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2024 Offseason Thread: Changes

I looked at UFA centers and dmen on Cap Friendly.
There is not a lot there.
On Day 1, most of the UFAs over $1.1M/yr were signed (ignoring RFAs and re-signings with same teams).

July 3 Roslovic for 1yr x $2.8M
July 2 Tarasenko for 2yr x $4.75M

In years gone by, I thought there were more signed after July 1.

It is still quite remarkable to me that 25% of the league signs within 24 hours. A lot of it seemed to happen in the first few hours (tampering was probably at an all time high). Talk about a frenzy. No wonder they make mistakes.

Makes me wonder why a GM wouldn't add one or two extra reasonably priced players. They can go over the cap by 10%. Decent odds are they might be able to flip them for a pick or if that doesn't work out, waive them. I probably would have grabbed a 3rd line center and maybe a dman for the Leafs. Then I wouldn't have to shop so much - just dump excess that I don't want in a market where there was a frenzy of demand and preseason injuries that will have GM scrambling.
 
cw said:
I looked at UFA centers and dmen on Cap Friendly.
There is not a lot there.
On Day 1, most of the UFAs over $1.1M/yr were signed (ignoring RFAs and re-signings with same teams).

July 3 Roslovic for 1yr x $2.8M
July 2 Tarasenko for 2yr x $4.75M

In years gone by, I thought there were more signed after July 1.

It is still quite remarkable to me that 25% of the league signs within 24 hours. A lot of it seemed to happen in the first few hours (tampering was probably at an all time high). Talk about a frenzy. No wonder they make mistakes.

Makes me wonder why a GM wouldn't add one or two extra reasonably priced players. They can go over the cap by 10%. Decent odds are they might be able to flip them for a pick or if that doesn't work out, waive them. I probably would have grabbed a 3rd line center and maybe a dman for the Leafs. Then I wouldn't have to shop so much - just dump excess that I don't want in a market where there was a frenzy of demand and preseason injuries that will have GM scrambling.

I see what you are saying, though that might be bad for business.  You sign someone beginning of July, they spend the summer moving and what not.  Possibly young children getting registered for school and what not.  Then, September or October you get put on waivers or traded because you are deemed expendable?

Players get traded all the time but the player signs the contract in good faith with the understanding that they will be playing/living in chosen city.   
 
Rob said:
cw said:
I looked at UFA centers and dmen on Cap Friendly.
There is not a lot there.
On Day 1, most of the UFAs over $1.1M/yr were signed (ignoring RFAs and re-signings with same teams).

July 3 Roslovic for 1yr x $2.8M
July 2 Tarasenko for 2yr x $4.75M

In years gone by, I thought there were more signed after July 1.

It is still quite remarkable to me that 25% of the league signs within 24 hours. A lot of it seemed to happen in the first few hours (tampering was probably at an all time high). Talk about a frenzy. No wonder they make mistakes.

Makes me wonder why a GM wouldn't add one or two extra reasonably priced players. They can go over the cap by 10%. Decent odds are they might be able to flip them for a pick or if that doesn't work out, waive them. I probably would have grabbed a 3rd line center and maybe a dman for the Leafs. Then I wouldn't have to shop so much - just dump excess that I don't want in a market where there was a frenzy of demand and preseason injuries that will have GM scrambling.

I see what you are saying, though that might be bad for business.  You sign someone beginning of July, they spend the summer moving and what not.  Possibly young children getting registered for school and what not.  Then, September or October you get put on waivers or traded because you are deemed expendable?

Players get traded all the time but the player signs the contract in good faith with the understanding that they will be playing/living in chosen city.   

That's a good point.
So maybe revise that to : 3rd line/2nd pairing & up, and/or the guy you're thinking of cutting loose is already on the roster.
4th liners, 5/6/depth dmen have that problem anyway. They can get beat out in training camp.
I don't see doing that with a top 6 forward/top 4 dman/starter
They've kind of done that with Murray & Jones
 
cw said:
CarltonTheBear said:
In a world where we sign Skinner for cheap and Berube agrees with Treliving about where Nylander should play:

Knies-Matthews-Domi
Skinner-Nylander-Marner
McMann-Tavares-Jarnkrok

Under the present circumstances, a guy I would look at for 3rd line center is McMann

He played center in the minors. He wins about half of his NHL draws (hasn't taken too many).
He skates well. Good size for winning draws/checking/puck battles. Has a defensive conscience. And he can score - loves the front of the net. Is coachable. Negative is he would be green - he would have some learning to play the position well in the NHL. He was still finding his way last year but made good progress. He'd do whatever the coaches ask.

Nylander's brain .. I don't think it works that way and I doubt it ever will.

If Hakenpaa is ok and Liljegren's $3M could be flipped, I wondered "who has a checking center we might go for?"

