Based on [Ron Francis’ comments yesterday](https://twitter.com/sound_hockey/status/1782474920888598783), RFA discussions will start soon:
>GM Ron Francis on the team’s RFAs: “We’ll get conversations going really soon with Tolvanen and Beniers.” Says he expects to get something done there. On Yamamoto, Francis says they have to decide whether to qualify him or not because he has arbitration rights.
The money spent on RFAs will impact how much money is available to keep our existing UFAs or target players in trades or free agency. [CapFriendly](https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/kraken) projects the Kraken have $22.9M in cap space with 15 of 23 roster spots filled for next season, though this does not include prospects like Shane Wright or Ryker Evans who are likely to make the roster.
**Restricted Free Agents**
* Kailer Yamamoto ($1.5M 2023-24 cap hit, arbitration rights)
* Eeli Tolvanen ($1.45M, arbitration rights)
* Matty Beniers ($0.897M, ELC)
**Unrestricted Free Agents**
* Chris Driedger ($3.5M)
* Justin Schultz ($3M)
* Tomas Tatar ($1.5M)
* Pierre-Edouard Bellemare ($0.775M)
by SiccSemperTyrannis
6 Comments
I’d do the following:
**Yamamoto** – do not qualify. I don’t think he’s done enough this season to justify a Qualifying Offer at his current salary. If he’s willing to return on a league-minimum contract I’d be fine keeping him as a spare forward, but I expect he’ll want a larger role on a different team.
**Beneirs** – sign to bridge deal. Something in the neighborhood of $5-6M for 2-3 years seems fair after the down season he had. His camp will probably push for an AAV closer to $7M.
**Tolvanen** – Qualify and wait. Tolvanen’s QO would be the same $1.45M he made last season, so I’d offer that and then wait to see what’s available on the trade and free agent market. IMO Tolvanen would be a valuable piece to include in a future trade to upgrade the team’s scoring talent or a roster spot to give to a free agent. I’m not opposed to bringing Tolvanen back, but I’d want to see my other options before committing
* If I were to re-sign Tolvanen, I’d look at something in the $3-3.5M for 3-4 years range.
**Dridger, Schultz, Tatar, Bellemare** – let go to free agency. None of these players other than Schultz played a significant role this season. None did enough to convince me we couldn’t upgrade them via a young player from the Firebirds or free agency.
RFAs I see all of them being resigned, with the exception of beniers payday, tolvi and yams are most likely gonna be at the same rate this year since neither of them had a particularly career year, good years but not career.
UFA is where it gets tricky, driedger is gone, got beat out by Daccord and with other prospect goalies coming in, the kraken are not likely to be carrying him unless he takes a solid pay cut.
Schultz can go either way, if he feels like he can get more I think he goes but also the kraken might have felt burned from last years departures and might keep him as a known factor rather than bringing another player. Loved TATAAAR think he gets a decent contract, bellemare probably stays if he has any gas left in the tank.
Hopefully we can also add a key piece in UFA as well, not sure who will be available this year but this could be the year to start really testing the open market and get a spark for the offense.
Let Driedger walk, he can do better than what we’re able/willing to give him and Ales Stezka is killing it in the AHL. I would like to re-sign him. IIRC we gave him one year originally
I kinda figure Bellemare is at retirement age. I like him but yeah. I don’t really have an opinion about the other UFAs other than if we can do better we probably should. I like Yamamoto a lot but not sure we have room for him
When is the deadline for trades for the upcoming season?
In other words: When is it “save” to buy a (Larsson, Grubauer or others) jersey?
I’m not remotely worried about Matty longterm. If he and his reps are willing to entertain 7 or 8 years at around $7-8m, you do it and don’t think twice. Even if he never rediscovers last year’s offensive prowess, he’s more than capable of being a top notch two-way C, especially if surrounded by elite talent. Plus in 3 years, 7-8m for a top two C is going to be chump change. Lock him up.
I tend to think Tolvy may be a bit leery about a long-term deal since I think he still has more offensive potential to reach, but if you can sign him to 4-5 years for around $4.5-5.5m (adjusting for cap inflation cheaper than McCann’s deal), I think that’s more than reasonable. If nothing else, he’s a relentlessly checking 3rd liner with a wicked shot.
I think you probably have around 2/3s of your Top 9 from the following group of young(ish) guys: Beniers, Wright, McCann, Tolvanen, Bjorkstrand, Nyman, Sale, Firkus, Rehkopf, and Goyette. Some won’t work out but I do think enough of them will, especially if you have room to add a top-line scorer eventually. That doesn’t even account for guys like Winterton, Kartye, Morrison and Robertson, who have a chance to contribute in a bottom 6 role in a surplus value to their respective contracts as well.
That’s a recipe for sustainable competition, which is exactly why Francis prioritizes the long-term over the short.
Re-sign Beniers and Tolvy. Trade the rights to Yams. Driedger will walk, let Belly and Tatar walk. Ryker is a good like for like replacement for Shultz, so Shultz either needs to take a discount or take his talent elsewhere.