Unofficial 2012/2013 Armchair GM

[OldTimeHockey]

Why is everyone so set on signing Clarkson?

he can hit, score and fight...and hes from toronto.

whats not to like?

A 5M/year salary?

My guess is he's going to get PAID this summer, but who knows - maybe the falling cap prevents stupidity (not holding my breath though).

well, I do think that 5mil per is an overpayment.  The leafs are paying grabovski 5.5 mil and hes apparently been sick for like 2 years.

oh well, maybe Nonis is smarter than burke (or at least more conservative with his cap dollars)

If he's smarter with his cash he won't sign Clarkson to what I think he'll get due to the lack of top tier UFA's

 

[nutman]

Why is everyone so set on signing Clarkson?

he can hit, score and fight...and hes from toronto.

whats not to like?

A 5M/year salary?

My guess is he's going to get PAID this summer, but who knows - maybe the falling cap prevents stupidity (not holding my breath though).

well, I do think that 5mil per is an overpayment.  The leafs are paying grabovski 5.5 mil and hes apparently been sick for like 2 years.

oh well, maybe Nonis is smarter than burke (or at least more conservative with his cap dollars)

If he's smarter with his cash he won't sign Clarkson to what I think he'll get due to the lack of top tier UFA's

Hears a thought... how about we keep using players from within our system.

 

[Zee]

Why is everyone so set on signing Clarkson?

he can hit, score and fight...and hes from toronto.

whats not to like?

A 5M/year salary?

My guess is he's going to get PAID this summer, but who knows - maybe the falling cap prevents stupidity (not holding my breath though).

well, I do think that 5mil per is an overpayment.  The leafs are paying grabovski 5.5 mil and hes apparently been sick for like 2 years.

oh well, maybe Nonis is smarter than burke (or at least more conservative with his cap dollars)

If he's smarter with his cash he won't sign Clarkson to what I think he'll get due to the lack of top tier UFA's

Hears a thought... how about we keep using players from within our system.

Sometimes you have to augment.  A bunch of key players on the Leafs right now weren't in the system until we traded for them or signed them.

 

[Rebel_1812]

Why is everyone so set on signing Clarkson?

he can hit, score and fight...and hes from toronto.

whats not to like?

A 5M/year salary?

My guess is he's going to get PAID this summer, but who knows - maybe the falling cap prevents stupidity (not holding my breath though).

well, I do think that 5mil per is an overpayment.  The leafs are paying grabovski 5.5 mil and hes apparently been sick for like 2 years.

oh well, maybe Nonis is smarter than burke (or at least more conservative with his cap dollars)

Yeah if the move Grabbo's salary they can replace it with Clarkson.

 

[Champ Kind]

Why is everyone so set on signing Clarkson?

he can hit, score and fight...and hes from toronto.

whats not to like?

A 5M/year salary?

My guess is he's going to get PAID this summer, but who knows - maybe the falling cap prevents stupidity (not holding my breath though).

I also think the team has a lot of decent wingers.  What we really need is a top center and Dman.

By why not improve the wingers if you can?  I mean, there is room for improvement, right? 

Busta, not sure how you can say Clarkson hasn't had much success.  He's been scoring at a pretty decent clip the last 3 years, made it to the Cup finals year, and has been on a Devil's side that's been pretty darn good the last 5 or 6 years.  He would bring something different, something unique to a team that has some redundancies in players up front.  $5M would be steep, but all things considered I'd be more comfortable paying Clarkson $5 / year than Grabo at $5.5.

 

[Deebo]

After starting this season with 16 points in his first 14 games, he finished with 8 in the next 32.

I feel like he might end up with an albatross of a contract.

 

[Britishbulldog]

Why is everyone so set on signing Clarkson?

he can hit, score and fight...and hes from toronto.

whats not to like?

A 5M/year salary?

My guess is he's going to get PAID this summer, but who knows - maybe the falling cap prevents stupidity (not holding my breath though).

well, I do think that 5mil per is an overpayment.  The leafs are paying grabovski 5.5 mil and hes apparently been sick for like 2 years.

oh well, maybe Nonis is smarter than burke (or at least more conservative with his cap dollars)

Yeah if the move Grabbo's salary they can replace it with Clarkson.

