Speculation: Buy-Out Period

[ThirdManIn]

Originally Posted by Unlimited Chequing

Lombardi's a great player to have. I'm still bitter that Sutter traded him away. When paired with the right linemates, he can really tear $#!+ up.

He looked good in the brief time I saw him play. I hope to have him back for the entire season coming up.

[Unlimited Chequing]

Originally Posted by ThirdManIn

He looked good in the brief time I saw him play. I hope to have him back for the entire season coming up.

Yeah, it's very unfortunate the coaching staff here in Calgary was never able to identify and utilize his strengths as he was usually relegated to the lower lines. In the 06-07 season he got increased ice time and moved up lines when our top players (ie: Iginla) were injured and he went on an offensive tear during a span of a few weeks. When that season ended, he played in the World Championships and led the (gold winning) team in points. I thought, finally he's been able to showcase what he's capable of and he'll be paired with more offensive linemates. Sadly that wasn't the case. After he was traded to Phoenix he was able to show that he could put up some decent numbers.

With that speed of his, he was always able to get an insane amount of breakaways especially during the PK. I always felt his feet were too fast for his hands cause he'd always wait too long before shooting and he'd lose opportunities that way, but even so he'd really open up the ice once he got the opposition chasing him.

I can assure you, had he not been out this season the Preds probably could have taken Vancouver to a game 7 or even beaten them.

I really hope that concussion isn't seriously detrimental to his career.

[Paranoid Android]

The more I think about Dumont's situation, the less I think we buy him out. It really just depends on what we can do with the extra salary.

We'd save $1.3M, but when you factor in the cost for a replacement on the roster, there really isn't much savings. On top of that, we would have dead salary weight on the books for 12/13. Seems like I'd rather just ride out this last year, be done with it, and at the same time hope he makes comeback as a scoring winger. When he's at his best, he's exactly what we need IMO. It's a contract year for him, so he may be more motivated than usual.

However, if we can somehow get him to waive, and find a trading partner i'd do that. I'd be willing to take a 1 year bad contract in return. Maybe a vet defensemen for the 3rd pairing.

Now if we can somehow guarantee that the money saved from Dumont's buyout can go towards a big ticket forward, then we should do that. But there is nothing on the free agent market and nothing jumps out at me on the trade market.