kipwinger

That's pretty histrionic my man. First, he's not making demands. He's simply said he won't re-sign in Ottawa, so it's in their best interest to trade him. He's not missing training cap because he's holding out. And he's not Eric Lindros. Second, he does play "goal line to goal line". His defensive metrics grade out quite well for a smallish scorer. Maybe not better than Konecny, but he's definitely not Jakub Vrana either. You pay WAY too much attention to plus/minus. Every single regular on Ottawa's team was a minus player this year. So what? That's more indicative of a bad team than a bad player. Two years ago Larkin was -18 and he's one of the better defensive centers in the league.

I'd rather have Konecny than Debrincat. He's a slightly less offensively talented winger, but only marginally. Conversely, he's marginally more "gritty" than Debrincat. But also he's under contract for two more years @ 5.5 million.

I spaced on Pittsburgh, that's a really solid choice. Boston is a really cool city too, but I hate the Bruins sooooo bad that I can't bring myself to consider it. If I were an actual player though I'd probably want to play there.

I hate the heat, so no place down south. And I wouldn't want to live on the West Coast. New York is out because it's a hellhole. Columbus is really boring. Minneapolis is a cool city, but their team sucks. Ditto to Buffalo, Ottawa, and Philly. I can't pick Detroit per the OP. I guess I'm going with Chicago. They have winter, it's not far from Michigan, the city is pretty cool, and the team (while bad) actually intends to be good again one day. So if I were a younger player I'd want Chicago, if were in the twilight of my career I'd just be looking to play for a contender.

Yes.

His qualifying offer is 9 million, which is a contractual stipulation. That's not the same as what he'd get in arbitration. The way restricted free agency works is, the team has a number of options. First, they can sign him to a long term deal at any AAV and term they both agree to. Second, they can qualify him at his qualifying number (in this case 9 million) and that's what he'll play at for a year if nothing changes. Third, they can take him to arbitration (which they're doing) if they think the qualifying offer is too high but they still want to keep him (and try to make the case that he's worth another number). In this scenario he can still be signed or traded before his arbitration date. Fourth, they can trade him and his rights and the new team has to sign, qualify, or take him to arbitration. Fifth, they do none of these things and he becomes a UFA in July. The overall take away is that in only one case does Debrincat play at 9 million per year, and that's a pretty unlikely outcome considering Ottawa has already filed for arbitration and any team he gets traded to will be looking to extend him.

I don't think they'd retain much on Karlsson. If they retained half they're still sitting on a 5.5 million cap hit for four years. That's not insignificant. Not to mention Karlsson, despite his deficiencies, is still a hugely popular player in the league. I think rather than eat a bunch of money for that long a period of time they'd simply choose to keep him till the end of the contact and sell a whole bunch of Erik Karlsson merch (like the Tigers have done with Cabrera).

Fun Fact: Last season Erik Karlsson was on the ice for the most 5 on 5 goals against IN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE. Like, he's baaaaaaaaaad. You can't play him against top competition and win. But you also can't not-play him if you want his offense. Quite the dilemma. And then you remember you have to pay him 11 million bucks for the privilege of trying to figure out how to use him. He's a wreck.

Well yes, but that's not what I meant. He has a no-movement clause in his contract, so no team can just trade him whenever they want. But what I was really getting at is that he's under contract for 4 more seasons @ $11 million dollars AAV...and...he's...terrible. He can't defend. At all. So you'd have to hide him in the lineup. You'd be paying an oft injured, 33 year old, WAY too much money, then you'd have to shelter him, and then you'd have to keep sheltering him for 3 more years (assuming he's traded at next year's deadline as you indicated). The only way Karlsson is moving is if San Jose is willing to move the 4th overall pick. Otherwise I just don't see anyone touching that contract.

His contract?

Maybe, not sure I want 4 more years of a 33 year old defenseman at 11 million

You'd have to assume that San Jose would be swapping the 4th with the 9th pick in order for Detroit to have any interest in this trade. Otherwise it makes no sense from our perspective.

One of them was on a Stanley Cup championship caliber team and the other played for the Ottawa Senators. Also, who cares about plus/minus?

Debrincat and Jonathan Marchessault are basically the same player, so this bodes well.

Again, we are allowed to have more than one good player per position. The guy is a monster though, he’s playing the “power winger” role as good as anyone in the league right now. If we had him, Ras, and Copp/Kasper as power wingers on our top three lines it would go a long way toward the “harder to play against” goal SY is looking for.

As a 19 yo with a 19yo body he scored almost 60 pts. He’s clearly a good player. He just can’t be the only scoring winger we have.

