Ok, I'm going to post a lineup and I don't want to get blasted over it. I'm not saying it's possible or that I think it might happen, just how cool it looks. Sort of like if I were to post a picture of a Lamborghini. I know I won't be owning a Lamborghini anytime soon, but they sure are cool to look at. So is this.
FORWARDS
Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m)
Jiri Hudler ($2.875m) / Jeff Carter ($5.272m) / Jaromir Jagr ($2.000m)
Johan Franzen ($3.954m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m)
Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.000m)
Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m)
DEFENSEMEN
Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / James Wisniewski ($4.750m)
Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.000m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($1.500m)
Brad Stuart ($3.750m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m)
Doug Janik ($0.512m)
GOALTENDERS
Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Brian Boucher ($1.000m)
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $63,500,000; CAP PAYROLL: $63,393,938; BONUSES: $0
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $106,062
Most of it isn't that far-fetched, except that I've put Carter in there instead of Emmerton. I know a trade for Carter would start with Filppula, but it just looks so much cooler with Filppula in there. Beyond that, I've put in Jagr, which is possible given the rumors that his agent called Holland. 2 million probably wouldn't happen, but that's the most I would feel comfortable paying him. I've also added Wisniewski, I think the consensus is that he is the best option available, and Boucher, but you could add any FA backup goalie and it would still look great. Other than that, I've just re-signed our free agents Eaves, Lidstrom, and Ericsson. This is also dependent on the cap going up to 63.5 million, which is the highest estimate I've seen.
First of all, the forward lines are deep as hell. So many different line combos it could make blueadams head explode. We know that Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Cleary is magic on ice, and having so much depth allows us to keep them together full time.
Hudler-Carter-Jagr would be the first combo I'd try for Jagr, you'd have a excellent playmaker in Hudler dishing to a pair of left and right shooting goal scorers, both Jagr and Carter are big guys to make more room for undersized Hudler and there might be a Czech connection to be discovered.
Franzen-Filppula-Bertuzzi is a known quantity as well and would be another case of an excellent playmaker dishing to 2 big, goal scoring wingers. I know the first criticism will be having Filppula and Franzen on the third line, but I don't think of it as a third line. I think of it as a 1A/1B/1C situation. All three of the top lines could be a first on 20 teams in the league. This way you could spread the playing time more evenly, preventing possible injuries and keeping players fresher for the playoffs. Matching up against this team would be a nightmare.
Abdelkader-Helm-Eaves is an incredible energy line, hard hitting and could even pot more than their share of goals.
That would leave Holmstrom out as a power play specialist, reducing wear on him for the playoffs. He and Mursak would be excellent injury fill-ins. You know Franzen is going to go down sooner than later; you could put Mursak on the fourth line and move Abdelkader to the third and not miss a beat. Then you could put Holmstrom on the first line with Z&D when Cleary goes down and know that will work too. This line-up would also improve us greatly in the faceoff circle.
The defense would be ok with the first injury, as you could call up Smith first, but might be a little thin if 2 guys went down. Having Boucher fill in for Howard would be more than ok though, I think he is arguably the best back-up in the league right now.
Another concern is cap space for next year, but we would have 23.648 million (assuming we sign Wisniewski, Ericsson, Eaves and Boucher to multi-year deals this year) plus however much the cap goes up next year to re-sign Kronwall, Stuart, Helm and Abdelkader, plus 4 forwards and 2 defensemen. Lidstrom retires, let Hudler, Jagr, Holmstrom, Bertuzzi, and Janik walk.
