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BombSquad

BombSquad
Member Since
Jun. 25, 2016
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Forum: Armchair-GMJan. 12, 2017 at 1:59 a.m.
Thread: No Fleury Trade
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>palhal</b></div><div><i>CapFriendly GMs should stop waiving around 1st round picks thinking they are tremendously valuable. I encourage folks to take a few minutes to look at the players in the past 5 years that are drafted 25 to 30 in the draft that are significant players in the NHL. And Vegas wants to make an impact soon instead of waiting for maybe a playoff push with a pick 4 years from now.</i></div></div> The quality of past selections doesn't de-value the pick. And since when has any expansion team been anywhere near "win now" It took Columbus 15 years to become a contender, the ThrasherJets only made the playoffs one time in Atlanta and they're still rebuilding. Wild had that one freak season and made a playoff run on 3rd year but then they regressed and and had to rebuild a more solid core until they became stable contenders around 2006-2007. Preds made it to playoffs after 6 or 7 years I think but it took them way longer before they won a playoff series. With the youth movement in today's NHL, you pretty much can't be successful unless you build and reload your roster through the draft.
Forum: Armchair-GMJan. 10, 2017 at 2:38 a.m.
Forum: Armchair-GMJan. 9, 2017 at 6:01 p.m.
Thread: Screw it. Bring on Landy
Maatta is more maligned than he deserves to be. His quality of play is definitely fair value for a 22 year old defenseman on a reasonable long term contract and plenty of time to continue improving. That being said, his injury history is an understandable red flag, so it would take another prospect besides Pouliot to get this deal done. Guentzel and Sprong should be off limits (especially Guentzel) but maybe somebody like Dominik Simon.

However, this is a salary cap nightmare beyond this season. Tying up another 5.5M in forwards and trading Maatta means that the only 2 NHL defensemen under contract for 2017-18 would be Letang and Cole. And it's worth noting that the Pens have absolutely nobody in the pipeline that is anywhere close to being able to fill a NHL spot on an ELC. Losing Murray isn't an option, so if they are able to get Fleury's 5.75 off the books cleanly then that leaves them with a little under 18M to acquire/resign 4 starting defensemen and 2-4 forwards (depending on expansion and ELC guys like Sprong/Guentzel possibly stepping in). It's borderline possible to fill in quality players with this budget (and it's worth noting that the UFA market is awful for d-men next year) but it still probably leaves them with a guy like Ruhwedel (or someone comparable) starting every night on the 3rd pairing (not ideal). But the scary scenario comes if Pens can't get Fleury's 5.75 off the books and have to eat a chunk of it in a buyout or the entire thing if he waives his NMC and LV does not take him (which they likely wouldn't). Then you are talking about having as little as 12-13 M to sign up to 7 or 8 starters, including 2/3 of a blue line.