Reg and Playoffs - After Patches comes back

Team: 2022-23 Carolina Hurricanes

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 23, 2022

Published: Aug. 23, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Once Patches is ready to come back (assuming it's ahead of playoffs as the team is saying for now), something will have to be done to get cap compliant. A few different options:

1. Gardiner gets hurt, moves to LTIR, essentially clears enough space - this is unfortunate but a pretty good chance considering his recent injury history, injury type and long lay off.

2. Gardiner stays healthy and proves he has some value - keep him and move Bear while slotting in Coglan instead. Would need to roll a 21 man lineup most likely if this is the case and maybe make some paper transactions but should get the team cap compliant.

3. Gardiner stays healthy and proves he has some value - trade him as a cap dump or find a replacement for 3LD in the same deal (this is what I did here). You'd need to roll a 21 man lineup and do some paper transactions here but gets the team cap compliant with some manuevering.

This is a scary deep team and whether you slot in KK, Necas or Stas at 2C (give them the first half of the season to see who takes the job) or need to make another move at the TDL to shore 2C up, I would imagine we'll be just fine given the quality of players they'd be playing w/ on the wings.

Don't get too caught up on lines. I like this balance within the lines but would imagine the top 6 and bottom 6 get deployed pretty evenly between lines 1-2 & 3-4, it's more matchup based in my mind (e.g. Staal line getting shut down role, Necas line getting more speed and offense, o-zone starts).