Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
Toffoli was only 28 when he signed the deal and it is only 4 years. I don't disagree that there is risk with a UFA signing for sure, but at $4M per seems manageable.
I would say comparable to the Frolik signing but at less money (especially considering the cap when that deal was inked) and less term.
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Yeah, there's a pretty big difference in signing a 28 year old free agent vs. a 31 year old like Neal or Brouwer to a 4 year deal. With players that age, you will be lucky to get two decent years out of that contract before it sours.
Frolik is a decent comparable as he was a 28 year old and the first 4 years of that he was a very effective player for the team.
The challenge that Treliving has had is that the team he inherited had no prospect depth. So they really didn't have players who were any good to fill out some of those lower roster spots. They did have less expensive players to fill out the spots at the top of the roster. He did spend on guys like Brouwer and Ryan as luxury type bottom six players. But he really screwed himself by signing Neal. Essentially forced himself into a situation where he now has a 5.25 million dollar player with 2 more years left in the bottom 6
Still, if you took away the Stone and Brouwer buyouts he has on the books today (both of which could have been avoided by not signing Neal)...he likely could have made play for a guy like Tafoli this past summer instead of say Simon or Nordstrom even with Lucic on the roster.
But even if they have Taffoli, he would help, but I still don't think he differentiates this team from being a 12-16 in the league playoff team to being one of those top 5 type Cup Contenders. The real top end talent is lacking right now.
They played a pretty good game last night, but when you can only score one goal no matter how good you are defensively it's a game you pretty lose 95% of the time.