eeeeergh

Ideal world: Ian clark stays and works on DiPietro to get him ready for backup duty. Only put him in for back to back nights or when Demko really needs a rest. Then we got our backup on a 800k ELC, and maximize how much we can spend shoring up 3C and 1D

Just being healthy next year alone is gonna be huge. Imagine not icing a 3rd and 4th line comprised entirely of AHL players. Instead, guys like Sutter, Podkolzin, Beagle, Motte, etc. I forgot about Highmore too, I think hes gonna be a great 4th line piece. With his forecheck, defensive responsibility, and good PKing, I think he does more good things for us than Gaudette. We need that third line to be a shutdown line to free up Bo's line to score, having Gaudette on it doesn't help that cause.

Idk I don't think we really need to move them. Beagle we should keep. Roussel will be gone for 2022-2023. LE is bought out, as is Virt. Good chance Holts is taken in the expansion draft. Dead cap takes care of itself. The assets I think JB could move for picks is some B level prospects. Guys that look like they'll be able to play in the NHL, but not project as top line players. He can get a big bundle of 2nds and 3rds, and can clearly draft impact players in those rounds. Idk, just a thought! Looking at the roster and prospect pool as it is, we have a lot of great guys that will still be on ELCs in 2022-2023 Rathbone, Juolevi, Podkolzin, Hoglander + ideally whoever we draft in 2021 (Im hoping a top 6 scorer like Guenther, b/c they're expensive and difficult to acquire via trade and free agency). Pretty exciting stuff!!

I agree completely. With those numbers (especially Holts getting taken by Seattle), we have enough cap room to get a quality 3C and a better shutdown defenceman to partner with Hughes. I'd like Sutter back too on a team friendly deal. Face off beast, good PK'er, terrific secondary scoring numbers. But he's a liability to be injured 50% of the year. 1.5m would be ideal, and if he's injured during the season, put him on LTIR, and free up the space. Im actually really excited for next year.

Considering what an advantage ELCs are, and JB's goal of contending 2 years from now, I wouldn't be surprised to see him try to trade for a few extra picks this year. He knows his edge is drafting, and with players like Hogs playing far above their 800k contract value, that could be his strategy for us being contenders. Have as many players on ELCs on the roster, and spend big $ on more depth through trades with teams with cap issues (like Vegas giving us Schmidt). If he can get another couple more players equivalent to hogs this year, we're gonna be a force in 2022-2023. This will be the perfect year for Juolevi and Rathbone to hone their craft - Juolevi as a shutdown guy, and Rathbone as a more defensively responsible version of Hughes. Miller-EP-Boeser 2021 pick (Guenther?) - Bo - Hoglander 2021 Pick - 5m$ 3C - Podkolzin Motte-Beagle-Pearson Hughes-Tier 1 Shutdown defenseman Juolevi - Myers Rathbone - Schmidt With 5-6 guys on ELCs, he'll have lots of $ left over to upgrade whatever we need at the trade deadline

A realistic assessment, however, there's a few things: 1. I think its incredibly unlikely Virtanen is back. Between how bad he played, and the lawsuit, he gets bought out. 2. Its pretty likely Sutter is back on a team friendly deal. His production was phenomenal while he was healthy - he was on pace for almost 20 goals over a full season. 3. Pretty sure Bowey was brought in to help us hit the expansion draft requirement - if there was any interest in playing him, he would have got ice time by now. 4. JB says we're 2 years away from contending, which means he needs to put some more pieces in place this year, to give time for the team to gel. FA wants to see some winning too, and revenues will be up with fans back in the stadium, so I expect to see a buyout or two to open up cap space (LE would free up 2m I think). 5. Beagle was apparently practicing again, so I think he's back to center our fourth line (great news in my opinion). If Sutter is back to play 3C, we should have enough $ to acquire a shutdown defenceman. If Holtby gets picked by Seattle, we likely have enough for a 3C upgrade and a shutdown defenceman upgrade. JB needs to see a season with those pieces in place in order to know what to fine tune if we're gonna contend the following year.

This would be the deal of a century if it could be done. I really doubt it. He killed it last year, much more so than JT miller when he was traded to us. I expect the price for Reinhart is higher than it was for Miller. 1st OA 2x 2nds B level prospect If we want them to take Roussel we'd have to sweeten the deal further. Probably upgrade to a tier 1 prospect like Juolevi. And do you really want to lose another 1st round pick? Once Podz graduates, we dont really have any top-6 material cooking in the prospect pool. We should be replenishing the cupboards ASAP if we want to be contenders 3-5 years from now. If the price for Reinhart is a several picks and a great prospect, I'd really rather look at trading up in the draft to pick up special talents like Guenther. Guys like that could pot 20-30 goals on their ELC contract, freeing us up to spend big $ elsewhere when we're ready to compete.