So I went into NHL stats. I said list all the centers for last season who played 40+ games, had a ppg > .35 and faceoff win% of > 48%. 77 NHLers came up. Five were Leafs:
Matthews
Tavares
Domi
McMann
Jarnkrok

Far from anything one could rely on to make such a decision. But the thought isn't totally nuts or without some merit for consideration. Lefty McMann & righty Jarnkrok, both more reliable defensively than Domi, could tag team on the faceoff dot if they were on the 3rd line.
I'd rather a certified, good checking center but they're not totally screwed if they don't land one.

Some names (some that we've chatted about before) like Colton, Pageau, Laughton, etc and many of the checking centers names popped up.

I'm looking because I think it is the biggest hole among the forwards.
 
cw said:
Some names (some that we've chatted about before) like Colton, Pageau, Laughton, etc and many of the checking centers names popped up.

I'm looking because I think it is the biggest hole among the forwards.

Two possible C's that might get dumped this offseason on the cheap(-ish) for cap reasons are Nicolas Roy in Vegas and Cody Glass in Nashville. Both young-ish natural C's with size. I don't either either really fits into the checking centre type that we might be interested in mostly but at the right price either would still probably be better than the alternative (Holmberg, Kampf).
 
CarltonTheBear said:
cw said:
Some names (some that we've chatted about before) like Colton, Pageau, Laughton, etc and many of the checking centers names popped up.

I'm looking because I think it is the biggest hole among the forwards.

Two possible C's that might get dumped this offseason on the cheap(-ish) for cap reasons are Nicolas Roy in Vegas and Cody Glass in Nashville. Both young-ish natural C's with size. I don't either either really fits into the checking centre type that we might be interested in mostly but at the right price either would still probably be better than the alternative (Holmberg, Kampf).

I'd looked at Glass. I had not looked at Roy. At a glance (barely familiar with him), I like Roy suggestion better - plays in all situations (PKs which Glass doesn't much yet, won a Cup with 15 mins/GP).
 
cw said:
I'd looked at Glass. I had not looked at Roy. At a glance (barely familiar with him), I like Roy suggestion better - plays in all situations (PKs which Glass doesn't much yet, won a Cup with 15 mins/GP).

Yeah I'd definitely prefer Roy too. Better player, but would also mean it wouldn't be quite as easy to get him out of Vegas even if they do need to probably clear some salary. Glass would be much easier to get on the other hand.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
cw said:
I'd looked at Glass. I had not looked at Roy. At a glance (barely familiar with him), I like Roy suggestion better - plays in all situations (PKs which Glass doesn't much yet, won a Cup with 15 mins/GP).

Yeah I'd definitely prefer Roy too. Better player, but would also mean it wouldn't be quite as easy to get him out of Vegas even if they do need to probably clear some salary. Glass would be much easier to get on the other hand.

And Vegas probably wouldn't want Liljegren at $3 mil added to their cap problem ...
With Lehner on LTIR and 8 dmen, they don't have to make a trade to get under the cap.
 
herman said:
Dewar has filed for arbitration

AFP Analytics projected 2Yrs x $1.4M
Pretty sure that is more than the Leafs want to pay
I guess they're still hoping they can get a deal done.
 
cw said:
herman said:
Dewar has filed for arbitration

AFP Analytics projected 2Yrs x $1.4M
Pretty sure that is more than the Leafs want to pay
I guess they're still hoping they can get a deal done.

This doesn't seem far off. I was thinking between $1.1m and $1.35m x 2.

Get it done!

 
Hard for me to judge. Didn't see him enough (which isn't always a bad thing with defensive players).
 
Obviously things can still change but I'm a little surprised how little "cheap" talent we have on the roster for this upcoming season. Currently it's looking like just 2 forwards (Knies and Holmberg) and 1 goalie (Woll) with cap hits less than $1mil. Cowan could also be in the line-up but that has the potential of possibly pushing Holmberg out (at least of the line-up, maybe not the roster). I've generally had Dewar pegged to re-sign at just under $1mil but I'm kinda thinking that probably goes just over now. Robertson would almost certainly be over as well, if he re-signs. Assuming the team carries just 7D, which kinda seems like a certainty, if Hakanpaa's contract sticks then Benoit would be the cheapest D on the roster at almost twice the league minimum. If that contract doesn't stick then Timmins would be in line to be the 7D at $1.1mil.

Not really sure it this is a particularly good or bad thing. But with the big-4 making up a whopping 54% of the cap this season I would have expected us to need more value guys to balance that out.
 
https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1810682462466634229
https://x.com/penguins/status/1810682585992810847

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
 
CarltonTheBear said:
https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1810682462466634229

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

https://x.com/penguins/status/1810682585992810847
 
Honestly I kinda expected him to head to Pittsburgh even earlier than this. He was very much a Dubas-guy through and through. Hired him on 3 different occasions. Well 4 now. Guess it's good we at least got a couple of extra drafts out of him.
 
Dubas is just dead set on building a weird Penguins-Leafs hybrid, huh? Feels like a not great idea, but, cool.
 
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