That team is nasty.

Scary scary scary. No need the playoffs, just hand them the cup

This is worth the eventual collapse, this is insanity

If I was Bob Murray I'd take that in a heartbeat

Sam Girard has to be on a power play unit.

Lmfao where? (Should be comphers spot)

A future dynasty in the making, That's for sure.

How do you resign 3 key players the following year though

The only problem w/Pietrangelo signing is that it totally hamstrings the team. How do you sign Makar and Landeskog? I really do like the Rackell move though.

Yeah I agree Girard has the quality to play PP, but there's only so many roles and I'd prefer other Dmen there. On the brighside, keeping Girard off the PP allows him to play big even strength minutes.

The trade I made is a bit of an overpay, but my logic for that trade is that Rakell's value will be really high with a lower-than-expected cap, and Anaheim would surely have numerous suitors, so it is what would be needed to get it done. Anaheim need a good young RHD too so it's a good fit. I hesitated on trading Timmins, but if we sign Pietrangelo then Timmins is expendable and it's the logical move to pick up a top 6 forward.

I agree that it would make things really challenging going forwards, but I think there are definitely ways to make it work.

First of all, here's an estimate of what the 3 contracts could realistically look like:

Grubauer: $3.3m ----> $4m
Makar: $880k + $2.5m bonus (which is included in the caphit of the team above), total $3.3m ---> $9m
Landeskog: $5.5m -----> $8m

That's a total of $8.9m to find to resign those 3 players.

To start with, a big part of the strategy would center around the Expansion Draft in 2021:

- Forwards protected: Mackinnon, Rantanen, Landeskog, Kadri, Rakell, Burakovsky, Donskoi
- Defensemen: Makar, Girard, Pietrangelo (Johnson asked to waive NMC)
- Goalie: Grubauer

Key players exposed: Compher, Graves, Johnson, Francouz

The key here would be to get Seattle to pick one of Compher or Johnson as Graves/Francouz are more valuable at their cap hits and positions. Realistically Seattle wouldn't want Johnson at his cap hit, so we could for example pay Seattle a pick to choose Compher instead of one of Graves/Francouz.

Moves to make room would include:

1. Current capspace = $380k
2. Compher gets taken in the Expansion Draft (perhaps we pay Seattle to choose him instead of Francouz/Graves). Bowers (ELC) replaces Compher ($3.5m) for 2021-22, saving $2.6m.
3. Kadri ($4.5m/1year) gets traded, and is replaced by Newhook (ELC), saving $3.6m.
4. Calvert ($2.85m) leaves as an UFA and is replaced by O'Connor/Kovalenko/Kamenev/etc on ELC's, saving $2m.

The 4 points above total ~$8.6m. That's just short of $8.9m needed, but basically in the ballpark to make it work.

Note that I haven't even touched Johnson's $6m caphit yet. If needed this can be removed either via trade (perhaps attach him to Kadri in a trade); or by paying Seattle a pick to pick him; or by buyout (which would cost $2m for 4 more seasons). Either way any of those moves create considerable additional space even beyond what is needed to resign Makar/Grubauer/Landeskog as outlined in the 4 points above. If Johnson were traded there would be up to $6m free to sign a replacement #6D and invest elsewhere on the roster. If Johnson is moved it may even allow us to keep Kadri, but for arguments sake let's just go with Kadri getting traded.

With those moves, the 2021-22 roster would look like this:

Landeskog --- Mackinnon --- Rantanen
Rakell ----------- Newhook ---- Burakovsky
Nichuskin ------- Bowers ----- Donskoi
O'Connor ------ Bellemare --- Kaut (Bellemare resigned or equivalent 4C signed in UFA for $1.8m)

Girard --- Pietrangelo
Byram --- Makar
Graves --- New guy ($2m)

Grubauer
Francouz

Granted, rolling with a young center tandem in Newhook and Bowers would be a risk, but it isn't unreasonable to expect them to be able to step in and contribute right away after one more year of development in the AHL/NCAA (and possibly even a call up in 2020-21 already.

The next headaches would be in 2022 when Byram (ELC) , Rakell ($3.7m), and Francouz ($2m) need to be resigned. Hopefully Annunen (ELC) will be ready for a backup role by then to fill the backup goalie spot; that's 2 years away and he's already playing against men in Finland so it's not unfathomable to expect that. The savings from Johnson's contract being moved (i.e. $6m, minus $2m needed for a replacement 6D) would go towards Rakell's raise (probably around $1.8m if he asks for $5.5m), as well as for Byram who would get a bridge deal. Further capspace could be found by moving Donskoi's $3.9m when he has 1 year left to UFA (as well as by any rises in cap ceiling by 2022).

In 2023 it's game over for the stacked roster when Mackinnon needs his raise.

Obviously this strategy depends on Byram, Newhook, Bowers, Kaut, and one 4th line prospect working out, but it's not unreasonable to expect that they will.

If Pietrangelo were 27 I could get behind that, but you’re talking about paying a guy $9M yr until he is 37, and at a spot where you’ve used 2 top 5 picks in the last 3 years. Let those guy be your horses, as Makar is already the teams 2nd most important player and the money that you would be paying an aging Pietrangelo goes to those guys. Otherwise I’m lock step with you.

Pietrangelo has already got his cup, but the prospect of playing on a team as stacked as the one above might be incredibly enticing for him, so I think at $9m it might be possible for a contender to get him on a 6 year deal rather than 7.

Whatever the case, as long as there aren't any strict NTC's on the contract we could ride him for 3 seasons and then trade him in 2023 when Mackinnon needs his raise. At 33 Pietrangelo would still hold decent value in a trade, and that timeline would dovetail with Helleson who could start his ELC by or around 2023.

Here's what the roster would look like in 2021-22 with the changes suggested above, albeit while keeping Kadri instead of trading him for futures: https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/1708652