My family. I hear your point, but I dont agree with the premise. Eichel has a 10m contract, and is, for all intents and purposes, well taken care of. His problem with Buffalo isn't that he's been wronged in some egregious way, its that his team isnt very good. Hes tired of losing. Sure that's understandable, but if you're a high character player (especially the captain) you keep a good attitude and do what you can to support your team. My point is players like Miller hate losing just as much, and they express their frustration, but they don't run for the exit. They keep trying to be better and do their part. Teams rally around guys like Miller.

Fair enough. I do think Seattle could be incentivized to take Holtby. I think the marginal benefit of picking another backup over him is negligible, so if we sweetened the deal a bit, we could make it happen.

Trade up and get Guenther. Need another pure goal scorer to make our third line dangerous

Can't - Fleury and Lehner are protected b/c Vegas is exempt from having to expose anyone in this draft. Who else haha?!

Hawryluk for Eichel, 5m salary retained, lets do it

Exactly. That extra 5m means getting another Miller calibre forward, or really strengthening our D corps. Jack Eichel said it himself - his main interest is Jack Eichel. Miller cares even in a season where it'd be easy to go through the motions and be apathetic. Can't be easy knowing he came from a stanley cup contender to play for us right now, yet he still gives his all and is hard on himself when he makes mistakes. I know who I'd rather have.

The more I think about it, the more I feel Sutter is our best bet at 3C if we can re-sign him to a cheap deal. Hes a faceoff beast, actually put up pretty decent numbers (pace for 15-18 goals if he played 82 games), and could likely be convinced to come in at a very team friendly deal. At 1.5m/year he would be a no-brainer. Get an upgrade on the wing - someone who can score, so Motte can play on the 4th line. Lind can be the 13th man and slot in for injuries. If Sutter gets injured, Miller can drop down to play C, and with Podkolzin and another skilled winger, Vancouver's now got 3 scoring lines. If Sutter goes on LTIR and we're competitive that year, we can make a splash and trade for a replacement 3C. Ideas for that winger.. I think we try to pick up someone from a cap stretched team like Tampa. Maybe Killorn? Miller-EP-Boeser Pearson-Horvat-Hoglander Killorn-Sutter-Podkolzin Motte-Beagle-Highmore All this is predicated on JB actually moving enough money out (Virt, Louie buyouts, Holtby expansion draft). If he isn't, I'd prioritize shoring up our D corps with a proper shutdown defenseman. I think Edler is retiring, so something like this: Savard-Hughes Hamonic-Rathbone Myers-Schmidt Juolevi Chatfield

As long as they dont take Jayce Hawryluk, our lord and savior, they can have anyone they like

Who do they take then? I think they pick Jake Allen for sure. Jake could turn out to be starter material, but he's unproven as anything more than a backup. They are still obligated to choose 2 more goalies. Because there are no top tier proven starters available, I think they use one of those picks for a prospect and spend a few years developing them. With their third pick, they take a goaltender who can split duties with Jake, or potentially take on the starter job if needed. Basically, the same reason we grabbed Holtby for Demko. I agree Holtby's numbers aren't good, but he's been playing behind an awful team, and who else is a proven starter? Driedger, Raanta, Talbot, Ullmark, Rittich haven't been #1 goaltenders. I think Seattle just looks at how badly we hung both our goaltenders out to dry and blames Holts' numbers on the rest of our team (and they'd be right to).

You're 100% right about Toffoli, but tbh we really didn't know Demko was ready until we saw him in the playoffs. Even then, I can't say I was convinced he was ready to take on the full time starter role. Trading away Markstrom at the deadline could have come back to bite us.. Still was a gamble with how small the sample size was we were using to evaluate Demko, but thankfully it paid off. I think he nailed it with the Holtby signing too. Two years, expiring just in time for us to bring in DiPietro to backup Demko on a cheap ELC. That's under 6m/year spent on extremely solid goaltending, compared to 9-10m of other teams. I think thats some of Bennings best GM work.

