Kovy is the only pending UFA who has come out publically and said he wants to retire as a Montreal Canadien...he will hopefully back this up, if BG tries to get him to take a hometown discount, if that happens Koivu hopefully will follow, and Tanguay and so on, and so on, that's what a winning team can do for the organization. Ask Stevie Y...Joe Sakic etc...let's hope we can keep them together for a couple of more years...
That's the X factor, isn't it. If Kovalev wants to stay here badly enough to take a discount, it would be hard to turn him down.
Tanguay will make 5.375 million this season. If he scores 70+ points he can get 7 million in the same UFA market where rolston got ever 5 M$ this year.
The big difference next year is that if the economy tanks half the teams in the league will not want to spend big money on UFAs. So there might be almost no cap augmentation.
If the cap stays relatively the same, considering that teams like phoenix, columbus, atlanta etc. probably dont want to invest tens of million of dollars in guaranteed contracts to UFAs. Most of the rich teams would already be close to the cap. Only then can we hope to keep everyone. Hell dont count out Lang because he might come cheap if he wants to stay on the team (considering his age).
After signing Koivu, Kovalev, Pleckanec, Higgins, Komi and Tender, we still have about 10 millions (if Cap at 58) to sign other FAs. We could then keep bouillon/Tanguay or go after the market.
Kovy is the only pending UFA who has come out publically and said he wants to retire as a Montreal Canadien...he will hopefully back this up, if BG tries to get him to take a hometown discount, if that happens Koivu hopefully will follow, and Tanguay and so on, and so on, that's what a winning team can do for the organization. Ask Stevie Y...Joe Sakic etc...let's hope we can keep them together for a couple of more years...
Thank you, I think they will all take discounts
However i will maintain if we had to keep Kovy or Tanguay... Tanguay wins
With the UFAs + RFAs that we have to re-sign, it would be damn near impossible to sign all 3 of Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay. So (hypothetically), if these two wouldn't take a huge hometown discount who between these two do you believe that Gainey will re-sign?
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Originally Posted by Shabutie
Unless both of these guys take a huge pay cut, we won't be able to retain them both.
Someone should try to come up with a scenario where we could sign both of these guys AND Higgins, Plekanec, Komisarek, Koivu, Chipchura, Latendresse... Cuz from my calculations it is very much impossible. Not to mention we have to give ourselves a little breathing room to sign Price in the season after.
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Originally Posted by Shabutie
TheDamned said "Koivu is gone" so yes he was speaking about Koivu being moved in favor of Kovalev or Tanguay...
Obviously this wouldn't happen.
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Originally Posted by Shabutie
So they would let Koivu walk to sign Kovalev and Tanguay.
Do you think that Gainey would honestly let Koivu walk in favor of one of these two other guys?
If you want to do the right poll , than you have to add both Koivu and Lang in the equation , and wait few months before doing it .
Right now we don't have any clue about the contribution these 4 players are going to have , if Kovalev is going to repeat his last season performance , if Koivu after 15-20 games is going to disappear like he did last year , if Tanguay is going to produce with regularity and what kind of hockey Lang will give once Higgins will come back .
Other factors are to considere ;
The kind of contract the players will want to get ; just for the exemple , let says that Koivu wants to resign for 3-4 years but Kovalev is willing to sign for 1-2 seasons , who Gainey will choose you think ?
If Lang is having a good season or that Maxwell shows a very good progression in the AHL , Gainey would have more cards in his hands .
Who are the free agents on the market next season ? ( isn't Bouchard a UFA or did he resign a new contract with the Wilds , i am not sure )
Anyway , you seem to be 100 % sure that Gainey couln't prefer Kovalev or Tanguay over Koivu , i just don't see why .
Kovalev is our best forward man, of course he is our priority. Not only is he the most talented player on the ice, he is a great leader for this club. And IMO, he is second priority behind Koivu.
Well said.
The Kovalev haters are clearly back this year. Funny how the bandwagon suddenly emptied... He'll fill up again at the end of the year when they'll see that Kovalev is the real leader of this team, once again.
