Among the minority of Tampa fans who aren't freaking out over our roster or future. I have been quite satisfied with our player and team development thus far this season. Obviously Sergachev going down was a big loss. We all hope for a healthy and patient recovery for him as to not jeopardize his future impact for the team.
I'm not in the group who thinks we should be buyers at the deadline despite a weak blueline and cap space. My stance is that we use the cap space to do 1 or both of these things. A, retain salary as a 3rd party for deadline rentals and acquire any assets we can, whether draft picks or prospects we deem beneficial. Or B, use the cap space to help out other cap strapped teams not in our conference and take on potentially a serviceable d man for any amount of games to finish out the year, strictly a rental.
As for next season, I'm obviously wanting to resign Stamkos, years and AAV TBD. If I were to speculate, which I'm not in favor of, I'd say he lands around the high 5m-mid 7m range, years and AAV dependent on each other. For anyone saying we'd be better off letting him walk, the question I pose to you, is who fills his shoes? Who could provide the same level of leadership? Who do we have as a right handed scorer to plug into the powerplay or use in the top 6?
Tyler Motte has been an outstanding player for us this season. If he's willing to return, we bring him back no question. Him and Glendening have done wonders for our bottom 6 and PK. I've liked what I've seen from Chaffee enough that I think he deserves a contract, 1 or 2 years and he can be a bottom 6 bruiser option for us next season. Him along with, Merela, Groshev, Robert, Koepke and Fortier can be serviceable bottom 6 players so in the event we decide to not look to FA to bring someone on, we have options as far as I'm concerned. Unsure as to our plans for Barre-Boulet, his runway is shortening quickly, he needs to adapt and adjust his game or he's gonna find himself back in the AHL next season.
As for the defense, Max Crozier has been terrific in his audition this season, he is at the point where he can be a full time player for us next season, he is making Perbix fight for his job as of the last couple weeks.
All of this to say I'm not concerned with our future despite cap hurdles. I'm perfectly fine with keeping things in house and not making many additions this off-season. Our organizational depth has proven sufficient, after a hard finish to this season and a hard summer, these younger inexperienced players will improve even further and the team will grow together. When we are on our game, I'm very impressed with our playstyle (for the most part). We are a very difficult team to play against that can play a well rounded game. The major target area for this off-season would be a top 4 dman. We don't need to find someone for the long haul, but we can't continue to force inexperienced players (who are very capable, just over stressed) Perbix, Raddysh, Crozier, Lilliberg, Carlile, into positions that hurt the team and ultimately their development. A strong skilled puck moving defenseman who is more offensively skilled than Cernak, yet equally as good defensively, is what I think we need. Easier said than done.
I agree with you in terms of the TDL and future of the team but I am optimistic for different reasons. I think our prospect pool is the best it has been in a long time as almost all of our prospects have had big bounce back years in their development and overall its very underrated. The following players could be pushing for a spot by next year: Thompson, Crozier, Huuhtanen, Duke, Groshev, Goncalves, Howard, Alnefelt and Finley. Then there is also Gauthier and Powell who are promising. Of those players however I think the only lock for the lineup would be Thompson and Goncalves. I don't really like the idea of playing merela, chaffee, fortier, or koepke over these guys. They have been serviceable but their upside isnt high enough to justify it imo. Also the team could be greatly improved by just moving sheary and jeannot and reallocating the capspace somewhere else but that is probably not realistic.
I agree with you in terms of the TDL and future of the team but I am optimistic for different reasons. I think our prospect pool is the best it has been in a long time as almost all of our prospects have had big bounce back years in their development and overall its very underrated. The following players could be pushing for a spot by next year: Thompson, Crozier, Huuhtanen, Duke, Groshev, Goncalves, Howard, Alnefelt and Finley. Then there is also Gauthier and Powell who are promising. Of those players however I think the only lock for the lineup would be Thompson and Goncalves. I don't really like the idea of playing merela, chaffee, fortier, or koepke over these guys. They have been serviceable but their upside isnt high enough to justify it imo. Also the team could be greatly improved by just moving sheary and jeannot and reallocating the capspace somewhere else but that is probably not realistic.
I agree with your last bit. Jeannot really needs to turn things around. Sheary has a 16 team trade list next year but I think they count on him figuring things out rather than paying to dump him. But I agree I would've preferred to just keep Rosco for those two guys, plus all the picks we'd have back for Jeannot, but what ifs are what ifs. Goncalves definitely would have the most upside I think. But I don't think his game is well suited for the bottom 6 given the way we've chosen to play this season. We've gone with a very high energy dump and bang type style, which has served us well. I think they look to continue that next year unless our scoring for the rest of the season falls off a cliff. I see what you're saying though. Personally I think Crozier is the best fit, he's shown to be much more confident than Thompson was. Either way I like how far our prospects have come the last 2 years, really gives us versatility and options.
I agree with your last bit. Jeannot really needs to turn things around. Sheary has a 16 team trade list next year but I think they count on him figuring things out rather than paying to dump him. But I agree I would've preferred to just keep Rosco for those two guys, plus all the picks we'd have back for Jeannot, but what ifs are what ifs. Goncalves definitely would have the most upside I think. But I don't think his game is well suited for the bottom 6 given the way we've chosen to play this season. We've gone with a very high energy dump and bang type style, which has served us well. I think they look to continue that next year unless our scoring for the rest of the season falls off a cliff. I see what you're saying though. Personally I think Crozier is the best fit, he's shown to be much more confident than Thompson was. Either way I like how far our prospects have come the last 2 years, really gives us versatility and options.
I agree on goncalves but if he doesnt get played next year they are kinda just wasting his time and they should just look for a trade at that point. I was suprised how well crozier has transitioned into the NHL. Honestly he might even be playing better in tampa than he was in syracuse. As far as Thompson goes, its hard to judge the 11 minutes he played vs Boston and all year long in syracuse he has been fantastic, I just really wish he was given more of a chance earlier on in the season
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