If Grabbo is moved then I would like to see another veteran center brought in.  With San Jose having their top 4 scorers all natural centers I would suggest trying an 'Iginla trade' of 2 ECAC ppg prospects and a pick for pending UFA Thornton.  Something like Jerry D'Amigo, Carter Ashton and 2nd pick 2014 and try to get San Jose to keep $1.5 - $2 MIL of Thornton's salary.

For the 'Gary Roberts' player, although I like Clarkson, he is what I call 'Hartnell' tough.  Clarkson is willing but has gotten rocked a couple of times the last 2 years in fights and doesn't look as good since.  I call it the 'Komisarek syndrome'. 

If you want a true tough guy with soft hands then the other Toronto native is who you want.  Chris Stewart is 'Clowe' tough and could fight (and beat) anyone that McLaren could beat and is almost as good as Orr.  St Louis was looking at Kumemin this year when Stewart was scoring at a ridiculous pace expecting that they were not going to be able to re-sign Stewart simply due to budget restraints.  Add another key piece to Kulemin and get it done (it was rumoured to be Liles but St Louis traded for JayBo so Liles isn't needed).

Throw a 3-4 year $4.25 MIL contract at Stewart on the 2nd line in place of Kulemin and Thornton in the place of Bozak and things are looking better.

For a UFA, I would look to replace LH shot Kulemin (and spend his $2.8 MIL) on the 3rd line with either '87 6'3" Stalberg, '87 6'4" Bickell from Chicago or slumping Clowe.  If need be, trade a draft pick before July 1st for the rights of one of these players.

I have been re-watching some of the Leaf games with Colborne and he has shown decent speed, decent strength and has looked much bigger than the opponents.  I really hope he is given a chance on the 3rd line as the center.

CAPGEEK.COM USER GENERATED ROSTER

FORWARDS
Joffrey Lupul ($5.250m) / Joe Thornton ($7.000m) / Phil Kessel ($5.400m)
James Van Riemsdyk ($4.250m) / Nazem Kadri ($3.500m) / Chris Stewart ($4.250m)
Bryan Bickell (Stalberg or Clowe) ($2.800m) / Joe Colborne ($0.827m) / Matt Frattin ($0.925m)
Frazer McLaren ($0.696m) / Jay McClement ($1.500m) / Leo Komarov ($0.803m)
Ryan Hamilton or whoever ($0.600m) / Colton Orr or whoever ($0.700m)
DEFENSEMEN
Dion Phaneuf ($6.500m) / John-Michael Liles ($3.875m)
Jake Gardiner ($1.117m) / Cody Franson ($2.000m)
Mark Fraser ($0.800m) / Mike Kostka ($0.600m)
Korbinian Holzer ($0.788m) /
GOALTENDERS
James Reimer ($1.800m)
Ben Scrivens ($0.613m)
OTHER
Buyout: Darcy Tucker ($1.000m)
Buyout: Colby Armstrong ($1.000m)
Buried: Mike Komisarek ($3.575m)
------
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $62,167,542; BONUSES: $300,000
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $2,432,458

Here come the 'ifs':
- If San Jose would keep $1.75 MIL of Thornton's contract as it is the final year
- If the Leafs think that Kadri isn't as good as Duchene and offer Kadri $3.0 MIL as he REALLY cooled off
- If Stewart would accept 2 years @ $3.75 MIL as he REALLY cooled off
- If Liles could be traded
- If Grabovski could be traded

Then I the Leafs could get a better dman to work with Phaneuf.

 

[Kin]

By why not improve the wingers if you can?  I mean, there is room for improvement, right?

Well, the obvious answer is that cap space is a limited commodity. If the team is "good enough" on the wings but nowhere near there down the middle or on defense investing in a winger is a very questionable use of resources. 

Busta, not sure how you can say Clarkson hasn't had much success.  He's been scoring at a pretty decent clip the last 3 years, made it to the Cup finals year, and has been on a Devil's side that's been pretty darn good the last 5 or 6 years.

