Offseason Moves - Trades and Signings (PROPOSAL)

[Elias Pettersson]

17 minutes ago, mll said:

Have to pay to get that 3rd team involved.   Arizona likely sellers and only have 2 spots available given retention on OEL.  Have to also make it worthwhile to give up that retention spot vs retaining on their own players and/or playing 3rd party broker on a higher profile player - they got a 3rd for Kane and another 3rd for trading Bjugstad at 450K (50% retained).  

 

There will be near league minimum Ds available - at 50% retained that's still cheaper than 1.5M.  The pick from Vancouver to help their cap situation might be the better bet to get a decent asset vs hoping to trade him at the TDL.  

 

Didn't the Rangers have to give up the pick to the broker (Arizona), not Chicago?  If Vancouver trades Myers and involves a 3rd team as a broker I am pretty sure that they would get positive value from the deal.

 

However, after looking at the list of Dmen that are UFA's next summer, there are quite a few guys that may be available that are better and cheaper options.  So I would say that the Canucks would either have to explore a trade for Myers before the season starts or just let his contract expire and use that cap space in the summer to extend Petey...

[DownUndaCanuck]

I like the thinking but I think we might have to make a few tweaks here or there:

 

1) I'd rather not trade Brock for Mantha, I think Boeser showed us a lot of promise at the end of last season under Rick (almost PPG in the last 20 games?) whereas Mantha really struggled. If we're targetting Mantha, I think we could get him for Garland or Beauvillier, he's at a real low point in his career right now. Honestly I'd rather just avoid him, we've got enough wingers.

 

2) Beauvillier probably gets us a late 2nd, maybe high 3rd, or maybe a 2nd next year.

 

3) I think Myers is going to cost us more than a 5th to move, maybe less if we retain. I'd happily use the Beauvillier 2nd or one of our many 3rds or 4ths to move him, do whatever it takes except for a 1st basically.

 

4) Re-sign Burroughs as a cheap 6th guy, keep Hirose around, ideally keep Rathbone, let Bear walk.

 

5) Absolutely on board with signing Kampf, I think he can be had cheaper - maybe 2M. Other options are Kerfoot, Athanasiou, Suter, Sundqvist etc. We should go for the best defensive/PK guy who can win faceoffs and although Kampf was basically a 4C last year, I think he's that guy. Not much offence but Rick would quite like a dichotomous set of centers - Petey and Miller produce offence, Kampf and Aman check, rather than having a Bruce-like 3 scoring lines.

 

6) The big ticket item - defence. What all of the above is done for - fix this defence and get it world-class. Look at the final 4 playoff teams - they all have solid top-4 defences. The bottom pairings are average but their main four guys log big minutes and have a mix of guys who can do it all - puck movers, good skaters, big physical guys and everyone is solid defensively. Right now we have Hughes and Hronek - that's 2/4. OEL is good but he doesn't crack any top-4 on a playoff team so for me, if we're to be successful, he has to either move (not happening unless we trade a 1st which shouldn't happen, and a buyout is too expensive) or we bury him on the bottom pairing as the best bottom pairing defenceman in the league. That means we need two top-4 guys to make this team a proper playoff force. Hughes is a great PMD, Hronek is a great two-way guy who can do a bit of everything, so we need a big, mean, physical shutdown defenceman (or two).

 

Free agency has Gavrikov, Graves and Mayfield. I doubt we get multiple guys and we have to be a bit cautious, don't want another Myers problem on our hands. Most likely, we'd have to find a young top-4 defenceman via trade rather than just sign all the UFAs. I proposed previously a deal with Pittsburgh - Boeser + Rathbone for Marcus Pettersson. There must be similar deals around the league for similar guys. Most of them are LDs but there are a few RDs out there (eg. Peeke). Wouldn't be easy, and we'd have to give up more than just Garland, and sadly Boeser is the best trading chip we have for a quality defenceman. I'd take that swap any day though.

 

That leaves us with just one hole on defence which we fill with the UFA, depending on who we trade for. I'd rather not target Mayfield, he's really dedicated to NYI and is getting older, but boy is he exactly what we need - a massive, hard-hitting shutdown defenceman. He's like Gudas or Schenn in their prime. Looks like he can play for another good 3-5 years. Gavrikov and Graves would be my first choice (bit of risk with Graves, he has been a bit sheltered) but they'll get snatched up pretty quick. Severson and Dumba are lesser options, neither are very strong defensively and they scream Myers 2.0. For example, let's say we acquire Marcus Pettersson and sign Mayfield 4x4M - 8M for two solid defensive defencemen.

 

Roster for next year:

 

Mikheyev - Pettersson - Kuzmenko

Garland - Miller - Podkolzin

PDG - Kampf - Hoglander

Joshua - Aman - Studnicka

 

Hughes - Mayfield

Pettersson - Hronek

OEL - Burroughs

Hirose

 

Obviously a lot of sting taken out of the forward group but Podz and Hogz come in to replace some scoring. More importantly, look at that revamped defence. That is a playoff-calibre contending team's defence. Doesn't matter which silly forwards you throw out on the ice, under Tocchet's system we win with that defence and Demko in net. Even with injuries we could throw up AHL forwards and still win with that D. Just look at how Florida are doing it - a solid top-4 who play the entire game and no one can break them down. OEL as a 5th guy is massive if we get injuries in our top-4, and he may play really well with sheltered minutes. You could argue our scoring depth isn't great but that is a solid powerplay still and with the stars we have along with a defence that can shut it down, that is how you win in the playoffs.