Edited Jun. 19, 2018 at 1:37 p.m.
Quoting: Birtle34
Fair enough thanks for info what about laine or Connor next year
Okay, the Jets will not be in cap hell, but it's going to get tricky:
Laine:
The best precedents for Laine's worth is Tarasenko and Eichel. Laine probably won't make more money than Eichel and he'll definitely make more than Tarasenko. I'm estimating him at 8.5-9.5mill/8years front-loaded as much as possible to increase the time value of his money. The X-factor on all of this is Mathews. If he somehow signs a team-friendly extension it gives us tons of leverage going into negotiations, and all of the following probably won't need to happen at all.
Connor and Wheeler:
Connor is the tricky one, because his shooting percentage this season was a huge aberration from his AHL numbers. If I was betting money, I would say his sh% regresses and he ends up with 20-27 goals this season. I'd prefer to bridge him for two years @4.5-5.5mill, wait for Buff's contract to come off the books, and then raise him to a similar 8.5-9mill contract. That would give us enough cap to give Wheels a 1-1.5mill raise, and now we'll have successfully escaped cap hell, without it ever being a problem.
This relies on a couple things.
We need to cap dump Kulikov next year, and Copp likely won't be able to be resigned if he asks for anything more than a million. None of this should be a problem because Kulikov's contract for 1 year @4.3mill will be easy to dump, and you could kill two birds with one stone by trading away Copp's RFA rights to smooth Kulikov's cap dump with a team looking for a good 3rd line defensive forward. Tanev in one year will have likely progressed to the point that he is as good or better than Copp. Samberg will likely be developed enough to that point that we can sign him and play him, Morrow or any cheap UFA LHD, on the 3rd pairing and Niku steps up to 2nd pairing. Niku getting top 4 minutes as a sophomore won't be a problem considering Buff has the beautiful effect of raising his linemates' level a notch or two (see Morrow and Chiarot).
The Worst-Case Scenario:
If Wheeler or Connor asks for too much money or refuses to be bridged. This is unlikely but still a possibility. If that is the case, then we need to let Wheeler walk, and secure Connor for long term. Vesalainen is almost as good as Laine was offensively in Liiga the year before he arrived, and is a better skater. By that logic, after a year as 3LW there's no reason to suspect he won't be ready for top 6 duty, and Vesa and Ehlers are both capable RWs. I'm not saying Wheeler's complete 2-way game is overrated, but more than half of his points came on the powerplay as a set up man for 3 of the best shooters in the NHL. His offensive game is absolutely overblown. Our team takes a hit if he leaves but Scheifele is our new captain, our top 6 is still intact, and we have escaped cap hell without spending more than one summer in it.
The X-X factor on all of the above is if Chevy can get one or two of those guys to sign long term team friendly contracts like Scheif and Ehlers. It's unlikely and I don't like to put my eggs in the sentimentality basket, but Chevy's done it before, and it's about as likely as Wheels or Connor getting greedy.