Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
I just don't think 8M, for an elite player, will ruin our chance to be competitive.
|
Look at actually competetive teams. Even if the Lightning manage to retain Kucherov, they need to say good bye to two or three of Johnson/Palat/Drouin/Bishop. They haven't even won a cup yet and their team is a year away from some inevitably crippling choices.
The Blackhawks since their recent cup have subtracted:
Patrick Sharp (Top Line W, RHS)
Brandon Saad (Top Line W)
Stephen Johns (Top ~3D for the Stars)
Teuvo Taravainen (Middle Six Skill W)
Andrew Shaw (Middle Six Power Winger)
If we could simply add those five players we would have the single best roster in the NHL. They let those guys go with nothing to show for it except some whatever draft picks/prospects. I didn't even name other Cap Casualties of theirs like Leddy and Byfuglien. It's highly unlikely any team can pull future stars out of a hat like they have every time there is a cap crunch. They did it in 2010-2015 almost miraculously, you can't bank on that kind of draft success within a contention window.
Every penny pinched will come in handy if and when a Tkachuk, Shinkaruk, Jankowski, Poirier, Jokipakka, Kulak, Andersson, Kylington, Mangiapane, Ferland, Pribyl, Klimchuk, Ollas-Mattsson, Gillies, Hickey or Parsons has a breakout season. That one million saved might be the difference between holding onto Mikael Backlund and sending him off.
I believe you need your money in the top of your roster and fill out the rest with ELCs. But Gaudreau is not Malkin or Crosby where he is an individual line. He needs a centre, and if the CP faithful are right he "needs" a bruising winger too to "protect him from cheap shots".
Crosby won a cup with Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary as his sidekicks keeping the top line's cap hit down. Do you see us winning a cup with a similarly paid top line? (Imagine something like Gaudreau-Backlund-Hamilton). Monahan is already making a 6.375M cap hit. If you want to keep the pair together then Gaudreau needs to be paid like a player that is a mutual beneficiary of the pair.