You think Thornton is gonna sign for that huge discount? I can see him taking less than he's worth but not 1 mil

Yes. He’s already publicly stated he’ll take league min if the team needs him to.

need 23 players

There’s definitely a market for Dell. I wouldn’t trade Dillon. He’s become a reliable bottom/fringe middle D. Braun and Melker you probably can’t move without retaining salary.

Honestly, I can’t see Doug resigning Pavs at that AAV. Will probably have to be 6 or less.

PS. Kane isn’t going anywhere and he’s not cancer. The problem is a coaching staff who wants him to play a 1980s brand of hockey.

Rangers dont want Kane, would be better off resigning Kreider for 6x6

He's streaky and when he goes cold it's for very long stretches, he's only good at an 80's brand of hockey.

Hmm. The 30 goals and 60 points would disagree with you there.

He didn't exactly step up when you needed him to.
Well what brand of hockey do you think he's capable of? He's not a finesse player

Did Meier and Lebanc also agree to taking discounts?

I guess I’m starting to figure out that 1) you don’t know what 80’s style hockey is and 2) you believe have to be either and 80’s style hockey player or a finesse player. So let me address each individually 1) 80’s style hockey player is a guy who his primary role is to hit hit and score and then punch people out. Which is what Pete asks him to do. That is a coaching staff attitude and one of many reasons Pete needs to be fired. 2) Players can not be finesse players, but still be tough to play against, and at the same time not be a crazy 80s hockey player. He has the ability to play the modern game which is skilled enough to score regularly (which he is and did), and be very tough to play against (which he is). The problem is we have a coaching staff that insists grit and intensity is more important than doing the thing that wins games, e.g. scoring goals. A clear message was sent when Haley was brought aboard and unfortunately Kane fell for that trap, which is the reason he wasn’t all in this playoffs. He fought because that’s what he though was his expectation, and he broke his hand.

They are both RFAs so Doug has all the power there. Labanc is probably right on in his model, Meier a bit low, but probably not far off because Doug will use Hertl’s as a comparable on the same team, and Hertl was the better player.

If he really wants to win SC, he needs to go back to the team that drafted him.

Thornton will not switch teams. Either he re-signs with San Jose or he retires

Usually comparable RFA contracts come from RFAs on other teams and what they are signing for that same year. Let’s take JT Compher from Colorado.

He scored 16 goals, had 16 assists and the Avs will probably sign him somewhere between 3-3.5 million. Lebanc’s representation would use that as a comp because it is happening in real time. (Markets change year to year)

Now, how much Labanc’s 17g and 39a increase from that 3-3.5 range is speculative. I’d probably argue ~1M.

Let’s play out the Hertl comp though too. When Hertl signed his current contract back in 2018, he had never eclipsed the the 50 point mark in his career, and still got paid 5.7M.

If I’m Lebanc’s representative I’d argue that Labanc is further along in his production then where Hertl was when he signed his deal.

All in all, I think Lebanc could get offer sheeted at 4-4.5M and it would be tough for the sharks to match.

1. the 2 year bridges that everyne signs are in the realm as I posted. midyear, labanc was a fourth liner in th doghouse. He was big minus on the season and minus in the playoffs. He's shown flashes of brilliance, but the consistency and 200 foot game is still lacking. 2 years 6-7M total is right in line for a "show me" deal. If he has two good years, he'll cash in long term. Meier is similar. He had one big year. 2 yrs, 10M is his show me deal. If he repeats this year 2 more times, then he'll cash in at 7+.

2. Jumbo will resign. Likely he'll resign for whatever is left at the end of the summer. He and dougie will discuss how to create the team and he'll take the max dougie can give him to fit within the roster construction. Might be 3M, might be 800k.

3. kane is as streaky as it gets and defensively porous. 1 goal in the last 19 PO games? from a 30 goal scorer? You gotta be kidding. And he was NOT matched up with other teams' top lines (that was cooch's job). So, he got second pairing Dmen, middle six forwards, and still failed miserably going minus in 10 of the last 18 games. And that's a repeat of last year when he had just one point versus vegas. He disappears and is not defensively good enough to contribute when hes not on the scoresheet. His dumb penalties dont help the team win. I want him gone so bad, but I dont think ill get what I want.

4. Braun is definitely moveable. A dman averaging over 20 mins/gm, playing a shut down role, signed under 4m? Very tradeable. Dillon is too. Melker is only 2M, so while the return will be small, someone will like him as he did pot 12 goals and kills penalties, etc. Dell also is a good vet backup who had some good numbers. someone may bit on him too. The return will be minimal but I dont think salary will need to be retained.

5. Of course you need 23 guys. The roundout of the roster can be league min vets like haley. If they need to shave off a little $$, they might get myers at 6.5, labanc at 3 even, or EK65 at 10.5 (which is still an AAV well over 11 compared to a 7 year deal he could get elsewhere). Dougie can squeeze as needed...

I agree with all of this - and frankly, with the exception of some of your D choices (I'd keep Heed over Ryan any day of the week and twice on Sundays) and a minor quibble on Labanc (I'd go 3.5-4), I really like this line-up. A lot.

I know, just a proof that he doesn't want that cup that bad after all. I guess that was the same concern when he got his captaincy stripped a while ago.

I wouldn't want to move at 40 either. I don't blame him

Oh man. Just no. Teams actually use their own comparable first, and include other comps later. The can’t use this years comps in negotiation because what if no one gets signed until exceptionally late in the RFA period. Then there are arbitration’s that adversely influence the market as outliers. Bottom line, they use their own comps as a starting point in negotiation, with a fairly standard inflation factor based on the upcoming cap increase estimate.

In the case of Labanc, they aren’t even comparable. Why? 5v5 scoring, overall completeness of the player, player situation (PP, PK, OZ v DZ) utilization. They aren’t even in the same ballpark. Over 50% of Labanc’s primary points were on the PP in contrast to Hertl’s primary points which was near 70% ES. Labanc isn’t used on the PK, at all. Hertl is trusted in late game DZ starts, Labanc is mostly sheltered on the third line. These situations were mainstays in Hertl’s contract year, and he was arbitration eligible. Like I said not in the same ballpark. Labanc is a $3.25M player for 2 years max.

PS. I would happily take that first round pick and third round pick if someone offersheeted Labanc for 4-4.5M

Compelling points. I admittedly don’t know their utilization as far as zone starts, pp vs. 5v5, etc. I guess we’ll see where his contract comes in at and we can circle back after.

Yeap, and thats why both you and him have zero Stanley Cups and Marian Hossa got 3, and John Madden got 3. and Handzus got one. and Kimmo Timmonen got one at 39. All had to move some more than once.