paulwoodsfan

Precisely correct.

Are you suggesting the new CBA will allow contracts to be reworked? Because they can't be under the current CBA. And under the current CBA, Suter and Parise could be "out the door" but the cost to the Wild would be huge -- around $66M each, cap hit of about $3.75M/year spread over 26 years. So I don't see any of what you are suggesting actually happening.

IMO there is no chance that the cap will be lowered AND any teams over the new cap just get screwed for their lack of foresight. Why would any owner at or near the cap agree to that? What will happen (eventually) is that whatever deal is signed between the two parties will include an adjustment of some sort. So if, for instance, the players go from 57% to 50% of revenues, the cap may drop by 14% and all existing contracts may be reduced by 14% to keep everything in line. Last time contracts were rolled back by 24% across the board.

The last time they simply made all players take a 24% reduction on existing salaries. Something similar (but probably not that large) is likely in store this time.

So in theory, Weber could be had for two firsts, a second and a third, with a cap hit of $8.40M. If you felt there was any chance at all NSH would not match it, I think it would be worth it. However, I can't see a scenario in which the Preds don't match.

If I am not mistaken, he signed a one-way deal this spring. That makes him pretty well untradeable, IMO, so he will be back in GR.

Maybe the offers they are still considering are different enough from each other (salary, term, rosters, lifestyle) that it's not an easy decision. This is not a Schultz situation where every team basically had no choice but to offer exactly the same deal. Cut them some slack if they want a few more days to decide.

He did nothing for Toronto to warrant the idea he would be an upgrade to Detroit's bottom six.

That is probably the safest prediction on any forum anywhere. Calgary signing Wideman for $5M-plus, and the number of teams below the cap floor, means crazy money is all but assured, again. I think it will take at least $4.5/yr to sign Huds, and Suter is going to get above $8/yr. And for the record I would have no problem signing Suter for $8-8.5.yr.

I don't see any available defencemen who are comparable to Suter. He has Norris Trophy-type skills at both ends of the rink. Wideman et al will never contend for that trophy. Those guys are OK but not impact players, IMO.

I have to disagree re Suter. Those three guys combined into a single player would still not be as good as Suter, IMO. I do agree that Parise is head and shoulders above the other FA forwards, but Suter is the same with the other defencemen.

Preds mgmt did the right thing. Wings mgmt should have done the same when Proby, Klima et al got plastered at Goose Loonie's the night before a playoff game in Edmonton. Players cannot put their own desire for fun above the team, especially in the playoffs.

How much cap space a team has is a lot different than how much a team can actually spend. The suggestion that Nashville can "afford" to sign all those guys to big contracts ignores one fact -- the Preds have never shown any inclination to spend to the cap, and in that market with what must surely be bottom-third revenue, who can blame them? I suppose if they go to the finals and have 12 or so home playoff games they might be more inclined to ramp up their spending next season, but I would bet that they will not spend anywhere near the cap.

I agree that is likely the case. Unless the plan is to also hold some room back for next year. Look who's currently scheduled to be UFA in the summer of 2013 (just listing players currently making $3M/yr or more): Player Pos Team Age Cap Hit Crosby, Sidney » F PIT 24 $8,700,000 Iginla, Jarome » F CGY 34 $7,000,000 Timonen, Kimmo » D PHI 37 $6,333,333 Backstrom, Niklas » G MIN 34 $6,000,000 Elias, Patrik » F NJD 36 $6,000,000 Visnovsky, Lubomir » D ANA 35 $5,600,000 Gonchar, Sergei » D OTT 38 $5,500,000 Perry, Corey » F ANA 26 $5,325,000 Getzlaf, Ryan » F ANA 26 $5,325,000 Ribeiro, Mike » F DAL 32 $5,000,000 Thomas, Tim » G BOS 38 $5,000,000 Alfredsson, Daniel » F OTT 39 $4,875,000 Connolly, Tim » F TOR 30 $4,750,000 McDonald, Andy » F STL 34 $4,700,000 Hainsey, Ron » D WIN 31 $4,500,000 Lupul, Joffrey » F TOR 28 $4,250,000 Fisher, Mike » F NAS 31 $4,200,000 Hartnell, Scott » F PHI 30 $4,200,000 Morrow, Brenden » F DAL 33 $4,100,000 Streit, Mark » D NYI 34 $4,100,000 Bouchard, Pierre-Marc » F MIN 27 $4,080,000 Antropov, Nik » F WIN 32 $4,062,500 Regehr, Robyn » D BUF 32 $4,020,000 Staal, Jordan » F PIT 23 $4,000,000 Zidlicky, Marek » D NJD 35 $4,000,000 Whitney, Ryan » D EDM 29 $4,000,000 Roy, Derek » F BUF 28 $4,000,000 Horton, Nathan » F BOS 26 $4,000,000 Zajac, Travis » F NJD 26 $3,887,500 Enstrom, Tobias » D WIN 27 $3,750,000 Khabibulin, Nikolai » G EDM 39 $3,750,000 Clowe, Ryane » F SAN 29 $3,625,000 Lehtonen, Kari » G DAL 28 $3,550,000 Lombardi, Matthew » F TOR 30 $3,500,000 Cullen, Matt » F MIN 35 $3,500,000 Ryder, Michael » F DAL 32 $3,500,000 Hamrlik, Roman » D WAS 38 $3,500,000 Gagne, Simon » F LAK 32 $3,500,000 Zubrus, Dainius » F NJD 33 $3,400,000 Scuderi, Rob » D LAK 33 $3,400,000 MacArthur, Clarke » F TOR 27 $3,250,000 Edler, Alexander » D VAN 26 $3,250,000 Vlasic, Marc-Edouard » D SAN 25 $3,100,000 Weiss, Stephen » F FLA 29 $3,100,000 Filppula, Valtteri » F DET 28 $3,000,000 Armstrong, Colby » F TOR 29 $3,000,000 Lydman, Toni » D ANA 34 $3,000,000 Leopold, Jordan » D BUF 31 $3,000,000 A few of those guys would look pretty good in red and white.

