Joined: Jul. 2021
Posts: 49
Likes: 29
This is pretty solid - well done. My thoughts/comments:
1. I like Blais, but I'm not sure about that contract. Totally up to him, but if he wants he can take his QO for 1x$1.6M. If he wants term, he will likely need to take a pay cut, as you've shown.
2. I agree with your thoughts on Kakko - I'd love to see him on a bridge deal close to Chytil's, but evelutions2 brings up an excellent point. I think we probably need to work out a deal with him by the draft, else trade his rights in order to get more than a 2nd round pick via offer sheet. We likely can't keep him for over $2.5M AAV and still expect to sign Laf/Chytil/Miller next year.
3. I don't think we'll be able to afford Copp, as much of an asset as he is to this team, considering we won't have much wiggle room if he's looking for more than $5M AAV (which I think he deserves). We are more likely to get Strome to lower his asking price to stay (think close to his current contract at $4.5M AAV), but we need to think long and hard before committing to him (likely 4-6 years) - especially since he can't win a faceoff. We may be better off looking for a cheap, veteran, middle-6 center with faceoff skill on a short-term deal (maybe bring back Derek Stepan for a year?).
4. I think we can only afford to keep one of Motte and Vatrano - and given the choice, it's probably Motte. Vatrano is due a raise, so he will look for at least $3M AAV on a multi-year deal, whereas we can likely get Motte for under $2M.
5. Nemeth is a better buy-out candidate at this point - should cost about $1M against the cap, which is better than paying to shed his deal to some draft pick hungry team (that he will likely veto with his M-NTC).
I mostly agree with everything else you've done. Thanks for putting this together!