2013-2014 Season
 

We have about $15 million in cap space assuming the go down to $60 million cap. We have Howard, Filppula, Nyquist, Brunner, Smith, that I feel we need to resign. After those 5 get signed, I don't see much cap left to get anyone good (Edler) in FA unless we buyout Cleary, Bertuzzi, or Samuelsson, even then it's close. So what's the plan if you're GM?

No need to buy out Cleary he will be UFA.

Cleary is UFA after this season. Meaning until he's re-signed.

Sammy could be bought out if big UFA hits the market. Bert is more valuable per $.

Both of those contracts are looking worse by the day.

Actually, we only have about $12 Million in cap space... I think they'll end up buying out Bertuzzi because he's older than Samuelsson and they just signed Samuelsson. Plus, they need one more slot for Tatar next year.... Jarnkrok also comes over as well. They'll probably sign Edler since Vancouver probably can't. Fil will have to be let go. They couldn't possibly extend him and Howard at the same time and hope to stay under the cap. My guess is you'll see something like this:

CAPGEEK.COM USER GENERATED ROSTER
My Custom Lineup
FORWARDS
Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Damien Brunner ($1.350m)
Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Calle Jarnkrok ($0.900m) / Mikael Samuelsson ($3.000m)
Tomas Tatar ($0.840m) / Joakim Andersson ($0.875m) / Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m)
Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Jordin Tootoo ($1.900m)
Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) /
DEFENSEMEN
Alexander Edler ($5.000m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m)
Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Brendan Smith ($0.875m)
Carlo Colaiacovo ($2.500m) / Kyle Quincey ($3.775m)
Jakub Kindl ($0.883m)
GOALTENDERS
Jimmy Howard ($3.750m)
Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m)
------
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $60,200,000; CAP PAYROLL: $57,819,545; BONUSES: $1,195,000
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $2,380,455

It's not the best roster, but if you look at a lot of other teams (especially in the Central Division) and where they are at we're sitting pretty good with this roster.

I assume you didn't think with the lines to much as no way Edler would be on third pairing and 3rd line is all rookies.

I think Smith will get bigger one unless it's only one year. Edler will get more than 5 mil, imo. Reportedly rejected 4.6 mil from Vancouver already. Would be estatic if we signed Howard under 4 mil but seems unlikely.

It will be tight for sure.

Too early to calculate that season. There could be an expansion draft.

I hope we don't lose Bertuzzi or Samuelsson at that draft. :sarcasm:

The Defensive pairings are just Capgeek being weird, obviously. Vancouver doesn't have any room. They'll probably buy out Luongo, as he's expendable. That gives them probably $8 million in cap space to fill about 5 roster spaces. I think the $60 million cap most definitely will deflate prices for FAs since there won't be many teams with cap space to sign FA's and have some wiggle room. Howard will probably get somewhere between $3.5-$4million. Holland could probably give him what Kari Lehtonen is making and he'd be happy. There won't be much of a market for anything in FA this year. The only team that truly benefits from this cap is Ottawa TBH.

That has got to be the softest top 3 lines I've ever seen in my life. What a joke. You can't have 9 Europeans like that. Jesus.

Chill out. It's not gonna take much to win the Central in '13-'14. Chicago will once again be in cap hell and have little options to even gut their team this time. Nashville still has to operate on a budget. Columbus might actually get good... St. Louis is the only team to worry about, but our team last year beat them 4 times, and this is a better team.

More important to keep the guys you have than look for new(grass isn't always greener). Many teams would have to cut players, Boston for instance has 57M locked up next season without a single goaltender and only 5 D's signed.

If Kenny decides to be bold, he'll cut Fil. But Detroit has the space to re-sign everybody important, and that'll go a long way compared to many other teams.

If the cap goes to 60 million if Howard gets a Lehtonen contract it will be just over 5 million.

Is Dekeyser injured? I'm watching the GLI and haven't seen him out there. Are the Wings still considered front runners for his services next year?

Never mind, I just saw him out there.

It's soft for sure, but I would never lump in Datsyuk with "soft Europeans." Guy takes no crap from anyone.

I also don't think you need to necessarily be "hard" to win. Skill can overcome. Z/D/H wasn't a hard line either but they wrecked.

