Now that the off-season is here and what would you guys do if you were bill zito?
Are Free agents: Gudas, Fitzgerald, Staal bros, White (RFA), Smith (RFA), Lyon, Hornqvist
Are team right now
Verhaeghe-Barkov-Duclair
Cousins-Bennett-Tkachuk
Luostrainen-Lundell-Reinhart
Lomberg-???-????
Forsling-ekblad
???-Montour
???-Mahura
Here are 2 ideal free agent targets
Orlov (D)
Bertuzzi (LW)
by yournextdoorneighour
22 Comments
Hopefully we don’t dish out any massive contracts because next offseason we have some but guys that are UFA’s
Bring back Gudas. Remember that the $10m of cap space doesn’t include Spencer Knights $4.5m contract this coming season if he is able to play. So we really only have $5.5m in cap space to build out the forward and defense depth
Graves or Soucey are my preferred D signings if Zito chooses to bolster the D through FA
This will be a huge off-season. I hope to see them get bigger and faster on the defensive side. I think that’s our biggest need, but the core and younger building blocks are there to continue this.
It’s there a “Cap Space for Dummies” book anywhere? I’ve never really paid attention to this but I would love to understand how it all works.
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As for our Free Agents. I feel like Lyon is a keeper. I’ve seen him play really hot and he was our main goalie for the end of the season eeeking us into our wild card spot. His save % is actually slightly better than Bob in regular season.
I’d like to hang on to Gudas. I know people hate him for being so rough. But he is +14 for the regular season.
I think it’s safe to assume that both Staals are gone
re-sign Gudas. give me ORLOV (hopefully we can get a “Bobrovsky is my buddy” discount).
Soucy and Orlov on the wish list for D.
Simply must bring back Gudas. I wish we still had Marchment on this team. Carlsson should be coming up so if we can get one more big, physical, defensive defenseman I will like our back end a lot more.
Need need need to sign a D man or two. Would also love to add a top 6 winger.
UFA class is kinda bad this time. I can’t see any good UFAs except maybe Tarasenko. Horny probably retires. Gudas should be brought back ASAP. Graves might also be a Good D option.
Killorn is a longshot but it is a interesting one for sure.
The first priority is to bring in some bigger and faster guys on our D-line that are more defensively oriented. We need someone like that with Montour that is not Staal. Forsling and Mahura are great. On the question of Ekblad though, I don’t know what the answer is.
On the offensive side, I would like to see them shake up the top 6, possibly replacing or moving around Duclair or Cousins. I like Duclair and would like to keep him but I’m not sold on the Verhaeghe-Barkov-Duclair line. They never seemed to mesh well. A player like Bertuzzi would be great with Bennett and Tkachuk.
We also need to have more size and depth on the 3rd and 4th lines. Luostrainen-Lundell-Reinhart is great but we need to have bigger guys on the 4th line that can provide scoring when needed.
Trade Ekblad, drop Staals and Horny
We need depth back like we had last season.
On the fence about Gudas, but if we don’t resign… We have to face him then. 😅
Defense.
Saw some rumors that DeBrincat might have some interest in coming down
Good riddance Marc Staal and Colin White
Get me Cal Foote on defense. Young guy very cheap. Been wanting him in our rotations for a couple of seasons and now might be our chance.
Get rid of Ekblaad and the Staal brothers as a priority. Then add some depth to our offense once the holes in our D are covered up.
Be nice if we could snatch up Ryan O Riely and or Tyler Betruzzi
Well that LTIR is gonna raise by a lot more by end of week. Bertuzzi is an absolute beast. You get him signed long term with this core of Tkachuk, Barkov, Ekblad sittin pretty
Trade Ekblad. Injuries have plagued him the past few years and he’s just not good enough defensively. He’s not even average. We need to shore up on defensive d-men.
Also I wouldn’t mind trading Reinhart or Bennett(preferably Bennett) I’m not sure what we could get in return but explore it at least.
So uh, any D-men we should be keeping an eye on?