Provost

Some agents want guys to come up for renewal at around 29 so that they can try ton squeeze out a last max term contract that teams will regret. That doesn’t mean a team HAS to play ball.

I don't think this Matthews deal provides any more clarity around what we can expect for Petterson. The team isn't going to be interested in a 4 year deal. Matthews has outproduced Petterson over the last few years, especially in terms of goals, but one can argue that Petterson is more important to our team and that gives his agent leverage. I honestly think it is more about what sort of progress the team shows this year. Petterson has mentioned before that he wants to win, and it is asking a lot for a competitive guy to tether himself to a non playoff team for the rest of his career. Part of this is certainly behind management's continual retool on the fly short term thinking. If the team storms out of the gate and is within spitting distance of the top of the division at Christmas, I think this negotiation gets easier. If he isn't signed before next offseason, then it is getting really dicey and may be worth looking at moving him. There is a big risk we overpay Petterson, in the $12+ million range, not a lot of chance we get him for $10 million x 8 which is an ideal balanced contract to me which puts him amongst the top paid hockey players but also leaves some room to sign players around him. Remember, both he and Hughes sat out a training camp unsigned already to pressure for more money. Don't count on any hometown discounts.

Weird contract for either the Canucks or Petterson's camp to use as a comparable. He will be 27 when it kicks in so there isn't a big downside in later years, presumably his camp is hoping for another big contract when this is done rather than seeing what they can eke out in his mid thirties on an expiring 8 year contract.

Teams looking to add Petterson are looking to be in a winning window, they aren’t looking to subtract equal calibre players from their roster. They will want to trade futures. Your suggestion that (in this scenario) a team that is still terrible this coming year WITH Petterson would somehow become a quality team WITHOUT Petterson seems silly. He does a remarkable amount of heavy lifting in terms of minutes. He is the elite two way centre that the team tried to turn Horvat into. A 100-120 point centre with elite defensive skills is frankly a unicorn and there is no return that will match it. That is what Petterson is rounding into.

This is really a huge year. if the team still sucks and/or Petterson doesn’t Re-sign for reasonable dollars, then there really isn’t much option other than blow it up. Teams will have money at the deadline and next offseason with an expected big cap increase. A fire sale would bring in good returns. That Hughes/Jersey rumour would actually make sense a year from now in that scenario. Hopefully it doesn’t get to that. A decent playoff run cures many woes. We will be testing the theory that the defence was most of our program. We have moved from an atrocious defence to an average defence, on paper at least and added some PKers.

Just think what it would look like if Benning hadn’t messed up the cap and we could have signed him to a max term around $8.5 million deal. Same with a Hughes deal that could have been sub $8 million at the time. $11 million probably isn’t ever going to be a steal. The cap doesn’t have infinite linear growth potential. TV deals are probably going down if anything in the future, ticket prices only have room to grow in the less traditional markets.

It isn't a trade likely to happen... but it absolutely isn't a PR move. Adding a top pairing D who will be getting Norris votes and is in the right age bracket for a long contending window isn't just PR. Any team needs Quinn Hughes. I think you have watched our terrible team so long, you forget that contenders have tons of depth and great players throughout the roster. It isn't "hey, we have 2-3 really good D so we are good". It also actually increases their chances of re-signing all three brothers as they would almost certainly take some discount to stay playing together. All reports are they are really close and it would be a unique legacy thing to have three brothers who are all likely all-star players on a roster. Q. Hughes - Marino Siegenthaler - Hamilton L. Hughes - Bahl Smith - Miller Smith plays forward or D so is a good extra body. Miller is a good veteran insurance if either Bahl or Luke Hughes needs more seasoning before holding down a full time pairing job. They would be pretty protected as the top pairings each play a lot of minutes including all the special teams. You just need a 3rd pairing for 13-15 minutes a night.

I just hope they don’t feel the pressure to overpay and match stupid Toronto contracts. Se need this to be a good value deal if we want to compete during the life of it. If Petterson doesn’t sign long term (or we are still terrible this season even after all the changes) I think we have to blow it up and start over. Next summer isn’t the worst time to do that as lots of teams will have cap space to take on our players.