Guenther would be my pick. We need another talented scorer if we're gonna hope to compete when EP or BB gets injured

You're definitely right, OJ will need a couple years before he can really be relied on for a heavy duty workload of shutdown minutes, especially if hes going to be deployed against top lines. He needs experience. In the meantime, we're gonna need an accomplished and experienced shutdown D man like Savard. If Myers can rein in some of the gaffes and play a bit more conservatively, he'd be a great partner for Rathbone. OJ with someone like Savard would be the go-to pairing to deploy against lines like McDavid

Tbh Eichel strikes me as the kind of player that's going to beef with coaching staff if he doesn't get his way. He also underperformed this year, on a 10m cap hit. Petey will probably run us around 7m for the next couple years on his bridge deal. I'd rather have Petey as our 1C, and spend the extra $ building out a 3rd line that can score. Top heavy teams are gonna get rekt when they face teams that have a formidable shutdown line and defence pairing. If we can roll 3 scoring lines, and spend some $ on a #1 shutdown D man to partner with Hughes, we'll be incredible.

Good thing too - we really need help on the stay at home/shutdown front.

Obv I wish the best for Roussel and Beagle, but if they aren't recovered, they will be on LTIR, which means 6m in available space to pad the bottom 6. Our bottom 6 improves a lot with those two back, or their $ being available to bolster. Its also much improved with Motte back in the lineup. If our bottom 6 was healthy this year - just having sutter, beagle, rooster, and motte, it would have been a very different looking year. Defence needs a shutdown man imo. Something along the lines of Willie Mitchell back in the day. For now, its just Hamonic and Edler that play that role, and neither of them do it on an elite level. I'm guessing Edler retires this year. Hamonic-Hughes pairing stats are awful - Hughes needs a more solid shutdown partner. Schmidt-Rathbone won't be able to defend well enough I think. Offensive minded puck mover, with a rookie offensive minded puck mover. If Edler does come back, he could be a good partner for Rathbone. Myers did pretty well with Juolevi- I think Juolevi has found his place as a guy who will be able to play shutdown minutes and make a phenomenal first pass. That has incredible value to us.

Yeah but they need to take 3 goalies, and their options aren't as great as you might think. I think they take one of Cam Talbot, Khudobin, or Jake Allen. Decent stats, but none have ever taken on a full time starter role. So no chance they're taking 2, or all 3. I think they take one promising goalie prospect (theres a few to choose from). I don't see a better option than Holts for them for their workhorse. They must know our defence was nonexistent this year. They're not getting a franchise goaltender from the expansion draft. Holts only has a year left on his contract, so its a very low risk option for them.

Woohoo a fellow optimist! I do think next year is gonna be better than people assume. And we have some pretty slick deals already on the books. Demkos deal was a steal. Once we've got DiPietro as backup, the tandem are running us a good 4-5m less than equivalent quality goaltending pairs around the league. Horvat and Boeser are at or under market value. Hoagie on his ELC is terrific for producing top 6 forward who's gonna take a big step next year. Imagine if Podz comes in and does something on his ELC next year... I also thought Highmore was phenomenal value. Great motor, responsible defensively, and effective PKer. I really liked Vesey at times, I was just bummed he couldn't find his scoring touch. Apples to Apples, I think Highmore does more for the team if we need to pick. Miller-Pettersson-Boeser Hoglander-Horvat-Pearson Podkolzin-Upgraded 3C-Highmore Roussel-Beagle-Gadjovich (lmao this line would be hell to play against) Hughes-Shutdown D (Savard? Lindholm?) Schmidt-Juolevi (a bit shaky, but Juolevi has generally impressed me defensively, and move Schmidt back to the right side where he was killing it with Vegas) Giraffe-Hamonic - Hamonic is good enough to let Giraffe go cause his chaos and create some chances. Shelter Rathbone for a season - bring him in for easy games, and ease him into the league. Good enough roster to beat the Kings and the Flames next year IMO. 2022 we'll have 10m more to be a major contender, and our young guns will all have taken big steps forward. Imagine Hughes, Petey, Boeser, Horvat, Hoglander 2 years from now lmao.

We'll only have lots of cap room if JB gets creative and FA is willing to spend some money on buyouts. The contracts falling off should provide just enough to sign Petey and Hughes. To open up more, the obvious moves that could be made are: - Buyout LE (2m savings) - Buyout JV (2m savings) - Get Seattle to take Holtby somehow (4.3m) I wanna keep Beagle if possible (Healthy Beagle will help our PK and is a face off machine). Not opposed to keeping rooster, but if JB can dump him somehow, a new world of possibilities opens up. He better not sell the farm to do it though. I think theres a decent chance we have 8m or so to play with. Pick up a really solid shutdown D man to give Hughes some cover, and use the rest to build a proper shutdown 3rd line, and roll our top two lines as scoring machines. Keep Hamonic too, so Rathbone can be our 7th man who can play some sheltered minutes and get acclimated to the league.