Off season plan: Take on as many cap dumps as possible and get as much for them.
Vegas: They clearly want to dump Dadonov as was evidenced at the deadline, and Brossoit hasn’t been all that good for Vegas, especially with Thompson being very good down the stretch. It costs a pretty penny to dump the both of them. Dadonov is then flipped for picks at the deadline with half retention.
Calgary: Calgary moves out Lucic and Monahan for space to resign key players like Gaudreau, Tkachuk, and Mangiapane. Costs a couple high picks. Depending on the season Monahan has by the deadline, if it’s good, he gets flipped for high assets. If it isn’t that good, but there is bright spots, keep him and resign him at a lower cost. If it’s just plain bad, let him walk.
Edmonton: Dumps Kassian and Barrie for a pretty penny. Allows them to resign Kane and their RFA players.
Florida: Hornqvist is a cap casualty. Forced to be dumped, Seattle acquires Noel and either 3rd or 4th round pick as well.
Carolina: Canes get a cheap 3LD for Bear and a 3rd.
Pittsburgh: Controversial trade. Depends on whether or not Letang resigns. If he does and the Pens want some extra blue line offense, the trade proposed can go down. If Letang doesn’t resign, and the Pens won’t or are unable to go after Klingberg, Barrie is a cheaper option, with the only change to the trade being the puck moving up a couple of rounds.
Washington: Another controversial one. Depends on what happens with Backstrom. If Backstrom is good, ship Wennberg off to a team that needs help down the middle, maybe for less.
Draft Nemec at 4OA. Tank like crazy in 2022-23 season. With all the accumulated draft picks, the Kraken should very likely hit on at the very least 6-7 picks, especially if all of what I have proposed actually happens, the Kraken have 18 picks in the first 4 rounds. Obviously, package of picks can be used to move up or even acquire a young roster player to help the build. Kraken will gain 10-17mil in cap space with Lucic and Hornqvist not being resigned, as well as whatever happens with Monahan. Not to mention the cap space they regain with retention coming off the books.
I know this is incredibly unrealistic, but it’s an outline of what they should do in the off-season. Teams like Arizona, Detroit, Buffalo, and Ottawa are primed for sweeping up cap dumps, and Seattle should try to take full advantage of their cap space and make it into a weapon.
Deadline move after he has a good year. Any contending team look for some scoring help. If he doesn’t have as good a year as could be expected, trade him for about a 4th and a meh prospect.
Depending on if Letang gets resigned or not could affect what Barrie goes for. If the Pens resign Letang but want some extra blue line offense, Barrie could be had for relatively cheap. This would be a deadline move.
If Letang isn’t resigned this off-season and the Pens don’t want to give or are unable to give Klingberg what he wants for a contract, Barrie half retained for a 2nd and 4th.
Depending on what happens with Backstrom, but Caps acquire a decent middle 6 C to help reduce the impact of losing Backstrom. If not the Caps, any team that needs help with C.
Actually, just need to drop Kassian to be able to afford Kane.
Barrie, believe it or not, has positive value.
2 years @ 4.5M; put up 40+ pts in the last 2 seasons (in 56GP last year no less).
He is, by no means, a 'cap dump'; should fetch up to a 2nd or 3rd rounder by himself.
Say what you will about his perceived reputation to the fans, looking at the numbers alone you can see there's something there.
Now we COULD use that value to add to the ACTUAL cap dump that is Kassian, and that would look something like:
McDavid, Connor
$250,000)
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