RANT: Gibson is an incredibly gifted goalie, but he is only 6'2" tall and plays a reactive style (Athletic over size, soft pads, small chest protector, prioritizing agility over outright size) He doesn't have that big of a butterfly splay. The way the defense is playing right now is the absolute worst pairing for him, the front of the net is completely clogged with players and there are redirects galore, the slot needs to be cleared out of players, we need to give the guy a fighting chance.
Trades: Move Rico out to go cup chasing, this is along the lines that has been being chatted about with COL fans for the last two weeks. Trade is done in 2023, they get 1+ seasons of retained Rico, a mid round pick, and a RHD prospect that could fit their system well and is waivers exempt in 2023, should assist with their injury troubles.
Free agent signings:
Graves: Big, shutdown defenseman to pair with Drysdale. We lure him here with term and money and the possibility of ascending to the top pair with Drysdale in a year or two's time.
Zub: Excellent defensive defenseman, weaponize our cap space to get his services, pair him with Fowler on our top line. I don't particularly care if its an overpay, I can adjust the AAV down to what's reasonable, but I will not be outbid for Zub.
Kuzemenko: He hangs around the net and gets the sloppy goals, but they are goals. This pairs perfectly with Terry being a high volume shooter, and with Zegras ability to deceptively weave a pass.
Long term outlook:
It looks like I have capped out the team, but I have intentionally made this look as bad as possible. The cap assumption used for this ACGM is 83.5 mil, and its going to raise substantially for the 24 or 25 season. Secondly, Henrique and Silfverberg's cap hits fall off after this season, freeing up over 8 million in space. There are only a few signings that year in the bottom 6 to fill, the largest of which is Lundestrom. The year after, McTavish needs a big boy deal or to be bridged, and Vatrano's deal falls off. Year after that, Drysdale, Dostal, and whatever hotshot we draft need resigning. Depending on the cap ceiling, things could get tight during the 26-27 season, but we should use our prospect pool to rotate out players as needed for space in the middle six and bottom 4 defense.
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