Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix
I agree, choices will need to be made, but that doesn't change how great our current situation is. It's the nature of the salary cap that you can't keep all your good players. Luckily we have an army of cheap, good and young players ready to make their mark, which makes our current situation even more palatable.
Does getting Frolik preclude us from signing Hudler? No, not at all. Hudler's salary/term demands are the only thing that will do that.
Fact is Giordano, Hiller, Ramo, Jones and Hudler are all UFAs next season, while Monahan and Gaudreau will require significant raises. It looks like all the UFAs will need to be sacrificed to pay for our two young stars, sign Giordano and fix the goaltending. But it doesn't have to play out that way, as there will be a plethora of other assets on short and cheap deals that can be moved to prioritize a guy like Hudler, even if he wants 5x5.5m.
Wideman 5.25
Engelland 2.91
Raymond 3.15
Backlund 3.5
Russell 2.6
These are all fluid assets that likely won't be around in 5 years that could be moved to accommodate new deals. Some will be retained obviously but these are all tradeable assets if need be (though guys like Raymond and Engelland won't fetch more than a late pick)
This is where our burgeoning depth comes into play. We have the players to replace all those players in our system right now. If BT really wants a guy like Hudler, he'll get him. It will really come down to Hudler's demands and if BT thinks he's a fit at that point. A guy like Backlund might get sacrificed to make it happen.
We are going to end up like Chicago IMO. Top 6 forwards, Top 4 Dmen and 1 G locked into big deals while the rest of the team is composed of cheap vets and players on ELCs. Except we aren't going to do stupid things like ship out a Saad just to bring in an Anisimov.
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Can't be like Chicago... No 12 year with 5.5 M cap hit for Gio like the Hawks did with Hossa and Keith.
Even after the Saad trade where they save 2M in cap they are right at the cap for next year and need to work in another 3 players. They still have to get rid of Sharp for a million dollar player to make the cap room for the other 3 1M players.
They basically were able to stretch the cap because Brad Richards was willing to play for them for 1M.
Interesting that Sharp has sort have been on the market due to cap (and declining play) and we will see what the Hawks have to do to get rid of his contract that run a year longer than Wideman.