Thread Starter
KDow88
Joined: May 2021
Posts: 464
Likes: 148
There's not much you can do at this point... With the cap situation being what Holland has tied this team up with, unless you deal Barrie or Kassian, or Ceci for a goalie, or a combination of 2 of them, they're gonna have to roll with your boy Smith at 40 turning 41, and hope Skinner and/or Konovalev progress to a legit NHL goalie who can be the heir apparent to the starting gig.. As for the defense, I really think if Tippett would be more flexible with the pairings, the numbers wouldn't be as god awful as they have been.. Bouchard still has some seasoning to do, why not put Barrie back with Darnell, and move Bouch to the 2nd pairing with Keith, this way he still gets his minutes and plays an important roll with a future HOF, while Ceci plays in the bottom pairing which helped him last year(as I mentioned in my notes, I think he was an absolute useless signing, Barrie is far better offensively, and Bouchard has been better defensively) I'm not saying he is useless, but at $3.25m for the next 3.5 seasons- it's already a significant waste of cap space and a roster spot.... Take a look at how the team played without him during those couple weeks he was out, literally would be better off slotting Koekkoek on the right side with Niemelainen or Lagesson, and it would be roughly the same outcome for what they are now, just takes $3.25m off the books, to possibly use towards goaltending....