Over the last three years Clarkson's numbers average out to 22 goals and 34 points per 82 games. By contrast Grabo's three years work out to 25 goals, 53 points per 82 games.

 

[Britishbulldog]

After starting this season with 16 points in his first 14 games, he finished with 8 in the next 32.

I feel like he might end up with an albatross of a contract.

I agree.  Clarkson fell off the map this year but had a great start which masked it.  Some of the NJ games this season he was invisible.

 

[bustaheims]

Busta, not sure how you can say Clarkson hasn't had much success.  He's been scoring at a pretty decent clip the last 3 years, made it to the Cup finals year, and has been on a Devil's side that's been pretty darn good the last 5 or 6 years.  He would bring something different, something unique to a team that has some redundancies in players up front.  $5M would be steep, but all things considered I'd be more comfortable paying Clarkson $5 / year than Grabo at $5.5.

I didn't realize 12 goals in 82 games in 10/11 was considered to be a "pretty decent clip." I'd call that an average 3rd liner. I see one and a half good to very good goal scoring seasons - this season was only the 2nd where he played more than a handful of games and scored at a 20+ goal pace - and very little by way of significantly contributing offensively otherwise - career high of 46 points, on pace for 41 this year. He's put up okay numbers for a 2nd line guy the past 2 years and before he got hurt in 09/10 (not so much after he came back, though - 4 goals and 9 points his 21 games). As Deebo pointed out, he fell off big time in the final 2/3 of this season, so, there's a bit of a pattern of inconsistency there, as well. He brings a solid physical game, which is nice, but, that's something the Leafs really have a lot of right now, and not something I'd pay big money to bring in. The fact that he played for a good team is pretty much irrelevant to me. Lots of players play for good teams. That doesn't make them good players.

As for Clarkson vs Grabovski, for the extra $500K, I take Grabovski every time. He hasn't had a great offensive season, sure, but, his track record is better and he plays a premium position. Let's not let Grabovski's bad season have an excessive influence, just like we shouldn't let Clarkson's single really good season do the same.

EDIT: Basically, Clarkson has high potential to basically be a younger, more physical Jason Blake without as long a track record of offensive success. If he's looking for anything more than $3M per, I pass.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

If he's looking for anything more than $3M per, I pass.

Bingo...

Why anyone would want to dump Grabovski to bring in Clarkson is beyond me. Grabovski is the same age, has out scored Clarkson in each season previous to this one(by a large margin), and is a centreman which this team desperately needs.

If Clarkson was to come in, who does he replace?

This reeks of grabbing someone that is UFA just to say "hey, look, we signed someone."

 

[Boston Leaf]

wait a minute. you mean ther eis another year of Tucker on the books?

 

[Zee]

wait a minute. you mean ther eis another year of Tucker on the books?

It sort of boggles the mind doesn't it? How long has it been since he played for the Leafs?

 

[Deebo]

It sort of boggles the mind doesn't it?

Not really, there were 3 years left on his contract when they bought him out so the buy out cap hit lasts 6 years and its been 5.

 

[Highlander]

Tucker should be a politician...anyone whom gets paid a million a year for doing nothing has my vote 8)

 

[Rebel_1812]

Our defence is not getting it done.  We need to have a big turnover on the blueline for next year.  The leafs need more big, tough, defence first types and less puck moving skating types.

 

[Highlander]

I believe his name is Paul Ranger??

 

[louisstamos]

The UFA crop isn't particularly great, however, I'm curious to see which D-Men may become available with the compliance buyouts...

 

[Jalili]

Our defence is not getting it done.  We need to have a big turnover on the blueline for next year.  The leafs need more big, tough, defence first types and less puck moving skating types.

Bingo. We need more O'Byrne's and Komisarek's and less Gardiner's.

 

[Andy007]

Our defence is not getting it done.  We need to have a big turnover on the blueline for next year.  The leafs need more big, tough, defence first types and less puck moving skating types.

Bingo. We need more O'Byrne's and Komisarek's and less Gardiner's.

And Jeff Finger. The last thing this team needs is more puck moving defencemen.