Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)

[Chef Boi RD]

It’s quite simple for me, Benning is approaching every contract now with Petey’s and Hughes next windfall contracts in mind, he has too. People need to get past 30 year old players like Markstrom and Tanev walking for very nice retirement contracts. Everything needs to be about Hughes and Petey and building around those 2. I’m just glad that Benning has clued in to this and is trying to avoid putting himself in a tough spot once those 2 elite level stars are getting 1/4 of the teams payroll

Nobody expected Petey and Hughes to be this good and this good fast in which for me is why I excuse Benning on some of his existing shitty contracts

Patience is required here, a majorIt’s portion of those shitty contracts will be gone over the next 2 seasons

Now it’s about not signing anymore stupid contracts. Holtby’s contract is a perfect example of a good signing, let’s continue on with that and be patient with what’s being built here

For all the love for Tanev let’s not forget his history with injuries, he’s not getting any younger.

[UWSaint]

Remember folks. Columbus just gave away Ryan Murray and Markus Nutivaara for a fifth round draft pick and Cliff Pu, respectively and that's a rough equivalent pair to Stecher/Tanev. Owners are instructing gms to unload contracts, finding a couple of defencemen in this climate should be easy.

Time to offer sheet Cernak.

What the hay, why not try it eh. Tampa is in a heck of a bind right now. They might not be able to match.

Or Pulock. Islanders have to get Barzal, Towes, and Pulock signed with $9 million to work with but they're still in better shape than the Canucks.

Pulock. Hell of a player w/o buzz for whatever reason. Prefer him to Barrie (especially with Hughes has the #1 PP).

[Meds]

Remember folks. Columbus just gave away Ryan Murray and Markus Nutivaara for a fifth round draft pick and Cliff Pu, respectively and that's a rough equivalent pair to Stecher/Tanev. Owners are instructing gms to unload contracts, finding a couple of defencemen in this climate should be easy.

Time to offer sheet Cernak.

What the hay, why not try it eh. Tampa is in a heck of a bind right now. They might not be able to match.

Or Pulock. Islanders have to get Barzal, Towes, and Pulock signed with $9 million to work with but they're still in better shape than the Canucks.

Pulock. Hell of a player w/o buzz for whatever reason. Prefer him to Barrie (especially with Hughes has the #1 PP).

Definitely. What would he cost though?

NVM. Just saw he's RFA.

Offer sheet him Jimmy!

[Chef Boi RD]

From Kenward on Twitter:

Interesting opening 24 hrs of #NHL Free Agency.

Only 4 players across the entire market get new deals with AAV’s north of $5 million

And the follow teams have made no- more than one signing so far:

CAR 0
LAK 0
NYI 0
PHI 0
SJS 0
CBJ 1
DAL 1
NJD 1

[Mickey107]

Darren Dreger@DarrenDreger
It’s looking like the Oilers and Tyson Barrie are closing in on a 1 year agreement. Being finalized. Likely just shy of $4 mil.
9:50 AM · Oct 10, 2020·

Frank Seravalli@frank_seravalli
Tyson Barrie turned down more money elsewhere to join the #Oilers, including a $6 million offer.
9:53 AM · Oct 10, 2020·

[SKYO]

Matt Benning only $1M AAV x2, that's what Stecher should get.

Brodie got $5Mx4, Shattenkirk $3.9Mx3, Schultz $4Mx2 - Thus Barrie should be happy with $5M x 5yrs or 4yrs in this flat cap era.

Krug just got $6.5Mx7.

Barrie and Krug have very comparable stat lines despite Barrie's down year.

Krug is smarter defensively, but he was possibly insulated by strong defensive partners and a killer team defense. He's now on another similar team and should do well. However their career stats are so close it will be interesting to see what happens.

Shattenkirk has been a yo-yo since leaving St. Louis. Brodie and Schultz are not in the same category of talent as Krug and Barrie.

I can't see Barrie taking $5M or less to go anywhere for more than a couple of years after Krug's deal.

Guess we both wrong, Barrie 1yr, $4m? Crazy.

Stecher to Detroit 2yrs

[dangler]

I guess Barrie wasn't a priority for the Canucks if 1yr./$4mill didn't get done

[2Fingers]

I guess Barrie wasn't a priority for the Canucks if 1yr./$4mill didn't get done

Wouldn’t Barrie at that amount be better than what they currently have? Did JB have that little faith in Barrie improving the team even at that amount?

