Who should Treliving target as a potential replacement for Mike Smith?

[Bunk]

I think the discussion is premature until we see what Rittich can do with an increased role. He plays a sound style, has solid stats, is at the age where a lot of goalies really take a step, and as I've said before, seems to have just the right amount of whacky to become a great goalie. A special breed they are.

[Rick M.]

...and the team makes a good effort in front of him, something often not the case with previous backups.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Split98

SN just posted an proposition looking at Bob coming to Calgary:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/...gei-bobrovsky/

To Calgary: Sergei Bobrovsky
To Columbus: Mike Smith, 2019 first-round pick, Jon Gillies or Tyler Parsons

I hate seeing a 2019 1st AND one of our goalie hopefuls going the other way, but Bob here would be absolutely unreal. I think if you can do anything that keeps this current roster together and upgrades Smith you're pretty tempted to do it.

Thoughts?

Not even close. The 1st and Parsons are untouchable imo, especially for a pending UFA. I would do Smith, a 2nd, and Gillies at best.

[Svartsengi]

I like Sergei but for a return involving yet another 1st round pick going out the door I would want him to have signed an extension with us prior to the trade. I have no idea what kind of dollars he is looking for or whether The Flames can even afford him.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Svartsengi

I like Sergei but for a return involving yet another 1st round pick going out the door I would want him to have signed an extension with us prior to the trade. I have no idea what kind of dollars he is looking for or whether The Flames can even afford him.

The Flames don't have many pending UFAs going into this summer, but they do have a lot of tradeable contracts.

Frolik, Brodie and Stone are all useful NHL players on expiring deals. They combine to make $12.5M. Add in Smith's expiring $4.25, and the Flames have nearly $17M in cap space to work with.

Andersson moves up to play with Gio, Kylington plays with Valimaki, Hamifin stays together. Dube, Jankowksi and Bennett have to grow up, and Neal plays with Backlund/Tkachuk.

Tkachuk is unlikely to get more than $6.75M per year, given what Johnny and Gio are making. Bennett, based on early returns, is not going to be worth much more than $3M.

Whether or not they can afford Bobrovsky is up to Brad. They can surely afford Varlamov. They should probably do everything to get Bobrovsky. They need to get at least one of them, and failing to do so is a fireable offense to me at this stage.

Now, before any of this happens, they need to make sure David Rittich isn't the guy. And that means letting him run with the job for a month, or however long it takes for him to a) earn it or b) flame out.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

The Flames don't have many pending UFAs going into this summer, but they do have a lot of tradeable contracts.

Frolik, Brodie and Stone are all useful NHL players on expiring deals. They combine to make $12.5M. Add in Smith's expiring $4.25, and the Flames have nearly $17M in cap space to work with.

Andersson moves up to play with Gio, Kylington plays with Valimaki, Hamifin stays together. Dube, Jankowksi and Bennett have to grow up, and Neal plays with Backlund/Tkachuk.

Tkachuk is unlikely to get more than $6.75M per year, given what Johnny and Gio are making. Bennett, based on early returns, is not going to be worth much more than $3M.

Whether or not they can afford Bobrovsky is up to Brad. They can surely afford Varlamov. They should probably do everything to get Bobrovsky. They need to get at least one of them, and failing to do so is a fireable offense to me at this stage.

Now, before any of this happens, they need to make sure David Rittich isn't the guy. And that means letting him run with the job for a month, or however long it takes for him to a) earn it or b) flame out.

the "going rate" has gone up big time since those contracts were signed...can't just sit on that number forever. He would be a fool to sign a deal like that if they production continues and he ends up with 80+ points

[Phagoof]

Until Ritich proves he can't be a starter my number 1 priority is a second line center.

Monahan
Backlund
Jankowski

is not a cup team up the middle, I'm sorry.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Not even close. The 1st and Parsons are untouchable imo, especially for a pending UFA. I would do Smith, a 2nd, and Gillies at best.

problem is they wouldn't....everyone wants a bonafide #1 but nobody wants to pay the price.

pick in the 20s and a goalie prospect for the most recent vezina winner would be a bit of a steal IMO. Would need a contract extension though.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Diane Phagoof

Until Ritich proves he can't be a starter my number 1 priority is a second line center.

Monahan
Backlund
Jankowski

is not a cup team up the middle, I'm sorry.

You can't have a Cup team without a goalie, and it feels like Treliving has done everything he can to build a team that can win in spite of its netminder.

Now he needs the netminder.

[dino7c]

With quality goal tending the Flames would likely be fighting for first overall right now...not even kidding

they are fourth and their starter is giving up four a game

[カナダ人です]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

The Flames don't have many pending UFAs going into this summer, but they do have a lot of tradeable contracts.

Frolik, Brodie and Stone are all useful NHL players on expiring deals. They combine to make $12.5M. Add in Smith's expiring $4.25, and the Flames have nearly $17M in cap space to work with.

Andersson moves up to play with Gio, Kylington plays with Valimaki, Hamifin stays together. Dube, Jankowksi and Bennett have to grow up, and Neal plays with Backlund/Tkachuk.

Tkachuk is unlikely to get more than $6.75M per year, given what Johnny and Gio are making. Bennett, based on early returns, is not going to be worth much more than $3M.

