That's a completely backwards move. He is one of our only home grown players that can be effective. He has the potential to score 25-30 goals and has a great character and work ethic. Even if he isn't scoring he is the type of guy you need on the third line and would be the ideal player to be promoted if ANY winger went down. He is versatile.
I'm excited to see what Carlyle can do with him in a system that includes more cycling and two way play.
Let's face the facts here. This team doesn't have the cap space to compete for free agents the way everyone else will. So there are really two options on the board. Unload as much salary as possible, and try and acquire the big names, or basically just tinker, add here and there, suck for another year and hope to hell you can put yourself in a position to draft Nathan MacKinnon.
Want real veteran leadership. Guys like Arnott, Moen, Langkow, Fedotenko, Koivu, and McClement are all guys I'd really like. Veteran expereince or cup experience that could calm the boys down and teach them how to play out the regular season.
Have you people not learned anything? forget the UFA's for a few seasons, build from within, and when you have a few key, young, peices, fill in the holes with free agents.
Have you people not learned anything? forget the UFA's for a few seasons, build from within, and when you have a few key, young, peices, fill in the holes with free agents.
Basically this.
I wouldn't be mad if we didn't sign one UFA this offseason. Burke doesn't exactly have the greatest track record with free agency the past few years. The only two that I would consider at are Parise and Suter. However, both are highly unlikely considering they likely are not interested in signing with a bottom 5 club. We'd also have to move some of LACK in order to have sufficient cap space, which isn't as easy as some people make it out to be.
Have you people not learned anything? forget the UFA's for a few seasons, build from within, and when you have a few key, young, peices, fill in the holes with free agents.
Uhhh.... and who plays on the roster while the young guys develop?
The problem isn't that Burke has signed UFAs, it's that he signed guys like Colby Armstrong and Mike Komisarek to 3-5 year deals. What's so bad about the Tim Connolly signing, for instance? He's gone after next season. For a rebuilding team with many of its future core pieces playing in the minors for another season or two, I really don't see anything wrong with overpaying a guy if it's on a short-term deal, or taking back a cap dump in a trade if the player is only signed for another season. If Komisarek, Armstrong and Lombardi were off the books at the end of this season, we'd have over $10M in cap space freed up right there. I honestly would've been willing to pay Connolly upwards of $5-5.5M if he were willing to accept a one-year term.
I mean, imagine if we were heading into this off-season with something like:
You could even add $3M or so more to that if Burke didn't have his head up his ass at the deadline and shipped a guy like MacArthur out for a late 1st, which could then potentially be parlayed into a deal for a goaltender or a center over the summer and avoid having to address those needs by way of free agency.
Last edited by Frank Stallone: 04-03-2012 at 08:02 AM.
Have you people not learned anything? forget the UFA's for a few seasons, build from within, and when you have a few key, young, peices, fill in the holes with free agents.
What is wrong with trying out a few free agents while the young peices develop in the system???????? Their have been a few bad free agent signings but they don;t cost anything except money! The Connolly, Armstrong deals are bad but hardly handcuff the team and are easily disposed. The only real stinker was Komi but Burke has shown he kind of learned from that mistake and has not been signing free agents to long term deals!
I don;t know why people are so panicked and rushed to squeeze the young guys in?? Let them come in when they are ready and can contribute regularly. I'm tired of banking on prospects panning out! Schenn was destroyed cause of this reason and I'm praying the same doesn;t happen to Reimer.
Sign a few FA's while we wait and see if we can discover another nice peice or two!
What is wrong with trying out a few free agents while the young peices develop in the system???????? Their have been a few bad free agent signings but they don;t cost anything except money! The Connolly, Armstrong deals are bad but hardly handcuff the team and are easily disposed. The only real stinker was Komi but Burke has shown he kind of learned from that mistake and has not been signing free agents to long term deals!
I don;t know why people are so panicked and rushed to squeeze the young guys in?? Let them come in when they are ready and can contribute regularly. I'm tired of banking on prospects panning out! Schenn was destroyed cause of this reason and I'm praying the same doesn;t happen to Reimer.
Sign a few FA's while we wait and see if we can discover another nice peice or two!
This team needs a vet presence or we will never have that fightback we need.
Because those players will make your team better prematurely. Just like they did this season. Except Burke got UFA's in the wrong positions.
Phaneuf
Kessel
Lupul
MacArthur
Connolly
Liles = all players you didn't need to finish this bad. As a result, a worse pick. I don't see what the big club has done to improve themselves over the last 3 seasons.
Schenn was destroyed because you brought a kid in, pumped his tires, and told him to play like a man. You didn't let him develop amongst his peers and allow him to grow into the position. Put too much pressure on him to fill an important role when there were too many other holes. Just look at the free agent signings compared to the draft picks. No big names came when the opportunity presented itself, all trades. How much loyalty does anyone think a UFA will have when the going gets really tough? You can get 7 years out of a draft pick and that builds loyalty.
Depending on how much extra baggage Burke can unload this year, I hope he goes after Prust. Bottom 6 guy who fights, lots of heart, excellent pker, and isn't bad offensively for a traditional depth forward. He gets anywhere from 8minutes to 18 depending on the opponent. Gotta be cheap though. I don't want to see anymore 3M Armstrongs on this team.
