Mittelstadt has arb rights. Why would he take that after his past 2 seasons?

Obviously to make my ACGM look legit. You don't think he'll have my back?

You are honestly just driving home my point for me by calling out my ignorance about Middlestadt's next contract -- Colorado has a serious crunch this offseason. Just look at how tight what I have now is. What happens when you shave off another 1-1.5m? Maybe they need to shed more than one contract?

Avs decline. Quite easily. There's no doubt that Ullmark is a better goalie than Georgie but this does not help them one iota.

I'm out of the loop, is landeskog actually going to play?

Fair enough. There may not be a trade that makes sense, because the Avs only have so many assets that the Bruins covet and you all might not see Ullmark as worth those particular assets. Two questions before the proposal dies though:

Do you agree the Avs need to move out salary? Which contracts are most likely to be moved?

Take out the cap dump from the equation and pretend you have all of your picks, but assume yoh are still crunched for cap space. Roughly speaking, what value would you place on an Ullmark for Georgiev swap with retention on Ullmark to make the money match?

I have not heard much other than seeing he could possibly return sometime in the later rounds of the playoffs this year. That was a while ago, and it has been crickets since. I guess it is possible that he does not ever play again if that is what you are asking about, but I have no reason to believe that will happen at this point.

Yes, the Avs will need to move out salary. I don't see them signing Walker, Drouin may well have played himself out of Colorado unless he takes a very low end deal to stay and play with MacKinnon. Trenin would be the only one of the 'deadline deals' I would want the Avs to keep personally. The four most likely to be moved would be Colton, Manson, Girard & Lehkonen imo. The problem is viewing any of those as a cap dump when all have value. It isn't simply a case of dumping the salary of a bad player in this instance it's cap space. Therefore they still have value though the Avs may not get full value for them.

Ritchie is almost certainly off the table in this scenario as well. He could well be on the roster within the current Avs window.

Ullmark simply isn't worth it for the Avs. Even with retention. Georgiev's cap hit is 3.4 and the most he would be likely to get as a raise would be 5 in my opinion (and that is banking on a return to better form next year). Retaining on Ullmark only brings it down for next year and then he needs to be re-signed and whilst the Avs would be paying him 3.4 in this scenario, he's still a 5 mil goalie looking for a raise at that point. Would be terrible asset management by the Avs.

There's simply no deal to be done here imo. Nothing in this helps the Avs, only the Bruins.

I could see him taking a AAV in that range in exchange for a two-year deal that walks him to UFA. Anything longer than two years, he's getting substantially more than that though.

Sounds like y'all will roll with Georgiev. I think he will bounce back personally, but he ideally needs a 1B or a solid backup. Too bad about Francouz this year.

That is exactly what I was thinking originally, but it may be a bit too low even for that.

I highly doubt it. Players and agents use their arb rights. It's the only leverage RFAs have

Maybe a little bit, but if they're going to give him a contract that takes him straight to UFA I bet the AAV winds up under $5MM, so you're probably not off by more than half a million or so (which, granted, is still problematic in this scenario). However, you're accounting for Landeskog's full cap hit, and despite reports that he may play, I'll be shocked to ever see him on the ice again. A cartilage transplant sounds like a last-ditch effort to avoid a knee replacement.

If they're offering two years though? Regardless of how he gets a two-year deal, it walks him to UFA. That being the case, it may not be worth going through arbitration and potentially souring the relationship with the team (who would be able to offer him an 8-year extension next July) over a few hundred thousand dollars.

Yes ideal scenario would have been Frankie to back up Georgie and take some of the weight off him. The Avs probably roll with Justus as the back up next year but I wouldn't object to them picking up someone like say Hellberg for some cover in case he has a downturn. For some reason the Avs seem to put little weight on goaltending it appears (imho one of, if not THE most important position but then I also have some bias as I was one lol) which is kind of bizarre as it's pretty obvious you win nothing with below par goaltending and for a franchise that had one of the all time greats it's even more strange.

Centers who have back to back 55+ point seasons are getting 5.5 million+

You don't think a low ball offer sours the relationship?

RFA centers who sign for that much generally did so in exchange for buying out UFA years (e.g., Dylan Strome 5x$5MM, but will hit UFA for the first time at 32 years old). A two-year deal for Mittelstadt buys out zero UFA years and lets him hit UFA as a 27-year-old where he can really cash in (assuming he continues to improve). That being the case, to maximize his career earnings, keeping his next contract to only two years could very well be worth more to the player than maximizing the AAV for the next two seasons.

Filing for arbitration does not keep him from making more money or becoming a ufa

It kinda does, because they can only use other RFA contracts for similar players (position, age, career games, and average ice time) as comparables in the arbitration hearing, and it's going to be harder for Mitelstadt to find comparables in his favor than it will be for the team to find comparables in theirs. He should by all means use an arbitration filing as leverage against the team, but I'd be surprised if they went to a hearing and didn't just settle beforehand for something close to what OP has proposed.

Would it be all that surprising if he filed for arbitration and still got less than 5m? I would not be surprised. I also would not be surprised if he willingly took a 2 year bridge deal for less than 5m. Maybe not 4.125m, but 4.5 or 4.75 with or without arb would not surprise me at all. COL cannot really afford to offer him 5.5m as it stands and he is an RFA at the end of the day.

Landy had been playing hurt for two seasons BEFORE missing two more seasons. He looked very weak skating recently. If he does come back, I can't see how he'd be effective over a full 82 game season. I think he just retires, but the Avs could always stash him on LTIR all season in hopes he builds up enough strength for one last playoff run. I could also see him start on LTIR & then activate halfway thru & the Avs would trade one of: Manson, Colton, or Girard.

CMac will likely round out this roster with three league minimim deals in: Malinski, Behrens, & Kovalenko, instead of Walker, Stetcher & Drouin. Therefore I don't see them having to move out more than one guy to fit Captain.

As for an Ullmark trade, value comp is a 1st & possibly one minor asset (Foudy, etc). They got Kuemper for a 1st straight up. They probably wouldn't need retention, given the cheap contracts mentioned above. Boston could certainly take Georgiev & Manson, or they could be sent elsewhere. Ritchie is their #1 prospect & has far exceeded expectations, so he wouldn't be included for a pure rental. Swap Ritchie with a 1st, remove retention, & that's a good fit for both teams IMO.