I don't think he comes here, realistically we are not a very good team for D prospects. DeKeyser will have NHL offers and I don't know that he can beat out who we got depending on next off-season. If he makes the choice to go with the Wings he has to deal with Ouellet, Sproul, Jensen (just as impressive in College), Marchenko, Backman, maybe another 1st rounder? Lashoff will probably be pushed up next year. Believe it or not our D is getting pretty young over night. Right now Kronwall at 31 is the oldest guy and the only one over 30.

Yeah, i will believe that when i see it. Brendan Smith was ready last year and he was forced to play another year in the AHL, and is far more ready than the players you mentioned.

How exactly is this a "better team"?

Imo, St. Louis is the team to beat at Central.

Also Nashville could be as good as always. Young developing puckmoving defence replaces Suter offensively by organizational growth and Scott Hannan replaces Suter defensively. That will keep them on the run again, if Weber stays healthy, I quarantee it.

Chicago is just a good goalie away to be total pain in the ass again. We will be good offensive team, better since 2009, but weak defensively. Lots of entertaining high-scoring roller-coaster games. Central should be best division in West and could be as strong as league-best Atlantic at eastern side.

Expecting Hannan to cover for Suter defensively is like hoping for Colaiacovo to cover for Lidstrom offensively, and part of their success was pairing two elite defensemen and playing them for half the game in the playoffs. But their defensive prospect depth will soften the fall a lot..

This division will continue to be extremely close imo, I actually don't think Columbus are too many pieces away from becoming relevant either. But the same could be said for the entire league. A lowered cap will just spread the players around further, and teams will rely on the home-grown talent to fill spots. The league will if possible become even tighter.

I think that's the Predators plan. They are not as good, but can be pretty near even. Especially when you play Hannan with Weber. I think it could go as well as Woolley/Lilja/Dandenault/Olausson with prime Lidström.

Scott Hannan played 17 ES minutes and same 2 min SH like Suter did. No PP time, Suter had 3:40. That Suter PP time goes for Ellis, who is maybe even talented quarterback than Suter. Of course Ellis is worse defensively at ES, but he is sheltered ES at 3rd pair like last season and off from PK. Somebody else on left side is going to eat those 3 ES minutes, and that goes to promising Josi. Or why not use Klein more. He's a defensive stud. Hal Gill will probably be the same.

Last season:

ES minutes:
Suter - Weber, 20-20 minutes (Hannan 17 minutes at Flames, 3 minutes slide to other defencemen)
Josi - Klein, 16-17 minutes
Gill - Ellis 13-13 minutes

PK
Gill - Klein
Suter - Weber (add Hannan)

PP
Suter - Weber (add Ellis)
Josi - S.Kostitsyn

And it's not just the defence. There's also team defense. What the forwards do is as important. I could just believe Nashville won't miss a beat, cause they have pretty young core developing better.

They will replace Suter as a comittee, can I borrow these lovely words from Ken Holland. :D

But if Weber gets injured, then they are in deep trouble. Suter would be nice insurance on that scenario, now it turns to be an immediate disaster without their Odin (Shea Weber). Maybe Tootoo will bang him out, I hope. ;)

There was a rumor from Larry Brooks that Winnipeg is swapped with Columbus to Central division, if we have a season.

So Central goes even tighter. Winnipeg got 19 points more at last season than Columbus. But maybe it's more exciting to play against them, no more sloppy uninterested nights with floating and lazy Franzen against the hopeless Blue Jackets. :)

Chicago will be in cap hell again. They have about five positions to fill, and if there is a $60 Million cap they'll only have $1 million in cap space to fill all of those positions. They'll have to trade someone like Hjalmarsson or/and even a Sharp/Kane/Hossa.

Trade Hossa to Detroit for Franzen?:sarcasm:

What are the actual odds the salary cap drops $10 million dollars without some kind of rollback or buyout period?

All of the top spenders (which are also mostly the top earners) would be in total cap hell.

Who knows. Owners want to curb spending and Players aren't gonna accept rollbacks.

Fehr told that 10 million drop proposal is a joke. Maybe more realistic level is ~65M.

do you have a link to that?