The Kovalev haters are clearly back this year. Funny how the bandwagon suddenly emptied... He'll fill up again at the end of the year when they'll see that Kovalev is the real leader of this team, once again.
god, would u get over it? its not about hating kovalev
its about understanding that this is a BUSINESS, and every single professional athlete will tell you that
i LOVE kovalev but, the human body doesnt get stronger after 36, unless ur bonds or clemens, cough, ..tanguay is 28... twetny freakin eight, ..meanin entering the prime of his LIFE, and we have a chance to lock him up FOR those years..
and ill always say, i think we should sign kovalev for 2 more years
god, would u get over it? its not about hating kovalev
its about understanding that this is a BUSINESS, and every single professional athlete will tell you that
i LOVE kovalev but, the human body doesnt get stronger after 36, unless ur bonds or clemens, cough, ..tanguay is 28... twetny freakin eight, ..meanin entering the prime of his LIFE, and we have a chance to lock him up FOR those years..
and ill always say, i think we should sign kovalev for 2 more years
I think Kovalev can play like he does now for the next 5 years. The guy barely gets touched out there on the ice and is in incredible shape. Like someone said, he can still be very effective even if he loses a step. When to comes down to it, Kovalev is always going to have that agility with both his hands and feet. Kovalev has never been a very fast skater, but he can turn on a dime. His agility on his skates and his hands is what makes him an effective player; obviously his intelligence on the ice plays a large role as well.
lol. i feel like lack depth up the middle to get rid of koivu, and tanguay looks great with them. but were only 5 games in, so its tough to say. right now, id take tanguay and koivu.
I think Kovalev can play like he does now for the next 5 years. The guy barely gets touched out there on the ice and is in incredible shape. Like someone said, he can still be very effective even if he loses a step. When to comes down to it, Kovalev is always going to have that agility with both his hands and feet. Kovalev has never been a very fast skater, but he can turn on a dime. His agility on his skates and his hands is what makes him an effective player; obviously his intelligence on the ice plays a large role as well.
i agree with you .I just look the way Lang manages his game , even if he 's a slow but intelligent player ; Kovalev has by far better hands , so i would be confortable to sign him for a 3 years contract . Even if they are slower once older , they just have to put their big frame in front of the net and will manage to get points . Smaller players once they lost a little bit of their speed , have more problems to be effective . In 2-3 years , their impact can completly fall , as we have seen for players like Audette or Samsonov .
Obviously, if it was about me, Tanguay would be a keeper, but Bob said that the players will play for their contracts this year. We'll see at the end of the year.
However, Tanguay will not go for the money IMO. He has played under Keenan and IMO knows that playing for a team fitting his style is worse a lot of money.
Lets not worry about this. The player with a terrible year will be sent off. Tanguay and Komisarek will probably be signed with low/high contracts. Lang we can probably get for a discount. Koivu and Kovalev's contracts will not budge but will be shorter.
All the others we ll pick and choose.
We all know what will happen. Just like what happen with Markov / Souray / Rivet. Or with Streit.
Gainey will make decent offers to all of them. At the end of the season. Decent as in, what they are worth in the team context. Then it will be up to players to decide.
They can take the Souray / Streit route and go get (a lot) more on the open market. So be it. Some will take the Markov / A Kost route and accept.
I do not see Gainey paying a player more than he thinks that player is worth it for this team, just to keep him in the team. He will follow the Red Wings model. It is the key to have a good, lasting, team in the current cap world.
Imagine if he starts giving 6-7 million contracts to Komisarek, Kovalev or Tanguay (they might get numbers like this from the crazy GM's around the league) - it would completely ruin the team chemistry and make the next signings a lot more difficult.
I love Kovy to death, especially since he changed his whole attitude last season but the age factor cannot be ignored and as such I would have to go with Tanguay.
The Kovalev haters are clearly back this year. Funny how the bandwagon suddenly emptied... He'll fill up again at the end of the year when they'll see that Kovalev is the real leader of this team, once again.
We all know what will happen. Just like what happen with Markov / Souray / Rivet. Or with Streit.
Gainey will make decent offers to all of them. At the end of the season. Decent as in, what they are worth in the team context. Then it will be up to players to decide.
They can take the Souray / Streit route and go get (a lot) more on the open market. So be it. Some will take the Markov / A Kost route and accept.
I do not see Gainey paying a player more than he thinks that player is worth it for this team, just to keep him in the team. He will follow the Red Wings model. It is the key to have a good, lasting, team in the current cap world.
Imagine if he starts giving 6-7 million contracts to Komisarek, Kovalev or Tanguay (they might get numbers like this from the crazy GM's around the league) - it would completely ruin the team chemistry and make the next signings a lot more difficult.
you bring a good point ; Gainey won't give more than the real value to a player . Anyway , a team that wins is more attractive , so Gainey is going to have more free agents ready to sign here , added to the players that will be ready , in the farm team .
