Thread Starter
I put math in hockey
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 624
Likes: 167
Gryba isn't playing
Franson was CHI's 3rd best dman by xGA when they sent him down, and the Hawks AHL affiliate predictably went from mediocre to unstoppable. He's still a solid 2nd pair guy.
Draisaitl's doing the majority of he work on the second line, but historically he's done better as a winger, so Strome was put in at 2C. With what he provides, he's not exactly a great 2C, but he's not horrific either, as long as he's got someone to carry the load offensively.
The worst season for the double buyouts still sees approx. 3 million savings on Sekera and 2 million on Russell. It's still painful, but Sekera and Russell arguably aren't worth that now and certainly won't be by then. Given that they both have NTCs (which preclude dumping), the buyouts are still worse.
Grabner's got the ability to kill penalties and is a virtual lock to score 30 alongside McDavid, which should help his assist numbers too. That's more than you'd get from Neal. Grabner's salary is set slightly higher than the prediction from Matt Cane's model, which I did purposefully to ensure the team was 100% feasible.
Only real hole's 2LW (ends up probably being Yamaoto/Aberg, maybe Lucic) which is a product of the 6 million NMC I can't do anything about.