideally they could replace them with a bottom 6 veteran with strong PK skills, and a dynamic 2LW to play with Hischier. To NJD: Eriksson (25% retained and after 2019 signing bonus) Baertschi (after 2019 signing bonus) 4th round 2020 pick To VAN: Rooney Hayden Hall - Hughes - Palmieri Baer - Hischier - Simmonds Eriksson - Zajac - Coleman Wood - Zacha - Anderson This adds $6.4m to NJD cap but a net salary cost of only $3m in 2019. Then $5.4m in 2020. In 2021 when Baer contract ends cap hit drops to $4.5m with only $3m in salary. Most importantly it improves their roster significantly. VAN can waive or buyout Hayden + Rooney bringing total cap savings to about $7.5m.

I guess this all begs the question... WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE CAP SPACE IF WE DO MOVE LOUI THIS SEASON?

Yes totally agree, but was thinking about the opening night, so no Roussel by then I think

With Roussel on LTIR I think the PK will be the main reason for Eriksson to be on the playing roster. If he is somehow traded, probably Schaller takes that spot.

Who is going to be on the PK?

Assuming that there are no further acquisitions/changes then the opening night is: Ferky - Alien - the Flow TP - Skip - JTM Bearcheese - Balls - Shotgun Little Things - Snoopy - Tyler1 Eagle - Stretcher Huge - Tyler2 Beardy - CT Scan Marky Thatchy

I think this would be a GREAT deal for VAN. I don’t think Goldy is enough incentive for OTT to do this deal though. You make a good point about our current LW depth with Ferland and Miller added. If JB felt that he really needed to get rid of LE and he could afford to move out a LW due to our newfound LW depth, then another option would be: Loui + Baer(50% retained) for (something like) 4th round pick This way VAN is clearing $7.683m of cap and retaining $1.683m of salary for 2 years. OTT get two decent players: Baer at $1.683m pa for 2 years, LE owed $9m total over 3 years. If OTT concerned about Baer and concusssion history then make the 4th round pick conditional on Baer playing more than 50 games in 2019-20 season.

VGK are quite thin at center with the loss of Haula and Bellemare. Their middle will look like: Karlsson Stastny Eakin Pirri Glass will likely play in the AHL and be injury callup since they have no other centers on the main roster. But they don’t need to worry about cap. I think they will resign Engelland to a 1-year deal of about $1m then bring up Nic Hague to increase to 7 Dmen. This will bring them to about $5.2m over the cap. They will put Clarkson on LTIR and get relief for his $5.25m. They will run with 14 F + 7 D. No dramas.

Well I certainly wouldn’t send you in to pitch it! Yes it costs us more money to get out of the contract. That’s the whole reason why OTT would say yes. The point is we don’t give up assets to move on from Loui.

Been thinking about how VAN could trade away the Eriksson contract. I have seen previous trade ideas including Zack Smith but didn't think there was enough incentive for OTT to hit the button. Came up with the following: To OTT: Eriksson (50% retained) To VAN: Zack Smith + Mike Condon Why for OTT? Simple. Saving $5m in salary costs. This deal allows them to spend a total of $4.5m over the next three years ($0.5m + $2m + $2m), instead of paying $9.5m over two years ($6.25 + $3.25). Loui’s 50% cap hit of $3m per year will not affect OTT since they are well below the cap limit. They are giving up Zack Smith, however he would likely play on their 4th line and Loui can provide similar points and is effective in a shutdown role. Loui also has the ability to fill in if any top 6 forwards are injured. In addition, for less total money OTT get a roster player in Loui for 3 seasons, whereas Smith is only contracted for 2 more seasons. OTT waived Condon last season. They are paying him $3m salary this year to play in the minors. They would love to get rid of him. Why for VAN? Giving Eriksson a new start somewhere else. Reducing Eriksson’s cap hit to only $3m in 2021-22 (when we may need the space for Pettersson + Hughes) With this deal our cap hit becomes: 2019-20: $7.575m (this is just $1.575 more than LE’s full $6m hit and affordable) 2020-21: $6.25m 2021-22: $3.0m (creates $3m cap space at a critical time) Condon can be assigned to Utica. Smith can play a role on our 4th line and provides center depth for 3C or 4C if required.

Agree that some salary retention will help to move Eriksson. However, my understanding is that VAN has to retain a % of his salary, not a fixed $ amount. I think it it is most likely that VAN retains 25% or 50%. This would mean his new team would take a cap hit of $6m but would pay him as follows... At 25% retention: 2019-20 - $750k 2020-21 - $3m 2021-22 - $3m At 50% retention: 2019-20 - $500k 2020-21 - $2m 2021-22 - $2m Looking at it this way, it is easy to see that a new team gets their best value from LE in this season. I think the 50% retention puts LE’s contract in an acceptable range ($2m) for his level of play. My hope would be to move LE (at 50% retained) along with a lower level sweetener such as a Goldy/Brisebois (not Dipietro) in exchange for future considerations or a low pick.

Having MJ on the roster doesn’t need to affect the plan to develop Gaudette and, when he is ready, the plan to move him into the 3C role and move on from Sutter. However MJ provides a great depth injury option for 3C if required. And also could be a backup plan if Gaudette doesn’t quite reach his potential. Moving Sutter should also clear the space for Gaudette’s pay rise.

