Meier wo extension at TDL - QO outlook worst case

Team: 2023-24 Carolina Hurricanes

Initial Creation Date: Feb. 15, 2023

Published: Feb. 15, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Purpose of this is to look at worst case if the Canes went after Timo without extension talks happening as part of the initial trade. Wanted to see what Timo's QO would look like if they couldn't strike a long-term extension and didn't want to trade him either. I think this proves it's easily workable, although obviously not ideal.

The following year (2 years really) are where things could get trickier as a lot of core guys are due raises, but I still think the Canes maintain a ton of flexibility and can make it work. In two years you'd need (conservative estimates, let me know if you feel differently):

Aho + 2m, Necas + 4m, Jarvis +3m (bridge deal), Pesce +3m, Skjei +2m, Chat +2m = 16m for important pieces.

You'll have an extra 5m from the cap, 1.8m from Marty, 5.4m if you let Turbo walk = a little over 12m. If they were to keep Meier somehow long term after that (would be weird if he doesn't agree to a long-term deal before QO but does the following season), you'd probably get 1-1.5m AAV savings there. So we'd probably need to let somebody else like Skjei go which would be fine if Nikishin actually does come over in 2 years. Or, you could use Meier's 10m and now you have 22m, or 17m if you extend Turbo at a similar rate instead.

So it seems like there are plenty of options whether Timo extends or signs a QO with us both next year and when raises are due for our core. We could also trade him during offseason to recoup some of the assets we spent on him.

Let me know if I missed anything in my breakdown above or didn't factor something in properly. Was just an exercise to see how this would play out because I'm honestly bored out of my mind waiting for something to go down :)