If Tkachuk breaks 70pts this year wouldn't he be in Draisaitl's league? Or is Draisaitl that much better?

If the former is true, why wouldn't he ask for Drai money?

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Diane Phagoof

Until Ritich proves he can't be a starter my number 1 priority is a second line center.

Monahan
Backlund
Jankowski

is not a cup team up the middle, I'm sorry.

Sure, maybe it isn’t. But are you saying Rittich is a Cup quality goalie? He wasn’t even that quality in the AHL.

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by カナダ人です

If Tkachuk breaks 70pts this year wouldn't he be in Draisaitl's league? Or is Draisaitl that much better?

If the former is true, why wouldn't he ask for Drai money?

Perhaps making the highest salary or top 3 salary on a team isn’t what motivates him. Maybe we actually have some players that believe in the concept of a team and are willing to “only” make 6-7MM instead of 7.5-9 MM so they can surrounded by a team that can win

Do you think iginla wishes he could trade 15MM of his career salary to have a Stanley cup? I do

[Spinach]

We already gave our 2019 2nd to the Isles. Giving up the 1st-rounder for a goalie and going two straight seasons without picks in the top two rounds is not a great way to build a franchise. The only way they should do that is if goaltending is the last remaining piece needed to win a Cup, and we don't even know whether this is a playoff team yet.

[Phagoof]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Sure, maybe it isn’t. But are you saying Rittich is a Cup quality goalie? He wasn’t even that quality in the AHL.

Crazier things have happened. I really like what I've seen with Rittich this year, I could see him taking the next step.

Janko, I havn't liked at all. And Backlund is more of an elite number 3 center as opposed to a 2.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by カナダ人です

If Tkachuk breaks 70pts this year wouldn't he be in Draisaitl's league? Or is Draisaitl that much better?

Draisaitl isn't that much better than Tkachuk, but Treliving is that much better than Chiarelli.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by カナダ人です

If Tkachuk breaks 70pts this year wouldn't he be in Draisaitl's league? Or is Draisaitl that much better?

If the former is true, why wouldn't he ask for Drai money?

Draisaitl, like McDavid, like Nugent-Hopkins, like Lucic, like Sekara, like Russell, like McLellan, are over paid to play in Edmonton and deal with the circus that entails.

If Brad Treliving is Edmonton's GM, none of those players have the contracts they do.

If Tkachuk wins an award, he can ask for more than the PPG Norris contender captain, and the perrenial All Star LW who plays Tkachuk's position on the first line.

Look, I love Chucky. A time is going to come where it's a real argument about who the best LW on the team is. Maybe we're already there and I just don't know it yet. But just from a negotiations perspective, knowing the GM, Matthew is going to need to bring hardware to the table if he wants more than Johnny and Gio.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Sure, maybe it isn’t. But are you saying Rittich is a Cup quality goalie? He wasn’t even that quality in the AHL.

What AHL quality were Niemi, Crawford, Bishop, Jones, Rinne? All guys to play in or win a recent SCF. BTW Rittich was really good the one year he played in the AHL. Looked NHL-ready that year (I said as much in threads and got laughed off the board by people not watching). I even voted for Rittich as a top ~5 prospect of ours after that season in the polls. He didn't fluke his way to the NHL. He even nearly won a playoff series against a very good AHL team after Gillies lost the first two games. It came down to a game 7 overtime where a career AHL defenseman on our power play coughed up a shorthanded breakaway to win the series. Rittich is a fine goalie

You really don't need star goaltending in the playoffs, you need solid goaltending behind strong team defense. Heck we probably could have won a cup with 2014-15 Hiller-Ramo if we had a bit more skater talent. Ramo wasn't the reason the Ducks beat us. You can't have 2017 Elliott meltdowns but that was an outlier among playoff performances.

You do need stars at center as that position is crucial to team defense (and offense).

[kukkudo]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Draisaitl, like McDavid, like Nugent-Hopkins, like Lucic, like Sekara, like Russell, like McLellan, are over paid to play in Edmonton and deal with the circus that entails.

If Brad Treliving is Edmonton's GM, none of those players have the contracts they do.

If Tkachuk wins an award, he can ask for more than the PPG Norris contender captain, and the perrenial All Star LW who plays Tkachuk's position on the first line.

Look, I love Chucky. A time is going to come where it's a real argument about who the best LW on the team is. Maybe we're already there and I just don't know it yet. But just from a negotiations perspective, knowing the GM, Matthew is going to need to bring hardware to the table if he wants more than Johnny and Gio.

If Chucky gets 82 points this year he is going to get more than Johnny and Gio long term. Otherwise 6.75M for 4 years is the deal I see.

[ComixZone]

If Tkachuk keeps this up there’s not a chance in hell we’ll be able to maintain our 6.75M Giordano/Gaudreau cap-ceiling.

If Tkachuk is a PPG player while maintaining his absolute elite level defensive play, he’ll get 8-8.5M per for 8 years.

Only way we keep him to that 6.75M cap-ceiling would be to bridge him, and that seems unwise. We would have been better off to get Gaudreau to 8 years at like 7.5-7.75M than signing him for 6 years at 6.75M.

Get truly elite players locked up long-term as early as you can and benefit for years to come.