I would do their top 3 young players/prospects and a couple of 1sts. Of course I think the team isn't built to contend even with Hughes, so a fast rebuild like that would appeal to me. Nemec Holtz Mercer 2024 1st 2025 1st OF course, New Jersey has no need to do this. They are set up to be a REALLY good team over the next little while. Quinn can join them for free while they are still in a contending window.

Take a breath there sparkie… A decade of Benning has made you think that a few mediocre moves is brilliance. So far they have signed a KHL free agent who probably joined the team due to how bad it was and that it gave him the most opportunity. They also added a bunch of players for the bottom of the roster. At the same time they added a bunch of dead cap and spent futures on a team that doesn’t appear close to ready to compete with the top teams in the league. A year of Hronek before having to pay full market rate is only a good move if we are going to be good this year or he signs for a good value deal. Let us see how many deep runs this management takes us on before anyone is anointed competent.

Also waiting to see who gets cut from camps and can safely be “suspended” from the league that they weren’t going to play in anyways.

Solid value signing. Gives some line options to see who works best with who. Could even see what it is like with Miller on the wing. I wonder who is on the way out, or if they are confident someone will pick up Myers if waived after his bonus is paid.

The NHL don’t care about anything but the optics. They will punish a bunch of fringe players or guys not even in the NHL. Anyone who will cost ticket sales will probably be fine.

It is sad that our defence has been so bad that people think a competent 3rd pairing D looks like an upgrade for our top four.

No one else was giving him that much money. That is a contract intended to be flipped for a 2nd or 3rd with retention at the deadline.

I can also imagine some players being flipped again here. Not sure that Montreal really wants Petry or San Jose wants any of those veterans. A year ago Karlsson’s contract was considered one of the worst in the league. Now they managed to get out from under it. Pittsburgh is one of a very few teams in a spot to not care what happens in terms of their cap after a couple years from now.

That is a terrible deal…. Yikes. Doesn’t kick in until he is 30, structured with lots of signing bonus money meaning it it buy out proof.

Would obviously be a good trade, but it this seems random. Guy is signed to a cheap contract and is just hitting his prime. We would be trading from a position of relative strength to one of weakness. Another fringe top 4 guy though, he is probably playing too high up in the lineup for Columbus and it has been showing. Upgrade on Bear and Myers though, maybe could thrive when asked to do less as a Hughes partner. It would be a replacement if we think we are moving out Myers in September. Presumably he would get picked up if waived, but that isn’t a guarantee. Hughes-Peeke/ Soucy-Hronek Irwin-Cole

Yep, he is likely going to sign a cheap deal for a team that can maximize his value for a contract next year. With our lack of depth we aren’t a terrible option. Not so bad that he will look bad along with every other D on the team… bad enough that he will get a decent number of minutes. I think the plan at the moment is Soucy or Cole on the right side though. Cole played the right side with Hedman for a while and it worked out well. He could be pencilled in beside Hughes.

Ouch… That is pricey for a guy who just had a career year well above his average.

For many years pre-Covid there have been boatloads of vets available mid summer for cheap deals. It isn’t a Covid thing, it is the league getting younger and pushing out older guys. We actually signed some of those deals like Schaller and Brad Richardson. We also just chose to sign a bunch of 4th liners for millions and term. These aren’t guys who are signing July 1st and picking their destinations on Cup contenders. These are guys trying to find a job anywhere.

Jersey is getting sole good deals on these contracts. Cheap veteran short term contracts to support the kids. Turns out you don’t need to spend $3-4 million AAV on multi year deals to flesh out the bottom of your roster. … who knew?

Except legally it is, most certainly in labour law.... and that it what matters in this case.

I posted this right at the start, this is the smart play from his agent. This will almost certainly mean the team has to reinstate his contract. Addiction is considered a medical issue and you can’t discriminate on the basis of it. That is literally what the substance abuse program is for.

I wanted him here back in the early part of the Edler era... good to see him get a contract and get to keep playing.