Quote:
Originally Posted by savardandjokinen
It's possible he can sign in Tampa, but cap long term isn't their friend.
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But they have more cap flexibility and better cap management than probably any other team in the league because of the contracts that they have. Look at the Sharks top contracts compared to theirs:
Stamkos at 8.5M>>>>Kane at 7M
Hedman at 7.8M>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Burns at 8M
Sure, Kucherov, Sergachev, Point, Vasilevskiy will all need raises (and are all RFAs), but outside of Callahan, who's contract is up in 2 years, there's not a bad contract that couldn't be easily moved for something of value on that team.
So the reason that the cap would be an issue is that they will have too many good players? That's not a bad problem to have. Every GM in the league prays to have that problem. Sign Tavares, re-sign Kucherov, and go from there. Given the discounts that Stamkos and Hedman have, the team wouldn't even be all that top heavy.
It's not all that uncommon to see a team with a cap structure that sees the top 3 forwards, top 2 defenseman and top goalie making over 40M.
Chicago has Kane, Toews, Saad, Keith, Seabrook, Crawford making over 45M.
Washington has Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Backstrom, Carlson, Niskanen, Holtby making nearly 45M.
Pittsburgh has Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Letang, Schultz and Murray making 42M.
Los Angeles has Kopitar, Kovalchuk, Brown, Doughty, Phaneuf, Quick making over 40M with Doughty needing a hefty raise after this season.
And for giggles, Edmonton has McDavid, Draisaitl, Lucic, Sekera, Klefbom, Talbot making 41M.
Tavares at 10M, Hedman at 7.8M, Stamkos at 8.5M. Kucherov at 9M (factoring in RFA status) would leave 10M to sign Vasilevskiy and Sergachev as RFAs and have their "top 6" at 45M. Three of the top 15 forwards, the Norris winner, and a Vezina nominee. You can build around that. You don't worry about keeping Palat, Killorn, Johnson, Miller, Gourde and Point all together - especially when Seattle would just be claiming one of them down the line anyways. You trade those to make it work.