Jesus. Why the hate on Kubina? One poster goes as far as to have Lilja locked on the team instead of jim.
If we start playing to his strength and he starts firing bombs from the point, think people will start swaying.
It's not that im hating on kubina, but he's older and will likely cost more than grossman, and grossman I feel is a more prototypical 3rd pairing defenseman than kubina and more valuable to use moving forward if we try and sign suter.
I'll post what I did on other places. This is for if Suter and Weber really are pipe dreams.
CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR
FORWARDS
Scott Hartnell ($4.200m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / Wayne Simmonds ($1.750m)
James Van Riemsdyk ($4.250m) / Brayden Schenn ($3.110m) / Daniel Briere ($6.500m)
Matt Read ($0.900m) / Sean Couturier ($1.375m) / Jakub Voracek ($3.000m)
Maxime Talbot ($1.750m) / Ben Holmstrom ($0.800m) / Eric Wellwood ($0.580m)
Zac Rinaldo ($0.544m)
DEFENSEMEN
Kimmo Timonen ($6.333m) / Braydon Coburn ($4.500m)
Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m) / Nicklas Grossman ($2.500m)
Marc-Andre Bourdon ($1.000m) / Pavel Kubina ($2.000m)
Erik Gustafsson ($0.900m)
GOALTENDERS
Ilya Bryzgalov ($5.666m) / Sergei Bobrovsky ($1.750m)
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $61,159,444; BONUSES: $3,555,000
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $3,140,556
Bottom 2 lines have a lot of two-way forwards, good defensively. Holmstrom and Wellwood as regulars adds speed and more stability to the defense in the forwards. Big, tough and good core of young and old for the D-men.
I would want to re-sign Grossman then target Gaustad and another mid-level defenseman.
Basically keep the defense competent, solidify the bottom 6 with a guy that's good on the faceoff dot and strong defensively, and pray like hell that Bryz bounces back.
I'll post what I did on other places. This is for if Suter and Weber really are pipe dreams.
Bottom 2 lines have a lot of two-way forwards, good defensively. Holmstrom and Wellwood as regulars adds speed and more stability to the defense in the forwards. Big, tough and good core of young and old for the D-men.
Kubina's awesome and all, but he's old.
If Suter and Weber are unobtainable, then I think Carle is our option.
I get on Carle's case as much as anyone, but he could be a lot worse.
FORWARDS
Scott Hartnell ($4.200m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / James Van Riemsdyk ($4.250m)
Wayne Simmonds ($1.750m) / Daniel Briere ($6.500m) / Jakub Voracek ($3.500m)
Matt Read ($0.900m) / Brayden Schenn ($3.110m) / Maxime Talbot ($1.750m)
Zac Rinaldo ($0.544m) / Sean Couturier ($1.375m) / Eric Wellwood ($0.580m)
DEFENSEMEN
Kimmo Timonen ($6.333m) / Braydon Coburn ($4.500m)
Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m) / Ryan Suter ($6.500m)
Nicklas Grossman ($3.000m) / Marc-Andre Bourdon ($1.000m)
Andreas Lilja ($0.737m)
GOALTENDERS
Ilya Bryzgalov ($5.666m) / Niko Hovinen ($0.950m)
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $64,896,944; BONUSES: $2,805,000
CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $1,908,056
FORWARDS
Scott Hartnell ($4.200m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / James Van Riemsdyk ($4.250m)
Wayne Simmonds ($1.750m) / Daniel Briere ($6.500m) / Jakub Voracek ($3.500m)
Matt Read ($0.900m) / Brayden Schenn ($3.110m) / Maxime Talbot ($1.750m)
Zac Rinaldo ($0.544m) / Sean Couturier ($1.375m) / Eric Wellwood ($0.580m)
DEFENSEMEN
Kimmo Timonen ($6.333m) / Braydon Coburn ($4.500m)
Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m) / Ryan Suter ($6.500m)
Nicklas Grossman ($3.000m) / Marc-Andre Bourdon ($1.000m)
Andreas Lilja ($0.737m)
GOALTENDERS
Ilya Bryzgalov ($5.666m) / Niko Hovinen ($0.950m)
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $64,896,944; BONUSES: $2,805,000
CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $1,908,056
Thoughts?
I bolded the problems.
1. - We kept Briere at center before because he was much better offensively in the middle. Now that he's starting to slow up offensively, he's just becoming a liability. In the future he'll be better suited on the wing where he can benefit from other players instead of leading the rush. In fact, I wish we had already moved Briere to wing by now.
2. - You can't keep Couturier on the fourth line again next season.
3. - Eric Wellwood is certainly NHL ready, but he's not going to do anything on that fourth line. Switching him with Talbot in your lineup makes sense,
4. - I'd love to get Ryan Suter, but what if that doesn't work out? That defense is pretty bad once again without Suter, and since he's not a guarantee, you're going to have to at least get accustomed to the idea that Carle will be back.
5. - That goaltending tandem is a recipe for disaster. People need to stop putting Hovinen into their lineups right now. It's not going to happen.
