Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Shafer
Not defending Holmgren. Not even going to start. I'm going to be the first to say that today was a travesty of justice (and clearly everyone agrees).
Press conference was a load of nonsense
So what now?
Carter - Richards - Zherdev
Hartnell - Briere - Leino
vanRiemsdyk - Giroux - xxxxxxxxxx
yyyyyyyyyy - Betts - Laperriere
yyyyyyyyyy
Pronger - Carle
Timonen - Coburn
Meszaros - zzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzz
Leighton
Boucher
x = Powe, Carcillo, Nodl, Maroon, Testwuide, Legein
y = Powe, Carcillo, Nodl, Shelley, Cote
z = O'Donnell, Walker, Bartulis
We have the following cap space based on this current 23 man roster (bonus does not count for JVR I believe):
Carter (5.00) - Richards (5.75) - Zherdev (2.00)
Hartnell (4.20) - Briere (6.50) - Leino (0.80)
vanRiemsdyk (0.88) - Giroux (0.82) - Carcillo (1.08)
Shelley (1.10) - Betts (0.70) - Laperriere (1.16)
Cote (0.55)
Pronger (4.92) - Carle (3.44)
Timonen (6.33) - Coburn (3.20)
Meszaros (4.00) - O'Donnell (1.30)
Walker (1.70) - Bartulis (0.60)
Leighton (1.55)
Boucher (0.93)
TOTAL: 57.96 (add 0.77 to include JVR's bonuses)
CAP: 59.40
SPACE: 01.44
Right now our team is better than it was at the end of the Stanley Cup finals but only marginally.
We still need a goalie, and Holmgren hinted at a possible trade in the future as the summer progresses (maybe Carle?).
That aside, what do you do?
|
I don't agree with that.
One thing that's being criminally underrated around here is that Leighton didn't have a starter's load last season. The regular season was split by Boucher, Leighton, and Emery. The post-season was split by Boucher and Leighton.
If Homer actually plans on going into the season with Leighton-Boucher (which I think he does) then Leighton will have an actual starter's work-load. He's never had one and most people who have seen him play over his NHL career would say that he can't handle one. I expect him to implode at some point if he truly is going to be our starter. Then we basically have to hope that Backlund can step in if that does happen.
Our upgrade at defense is very unnecessary. We're paying a top four d-man to play on the bottom pairing and currently have 8 NHL d-men signed. They both improve us talent-wise, but neither make any sense at all.
We lost our best winger, both offensively and defensively, and replaced him with an enigma that will probably boom-or-bust. That's a down-grade as of now.
We have Carcillo playing in our top nine and Shelley might actually be in our top nine if any of our big guys goes down.
Plus Leino hasn't proven that he has what it takes to be an offensive threat in the regular season. If you look at his history with the Red Wings and Flyers, he hasn't proven anything in the regular season. So if he fails then we're screwed because then we basically have seven top six forwards, one of which may or may not work out.
Plus it's never good when Timonen and Pronger are a year older at this point in their careers.