I would rather keep Virtanen too. Thats why the proposal is essentially about not losing any major assets. Just signing a UFA with the cap space we have. Essentially we could take on one more $4m max contract, so if Johansson is available at that money, I would add him.

The plan does NOT rely on people being injured (beyond Roussels current injury). If no one is injured and if Eriksson stays in Utica, then the plan still works out fine. We will be $8k under the cap. I was merely stating that given our track record, someone probably will be injured.

The problem with the OUT and IN table is that if you traded A for B, then B for C, then C for D, the table would show A,B,C as OUT and D as IN. Even if D was a better player than A that you started with, it looks like you gave up A+B+C. This is a nonsense evaluation. If you simply look at the picks, I count 9 out and 7 in. Not exactly worth 45 pages of argument...just sayin’

I hear people saying that we need to move Tanev or Sutter to make room for a UFA. Well here is another idea: If JB can sign Boeser for $7m and Leivo for $1.2m (or a total less than $8.2m)… …then JB should make an offer to UFA Marcus Johansson of $4m for 1-3 years. He may reject the offer but no team has picked him up yet and it may be enough to get him to play for the Canucks. Johansson could be a decent pickup, could be added to 2RW position, provides great center depth, should be good for 50 points. If MJ agrees then JB could do the following to keep us under the cap of $81.5m (note: no need to move any major pieces): - Trade Goldobin’s RFA rights to the East Coast for future considerations - Put Roussel onto LTIR - Waive Eriksson to Utica - Keep Gaudette, Saunter, Brisebois, Rafferty, Teves in Utica as injury call ups While Roussel is out on LTIR we would have a cap space of just over $1.9m. Opening night roster could be: Miller Pettersson Boeser Pearson Horvat Johansson Baer Sutter Virtanen Schaller Beagle Motte (Leivo) – Schaller is in over Leivo for PK skills Edler Stecher Hughes Myers Benn Tanev (Fantenberg Biega) Markstrom (Demko) By the time Roussel is ready to return there is every possibility that: - Eriksson abandons his contract - Some other player is on LTIR (e.g. Baer with recurring concussion issues) If not, then simply waive Schaller or trade him. Roussel in and Schaller waived brings us to $8k of cap space, roster becomes: Miller Pettersson Boeser Pearson Horvat Johansson Baer Sutter Virtanen Roussel Beagle Motte (Leivo) Edler Stecher Hughes Myers Benn Tanev (Fantenberg Biega) Markstrom (Demko) Thoughts? Edit: Johansson also provides potential to play 3C and move Sutter to 4th line, so we have 3 scoring lines: Miller Pettersson Boeser Pearson Horvat Virtanen Roussel Johansson Baer Motte Beagle Sutter

I would do Tanev (50%) plus Leivo for Ehlers. No to losing Virtanen.

Would really like JB “Finding Nemo” I believe he should target Nemeth on the left side 3rd pairing, instead of Hutton. Nemo has good size, kills penalties and plays a physical game. Should be able to get him for $3m per. We need another LD that can PK.

Great minds think alike! I just posted a very similar deal (but with Goldy added) in the Armchair GM section about speculation that Loui deal with OTT is already in place waiting for 1 July... I agree that it is already tentatively done. JB will not want to move on some UFAs until the deal is sealed. It will be something like: To OTT: Loui + Goldy + 2020 4th To VAN: Future considerations Assuming we sign RFAs: Boeser to $7m, Motte $1.2m, Leivo $1.2m. And waive Schaller. This would give us the cap space to sign (for example): Myers @ $6m per Nyquist @ $6m per Nemeth @ $3m per Schenn @ $1.5m per Possible roster: Miller Pettersson Boeser Pearson Horvat Nyquist Baer Sutter Virtanen Roussel Beagle Motte Leivo Edler Stecher Hughes Myers Nemeth Tanev Sautner Schenn Marky Demko

From mll on a previous thread discussing Vegas and Clarkson’s LTIR... Same would hold true for Horton in TOR: There's another option - you can go above the cap up to the Clarkson cap hit and assume that his replacements are already on the roster. Detroit has been using that approach in the past.  The CBA even gives an example of the option of exceeding the cap instead of trying to get under. It's assumed that his replacement are already on the roster.  Art. 50.10 (d) Illustration #4: The Upper Limit in a League Year is $70.0 million. A Player who has an SPC with an Averaged Amount of $2.0 million becomes unfit to play on the last day of Training Camp, and on the same day, his Club exercises the Bona-Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception on such Player. On Opening Day, the Club has an Averaged Club Salary of $71.5 million (excluding Earnable Performance Bonuses up to the full amount of the Performance Bonus Cushion). The Club is deemed to have already fully replaced the unfit-to-play Player with any Player or Players on the Opening Day Roster. If these replacements are maintained through the conclusion of the season, the Club's Averaged Club Salary is $71.5 million, as the Club is permitted to exceed the Upper Limit by $1.5 million because of the Bona-Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception.

YES i agree that it is already tentatively done. JB will not want to move on some UFAs until the deal is sealed. It will be something like: To OTT: Loui + Goldy + 2020 4th To VAN: Future considerations This would give us the space to sign (for example): Myers @ $6m per Nyquist @ $6m per Nemeth @ $3m per Schenn @ $1.5m per Possible roster: Miller Pettersson Boeser Pearson Horvat Nyquist Baer Sutter Virtanen Roussel Beagle Motte Leivo Edler Stecher Hughes Myers Nemeth Tanev Sautner Schenn Marky Demko