Not at all, I just think that he’s going to have a longer development curve because he needs to do a lot of work on getting bigger and faster. The Canes don’t need defense, they need scoring. They also don’t need futures because they’re trying to win now.

You’re allowed to have more than one good player per position lol

Something else to pursue: Carolina needs offense, they don't have a ton of money, but they do have a really good right shot defenseman that's buried in the depth chart behind Brent Burns and Brett Pesce. Scott Morrow has eaten up the NCAA for two years in a row and is clearly ready for the NHL. He's 6'2, 200 lbs, and makes plays all over the ice. Perhaps something centered on Kubalik or Berggren? I'd start him with someone safe like Maatta as a rookie but he's clearly a top four dman in the making. Walman-Seider Edvinsson-Chiarot Maatta-Morrow

What we can't afford to do is fetishize draft picks. Even top picks have a pretty good likelihood of falling flat (anybody remember Filip Zadina?). We didn't trade Bertuzzi and Hronek just to cross our fingers and roll the dice on a replacement. We traded them to get assets...assets that can be used to do all sorts of things to improve the club. You can't fall in love with your own picks and prospects and when quality players become available you need to try to land them (if you don't have comparable players in your system). It's not like trading our additional 1st and 2nd round picks is going to gut the club. We'd still have our own 1st and 2nd rounds the next two years...AND one of the deepest prospect pools in the league. We need upper end talent. Guys like Debrincat and Dubois are already there and the likelihood that a mid round pick becomes as good as either of them is small. If you can get them, do it. I also REALLY like Barbashev and think SY needs to take a LONG look at the guy. If Vegas wins the Cup he'll likely be on the chopping block as they look to gain cap flexibility. He's really skilled himself, compliments other skill player well, is SUPER hard to play against, and plays responsibly all over the ice. I imagine after the playoffs he's had he's going to command a decent salary, but he's worth it. He'd be a target for me for sure.

The Wings need to sign Barbashev. That dude is a beast. His board play is amazing.

Can someone who knows better tell me, is Bruce Cassiday an awesome coach? So, Eichel’s a tough b*stard.

Obviously this is dependent on whether they'd sign extensions, I'd also be willing to add any of Zadina, Fabbri, Perron, Kubalik, Chiarat, Maatta, or Zadina if either team wants roster players: To Det: Dubios To Winnipeg: 2023 1st (Islanders) + 2023 2nd + (one of) Wallinder/Sodorblom/Johansson and then... To Det: Debrincat To Ottawa: 2024 1st (Boston), 2023 2nd + (one of) Wallinder/Sodorblom/Johansson and then... Get your backup goalie and RHD in free agency Ras-Larkin-Debrincat Copp-Dubois-Raymond Kubalik-Kasper-Perron Berggren-Veleno-Mazur

As far as his on-ice coaching my biggest issue with Babs was that his game plan was always to clog up the game to the point that nothing was happening and then count on individual moments of brilliance from his stars to provide offense. Offense was entirely incidental to his game plan. During his tenure as coach think about the Wings' breakouts. As soon as we had the puck we'd circle back behind the net and move forward as a 5 man unit instead of stretching the ice. That's insanely conservative. Likewise, there's a quote (I'll try to find it) where he says something to the effect of "I don't want Lidstrom playing as much in the offensive zone". The problem is that the deeper you go in the playoffs the more likely that the other team will have some pretty high caliber stars too, and maybe they'll be the ones providing the moments of brilliance. Secondly, because offense never factored into his strategy he didn't have any good way of generating it in the event that something bad happened. Datsyuk is hurt? You're screwed. Down by a couple goals? You're screwed. Opposition has a hot goalie? You're screwed. Powerplay not scoring? You're screwed.

I'll say two things about Babs. First, his success in Anaheim was entirely because the lockout hadn't happened yet, the rule changes (removal of the red line) weren't instituted, and inferior teams could still trap their way to success if they had a great goalie. What he did in Anaheim could never happen in today's game. Secondly, because of that season he ended up getting his job with the Wings, and then the Leafs, both of which were powerhouse teams that were going to be successful with or without him because of their talent levels. I've already commented on how well I think he utilized both teams' talent (spoiler alert: really badly) but those factors (as well as the Olympics) are the foundations of Babs' legacy. He's never been that great of a coach, he underachieved far more often than he overachieved, tons of coaches have ton more with less...BUT he was exceptionally successful at managing his career. I fully expect him to fall on his face with CBJ, just like his mentor Ken Hitchcock did, now that he's going to have to coach a modern era team that isn't loaded with superstar talent to carry him.