Quote:
Originally Posted by MsWoof
Option #3 is Briere. He's virtually untradeable as he has an NTC clause and because of his personal situation as a parent who shares custody with his ex-wife who lives in the area. Since the playoffs vs Boston he's been quite bad. This season his defense is as bad as always, he continues to take dumb penalties and his production hasn't been great. He's on the downside of his career and has a few years left on his hefty contract.
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I am probably the poster on these boards who has been most consistently critical of Briere, but I don't think I would use the buyout on him (if the team only got one) over Pronger or, less likely, Bryz. Briere needs to be moved to wing next year and create more ice time for Couturier and Schenn. It would relieve what little defensive responsibility he now holds and free him to focus on creating offensive chances for some young, talented linemates.
Byrz is tricky. I fully expect (hope, pray, plead, * insert other variant of active optimism here*) that he will eventually revert to something approaching his PHX form. I also believe that he will never be a top-5 caliber goalie in the league--he just doesn't seem to have the mental toughness and competitiveness). A buyout is unlikely for any number of reasons--cost to Snyder, embarrassment, absence of a clearly and consistently better alternative, etc.
I think it would have to be Pronger, simply to remove the remote risk that he walks away during the final two years of his deal (where his salary drops to something like 525k--a ton for us, but perhaps not enough for him?) or that he tries to return but suffers a string of nagging injuries that leave him out of the line-up but do not free up LTIR space year-to-year.
