Move Joseph. Sign Pius Suter, Gregor , Heinen , Kessel or Brassard for minimum

I'm not an OTT fan, but I do agree with your approach. There aren't a ton of teams out there that can even take Mathieu let alone want to pay his...THREE years of...inflated cap hit...with additionally inflated salary. It's a lot to put on another team. It'll be too expensive. If I were Dorion I'd also open up the dialog with Brannstrom and see if anyone's interested there. Give Kleven some time. Keeping Pinto is in OTT's best interest.

Do you think the difference between Joseph and Kubalik is two 2nd round picks? What is Kubalik going to want on his next contract?

I like a few of those vet min options

Ignoring contracts, who is the better player? If you say Joseph, ok, keep him. But if it's Kubalik, then why trade him?

The cap space freed goes to Pinto. Not much room to do anything else. Let's say you trade Kuba because you didn't want to lose a 2nd, not because Joz is better. So you saved a 2nd and got another one for trading Kubalik. What are you doing with that? Can't trade them for a now player because there's no cap room. So are you gonna draft a player that may or may not turn into an NHL player in 4/5 years? How does that help us make the playoffs this year?

The argument of we don't need a scoring winger because we just signed one only makes sense if they are on the same line. Bottom 6 needs more scoring. If kubalik plays there, it helps us. Yes, Joz has value beyond scoring, but for 3m, he needs a hell of a bounce back.

The Hamonic signing was necessary. We need depth. Injuries happen. Hamonic is a good 7D, you know what you're getting. I rather have him than Lassi, as who knows what Lassi is right now. Hammer is good on the PK, blocks shots, and heck, had 3x more goals that Brannstrom, while not being an offensive defenseman. And we need to carry a spare D, while our top prospects develop in the AHL.

Jospeh is better defensively, Kubalik is better offensively, idealy keeping both on the 3rd line would be good, but OTT is screwed by the 5M dead cap this year

Why trade him? because he might not fit into the cap structure moving forward.

If Kubalik wants >5M on his next contract, he isnt going to fit and therefor will walk for nothing.

No, it doesnt help you make the playoffs THIS YEAR, but I dont see that as the primary goal. I want a decade of contention, not a flash in the pan.

Hamonic isnt a good defenseman. He makes the on-ice product WORSE. Getting Kleven NHL reps is good. Getting JBD more NHL games is good. We signed
Matinpalo for depth. Hamonic is in the ****ing way, and is a net negative on the team.

Idk if they like him in the locker room.

> I rather have him than Lassi, as who knows what Lassi is right now.

If Lassi has a 1% chance of making the team and becoming an NHL player, that 1% constitutes more possibility of contributing to a cup than Hamonic does. Hes old, bad, and wont be on the team in 2 years.

A comparison I made between the 2 players

Kubalik is a pretty decent offensive player but look at the other Sens players, there won't be a lot of PP time available... Kubalik scored 17 of his 45 pts on the PP last season

Over the last 2 years, Kubalik has 51 ESP despite only missing 5 games. Joseph has 45 ES + PK pts despite missing 39 games...

So Joseph has a better scoring rate at ES (1.58 pts per 60 ES minutes vs 1.53 for Kubalik), is quite better defensively and is a TOP PK forward in the NHL.

What was Ottawa's weakness last season? 5v5, they finished 25th in GF%

Kubalik's contract (1 year vs 2.5 AAV) makes him attractive and would return a decent pick while clearing 2.5 AAV

Joseph's is a cap casualty (3 years vs 2.95 AAV) and would cost a decent pick to move


Plus, Kubalik will want a pretty significant raise if he puts good numbers in Ottawa... something that we won't be able to afford (as we might go after a bigger fish if Tarasenko is not kept) or want (risky contract for Kubalik?)

I know which guy I want traded. Ideally I'd want both but we still have so much dead money, no choice.