[Cornuck]

I guess Barrie wasn't a priority for the Canucks if 1yr./$4mill didn't get done

Is planning to pad his stats with McDavid on the PP for a year and then hunt for a new contract? He couldn't do that here behind Hughes.

[Mickey107]

Pierre LeBrun@PierreVLeBrun
two years, $1.7M AAV
Detroit Red Wings
UPDATE: The #RedWings today agreed to terms with defenseman Troy Stecher on a two-year contract.

Well, Topper will be happy.

[Chef Boi RD]

Whatevs to Stecher. This UFA season is about avoiding it like it’s the plague. It’s about Petey and Hughes. The core untouchables:

Petey
Hughes
Miller
Horvat
Boeser
Demko
Podkolzin
Hoglander
Rathbone

The pieces to keep around them:

Juolevi
Tryamkin
Virtanen
Lind
MacEwan
Gaudette
Woo
Lockwood
DiPietro
Motte

And wait out for Covid and for these contracts to fall off the cliff and go quietly into the night:

Sutter - 1 year
Pearson - 1 year
Edler - 1 year
Baertschi - 1 year
Spooner - 1 year
Benn - 1 year
Eriksson - 2 years
Beagle - 2 years
Roussel - 2 years
Luongo - 2 years
Ferland - 3 years (I think he retires)

We can then start being players in the UFA market in 1 to 2 years. Patience, let thus young group evolved. My OEL win now dream is over!

[Carl Yagro]

I guess Barrie wasn't a priority for the Canucks if 1yr./$4mill didn't get done

Is planning to pad his stats with McDavid on the PP for a year and then hunt for a new contract? He couldn't do that here behind Hughes.

I see this as his rationale. Trying to maximize his future, last big contract?

Smart to see what McCovid & Co. can do before possibly re-upping. Who'd want to be in Edmonton long-term without some massive bonuses?

[Curmudgeon]

Whatevs to Stecher. This UFA season is about avoiding it like it’s the plague. It’s about Petey and Hughes. The core untouchables:

Petey
Hughes
Miller
Horvat
Boeser
Demko
Podkolzin
Hoglander
Rathbone

The pieces to keep around them:

Juolevi
Tryamkin
Virtanen
Lind
MacEwan
Gaudette
Woo
Lockwood
DiPietro
Motte

And wait out for Covid and for these contracts to fall off the cliff and go quietly into the night:

Sutter - 1 year
Pearson - 1 year
Edler - 1 year
Baertschi - 1 year
Spooner - 1 year
Benn - 1 year
Eriksson - 2 years
Beagle - 2 years
Roussel - 2 years
Luongo - 2 years
Ferland - 3 years (I think he retires)

We can then start being players in the UFA market in 1 to 2 years. Patience, let thus young group evolved. My OEL win now dream is over!

But they still need to replace Tanev and Stecher for this coming season and don't appear to have the cash. If they miss the playoffs it won't be Benning here to tap into the the next UFA market and rightly so. Benning should be sweating bullets.

And shame on ownership because ultimately the buck stops there unless they gave total autonomy to Benning to cut the deals that got them into this mess and I find that very hard to believe. I had significant autonomy my last 18/19 years on the job and if my managers had approached me with the equivalent in our business to the tactical monetary investments or personnel moves Benning made, I would have shot most of them down and questioned that individual's ability to run the business they were responsible for going forward and it would have been a much shorter leash or they would have been redeployed elsewhere in the organization or even "coached" out of the business.

[Madcombinepilot]

Benning is fine. Even if they miss the playoffs next year. If they miss 2 years in a row, then he is on the hit plate, but that won’t happen.

Look around the league...

Who really got better so far? Like by a large margin?

You can argue the Alberta teams improved, but the off season isn’t over yet, and our prospect pool is deeper and better than theirs, so we don’t really know until next training camp.

We do know that Calgary locked a bunch of their salary cap in for the next few years on aging guys, while we are poised to be flushing cap space out over the next few years...

JB hasn’t made a mistake this offseason yet.

[Chef Boi RD]

Replacing Stecher is not even a problem

Replacing Markstrom = Demko/Holtby. Not a problem

Only have to find a top 4 D-man to replace Tanev whom btw was regularly injured. Not concerned, lots of time left still.