This. The guy was very effective as a third-liner before he burst into a scorer. We need to get some value for him for the next five seasons and it seems hard to believe it will be in a first-line role, so putting him on the third line (and returning him to the PK rotation) seems like a good plan to me. He could still score 20-25 goals as a third-liner with the right linemates.

So now you're saying Franzen should be traded but likely won't be because of his contract? That's quite a bit different than "If it doesn't take Franzen to get him, then I am trading Franzen for another player that will make this team better." As for Quincey, you originally said "Quincey garnered a 1st round pick, Stuart is a bit more valuable than Quincey on the market...Fact." So that sounds to me like you believed Stuart was worth more than the first-rounder Quincey cost. As for the contract status, an RFA is worth more to his team than a UFA because if an RFA signs elsewhere (which won't happen in this case, IMO), you get compensation. Quincey is effectively RW property well past July 1, unless they choose to walk away from him (extremely unlikely, IMO). Stuart can be had for no comp as of July 1, and that fact alone (plus the fact that he is far from a star, and is in his 30s) makes it extremely unlikely that any of the Cali teams would give up a dime for advance neg rights.

This. Bingo bango.

And yet somehow Kenny is going to convince someone to take him -- and his eight more years, $27.5M owing -- off our hands? Get back to us when that becomes a fact. Uh, no. Neither guy is an all-star. One is a soon-to-be UFA aged 32, the other a signed player aged 26. The former is NOT more valuable in the trade market than the latter. There is zero chance the Wings could get a first-rounder for Stuart, and Clowe is even farther from reality.

People have got to get over the idea that Franzen could be traded. Why would any team take on a contract that pays that much money and has that big a cap hit to him for eight more years, especially given his apparent loss of desire? Franzen is probably going to retire in five years, because his salary the last three years is comparatively small. But ovet the next five years he is owed almost $25M -- there is no way any team takes that on unless they can dump an equally bad longterm contract on the Wings. Could he be had for Luongo? Maybe? For DiPietro? Certainly. (Not that we'd want him.) For Schenn, or anyone on Montreal? Not a chance. Therefore I think next season he gets moved back down to a role on the third line as a checker and penalty killer, and gets asked to do what he did well for his first two seasons, before he magically blossomed into a (short-lived) power forward. That may be our best hope of getting some value for the money we'll be paying him over the next five seasons.

I agree Franzen could be useful in a third-line role. He was very effective there his first two seasons before he started scoring and was moved up (although I seem to recall he played more at centre than at wing back then). As for "just dumping" him, he's basically untradeable because of the cash outlay required over the next five years, and buying him out would create an unacceptable cap-hit legacy for the next 16 (!)years (courtesy capgeek): ◦ 2012-13: -$139,205 ◦ 2013-14: $110,795 ◦ 2014-15: $110,795 ◦ 2015-16: $110,795 ◦ 2016-17: $1,610,795 ◦ 2017-18: $3,110,795 ◦ 2018-19: $4,110,795 ◦ 2019-20: $4,110,795 ◦ 2020-21: $1,156,250 ◦ 2021-22: $1,156,250 ◦ 2022-23: $1,156,250 ◦ 2023-24: $1,156,250 ◦ 2024-25: $1,156,250 ◦ 2025-26: $1,156,250 ◦ 2026-27: $1,156,250 ◦ 2027-28: $1,156,250 Bottom line is that barring a miraculous trade that requires taking back a similar bad contract, he's going to be on the Wings for at least the next five seasons, and we need to find a way to get something approaching $4M/yr of value out of him.

It is amazing reading all the calls for Franzen to get traded. There is no chance the Stars, Leafs or anyone else will take that contract off our hands. He has eight years left, cap hit of just under $4M and is owed almost $24M over the next five seasons. The only chance of a trade happening is if he's exchanged for another terrible contract. So I guess that means he either goes to Vancouver for Luongo (which is an even worse contract -- 10 more years at a cap hit of $5.3M, and owed $40M over the next six years) or to the Islanders for DiPietro.

I think we all better face facts -- with his contract (eight more years at a cap hit of almost $4M) and his inconsistent-at-best play the past two seasons, Franzen is pretty well untradeable.

The only reason Emmerton is playing is because he and Abdelkader are the only guys on the third and fourth lines capable of playing centre. When Helm returns (let's hope by start of the playoffs), Emmerton will sit and Abdelkader will move down to the fourth line. The only alternative would be to move either Filppula or Franzen down to centre one of the bottom two lines. Obviously Fil isn't going anywhere. I would actually like to see Franzen moved back to the fourth-line checking role he had earlier in his career, since he was very effective in that role and he's only sporadically effective as a top-line winger these days. He would make a very good shutdown centre against Thornton and Getzlaf (not that the latter is a threat this year). And maybe a return to his roots would help him snap out of his funk.

Smith is good and going to be great, but he can't kill penalties yet so IMO there is no way Babcock doesn't put Ericsson back in as soon as he is healthy. Five-on-five he hasn't been good this year, but he is very solid on the PK and having him out there for that reduces Lidstrom's minutes.