Just one more idea I would like to explore a little bit. We all remember a draft when you picked Valicevic. I checked back on it today and Nashville used their 4th pick for Tanev who plays on second line for them now, he seemed to be quite prolific sniper as we could see in this video. The best thing about that guy is his nationality. He is Hungarian! I don't say we need to trade for him ASAP, but we should check what contract he has and keep him in mind if we run into troubles with nationalities. What do you think?
You raise a very good point! I forgot that Tanev went 4th in that draft AND that he is from Hungary which would be one of the best possible nationalities to have. We'll pull up his information and keep him in mind as a top potential target moving forward! Thanks for your suggestion :)
For resignings, I think you should sign Nesterov to a 3 or 4-year deal for 85% of his asking price (after the draft), Mann, Nabokov, Malkin, Barlow, and the expiring unsigned draft picks. For trades, I think you should trade Bolduc during the draft to free up money, as well as Blomdahl, Bishop, and one of Brule or Huberdeau. We currently have picks 33, 66, 67, 92, 97, 99, 165, 198, 199, and 224 in this draft. For the draft, I think you should trade up using some permutation of picks 66, 67, Blomdahl, Bolduc, and one of Brule or Huberdeau to 5 or 6 to draft Halvardsson, draft Endras at 33, draft Stoner at 92, draft Filppula at 97, draft Hendry at 99, trade up with your 5th round pick to about 152 to draft Kiprusoff, and trade the remaining picks for future picks. I don't think we need anything in free agency (outside of a 7th defenseman), because I think we can fill our needs internally. I think the lines could look like this next season: 1st F: Lafrenière-McIntyre-Valicevic 2nd F: Lucic-Perfetti-Rask 3rd F: Nesterov-Stenberg-Nazar 4th F: Langkow-Emelin-Ferguson Depth F: Nabokov or Olvecky 1st D: Hutson-Seider 2nd D: Erixon-Ramirez 3rd D: Ylonen-Mann Depth D: Free Agent G: Miikola-Zherdev Depth G: maybe whoever did not get traded between Brule and Huberdeau
Roger that on your first paragraph! Bolduc has been so good that it'd be hard to trade him, but that is a tough contract to manage for much longer (especially considering his age). Seider and Ramirez might also be options but it'd all depend on who's available. That being said, we do indeed have trade value to play with as there's excess in the organization. And roger that once more on the draft plan! Hopefully some of those higher picks are on the block or else it might not be worth it. For the potential lineup, I like how it looks! Lines 1 and 2 could be swapped if needed and I could even see Rask/Stenberg swapping in the middle 6 but, in general, I think that's our plan. I especially like the idea of Nesterov getting an opportunity at LW3. Thanks for all of this and looking forward to a strong offseason of drafting/growth ahead! :)
You just love to see this! What a run. Lucic and Stenberg deserves extra minutes. I might be tempted to put them on line 1 with a playmaker like Perfetti next year and have Laffy, McIntyre and Val on line 2 (McIntyre has often had killer production on line 2). Other option would be Val with McIntyre and Perfetti on line 1 and Laffy, Stenberg and Lucic on line 2. I'd keep Nazar as 3C who can get in the top 6 if we have injuries and he has a decent contract. 1 player I might look at moving if we need cap space would be Seider. His offensive production is quite low and he looks quite bad in slow sim; gives out the puck, bad covering, etc. We already have Erixon as our all star defensive dman, not sure we need Seider and we can most likely replace him with a cheaper option. I'd probably keep Bolduc over Seider because of the $. I'd explore the tradeblocks and see if there's a good dman on a friendlier contract and younger than Seider for whom we could trade him. This team still has what's needed to be contenders for years. Our biggest enemy right now is cap space. Lets run it back! Go 'Fleet!
Hi CheatingHeel, it is always pleasure to read your comments, because they always make a lot of sense and I would like to add to some of your ideas. I am happy we brought the Cup home after so many struggles in the playoffs, but we should not stop here :) One thing is to keep our core together after a success like that, but even SC winning teams make some changes because nobody stays the same as the time passes by. I suggested Perfetti for a captain, because he is older and because MacIntyre did not perform well in the playoffs in previous two years. I am glad I was wrong on him. He turned it around in the playoffs this year. Love it! We also discussed what we do with Nazar, but he has a good contract and it's ok having him on the third line for that kind of money. However, we should keep in mind we can use him as a replacement on the first two lines only if MacIntyre, or Lucic get injured and else he must stay on the third line. I think the next season will give us answer to this question and some of the guys capable of playing center can grow and we can replace him on the third. Yes, there are some questions about dmen - I was also not happy to see Seider making that horrible sequence of plays against Predators. He first goes up the middle and instead of passing to the left to open player, he passes to the right side, it's interrupted and from the following counter-attack they score against us and he we go again - he makes another weak play in defense. He can do better for 8M with having him contributing quite a little to our production. However, I would wait with the decision at least to the trade deadline. Speaking about the draft and Data's question about two dmen from Scandinavia, I would take a guy from Finland as TWD, not a DD. We have some strong defensive dmen on the line-up and we could use a player who can create some more offense as our second pair guy. And yeah, of course, I was glad to see a fellow Slovak finally performing well in the playoffs, he scored 15 goals and he threw some painful hits, too. When he disappoints I will be probably the first one calling for replacing him. I cannot thing of anything else at this moment. I enjoyed the success, but we have some more work to do. Let's go Fleet!
What a run indeed!! So sweet to finally get that second Cup! I like that lineup idea. Lucic and Stenberg need to see that ice but it does hurt to hold Nazar at 3C. But, at the same time, he's the perfect top 6 guy if we run into any American injuries and, if not him, then we have Rask. I'm still confident in 50-60+ points with special teams time and on that contract it'd be no problem. Hmm, you do raise a good point on Seider. I wouldn't say we're shopping him, but you're right to suggest a look at the trade blocks to see if a replacement would fit. If moving him really doesn't work, are you between Ramirez and Bolduc as the next cap casualty? Thanks for your thoughts and looking forward to an exciting offseason of growth ahead! ;)
@@Data782 If we keep Seider and have to move one of the other 2, I'd probably move Ramirez... We benched him for most of a full season and Bolduc was the missing peice on defense and really locked things down.
@@CheatingHeel That was 2 seasons ago. Last season, Ramirez rebounded and was better than Bolduc. Ramirez is younger, cheaper, and had more ice time than Bolduc. Bolduc would want a top 4 spot somewhere due to his salary, but he didn't get that last season. It makes mutual sense for Bolduc to be the one to be traded.
