To trade Sharp or not? Very tough question with no easy answer.
Part 1 and 2 are below.
I’ll outline a couple of player decisions at first, put together my base roster and lines, and then discuss the player decisions a little more afterwards.
1) Re-sign Niklas Hjalmarsson and Antii Niemi for around $4M combined. This number may move up or down slightly given playoff performances. That said, I think these 2 are the priorities of the offseason in terms of RFAs.
2) Buy out Cristobal Huet. Again, I’m assuming that the burying in Rockford idea is a no go, and the Hawks weren’t able to trade him. All you’re left with then is the buy out option at $1.875M per season.
3) Bury Brent Sopel in the minors. This may be the point where I use a little magic, but I think that this is a possibility. Some team might take him for a late draft pick with just one year on his contract as well. Bottom line, Sopel cannot be on the roster.
4) Re-sign Andrew Ladd to a 2 year $3.8M contract.
5) Do not re-sign the following: John Madden, Kim Johnsson. As much as I like these players, they just don’t fit in the salary cap.
6) Do no re-sign Ben Eager. He’d have to be qualified at $1M or so as an RFA and that’s just too much for a 4th liner given the cap.
7) I would consider Burish or Fraser for a 13th forward role, but only at the right price. If not, they're not back.
8) Jack Skille, Brian Bickell and Jake Dowell make the team. Also, one of the Hawks D prospects, either Lalonde or Connelly make the squad.
9) Re-sign Jordan Hendry at $0.6M as a number 6 or 7 Dman.
10) Trade Kris Versteeg and Dustin Byfuglien. Traded for what? I’ll discuss that below.
Which brings us to the following base lineup:
Brouwer (1.025M)-Toews (6.3M)-Kane (6.3M)
Sharp (3.9M) - Bolland (3.4M)- Hossa (5.25M)
Ladd (1.9M) - 3rd Line Center- Skille (0.85M)
Bickell (0.525M)- Dowell (0.525M) - Kopecky (1.2M)
Keith (5.54M) – Seabrook (3.5M)
Campbell (7.14M) – Hjalmarsson (2.0M)
Lalonde (0.6M) – Hendry (0.6M)
Niemi (2.0M)
Back-up G (1.0M)
Huet Buyout (1.875M)
Cap hit: 55.4M
Cap: 57.7M
Cap space: 2.3M needing a 3rd line center and either a 13F/7D
A couple points here. So Buff and Versteeg are traded. For each of them I would be looking for near-NHL ready prospects, preferably centers or goaltenders, or draft picks. One player I would target is Andrew Cogliano in Edmonton. I feel he’s under-utilized and won’t be commanding a hefty pay raise next year. He could slot in nicely as the 3rd line center and make around 1-1.3M a season. Or these trades could bring back a young, cheap 5/6 D man. I’ll assume that the Hawks just get prospects though for the rest of this.
I would prefer to have another veteran defenceman to stabilize the 5/6 pairing. Boynton is an option if he’s willing to sign for less than $1M and the Hawks carry Hendry as a 7D. Fraser could be an option to make the team here as well if you’re willing to have Dowell or Fraser as the 3rd line center. I probably would look for other options first, but it is a cost-effective solution.
You’ll also notice a couple other things. First, every hundred thousand bucks the Hawks can save is going to go a long way, whether it be in the Hammer/Niemi contracts or in the backup G contract. Also, just imagine for a second that you don’t have the Huet buyout there, that somehow he miraculously got traded or he was buried on the Rock. Then, that roster has $4.1M in cap space with jut a 3rd line Center, a better 3rd pairing defenceman and a 13th forward, and you’d still have about $1 million left. This is what Stan needs to convince Rocky of on why burying Huet in the minors could be huge. That extra $2M to work with is pretty big. All of a sudden you’re left with this situation:
Brouwer (1.025M)-Toews (6.3M)-Kane (6.3M)
Sharp (3.9M) - Bolland (3.4M)- Hossa (5.25M)
Ladd (1.9M) - 3rd Line Center- Skille (0.85M)
Bickell (0.525M)- Dowell (0.525M) - Kopecky (1.2M)
13F
Keith (5.54M) – Seabrook (3.5M)
Campbell (7.14M) – Hjalmarsson (2.0M)
Lalonde (0.6M) – veteran 5D
Hendry (0.6M)
Niemi (2.0M)
Back-up G (1.0M)
Cap hit: 53.6M
Cap: 57.7M
Cap space: 4.1M needing a 3rd line center, better 5D (possibly acquired in Buff/Versteeg trade) and a 13F if you so choose.
This is workable. You could spend roughly $3M combined on your 3rd line center and veteran 5th Dman and still have about $1M in cap space at the start of the year which would allow you to pick up roughly an additional $4M in cap hit at the trade deadline to improve the team.
You could take this one step further as we also come back to the center problem. Another way for the Hawks to save an extra $1M or so is to trade Sharp for a center and put Beach on the squad. Teams would be lining up for Patrick Sharp so this may be realistic. I’m thinking along the lines of a younger, cheaper center already in the NHL in exchange for Sharp. I’ll just assume for illustration that the Rangers are willing to give up a guy like Dubinsky ($1.85M cap hit) in a deal for him. That may be an ideal scenario, but for argument's sake this brings us to:
Brouwer (1.025M)-Toews (6.3M)-Kane (6.3M)
Beach (1.2M) – Dubinsky (1.85M)- Hossa (5.25M)
Ladd (1.9M) – Bolland (3.4M)- Skille (0.85M)
Bickell (0.525M)- Dowell (0.525M) - Kopecky (1.2M)
13F
Keith (5.54M) – Seabrook (3.5M)
Campbell (7.14M) – Hjalmarsson (2.0M)
Lalonde (0.6M) – veteran 5D
Hendry (0.6M)
Niemi (2.0M)
Back-up G (1.0M)
Cap hit: 52.8M
Cap: 57.7M
Cap space: 4.9M needing a better 5D and a 13F if you so choose.
You could even get by with a Huet buyout in this case and still have $3M left for a defenceman and a 3rd forward.
So there are options. That first option is the base option as outlined, and can be tweaked here and there. There will be hard decisions that have to be made, but that’s the reality of the situation.
I personally prefer the second option as I value Patrick Sharp on this team and I’m of the opinion that Rocky is making a lot of money on this squad right now and that he should pony some of that cash up by burying Huet in order to help keep this squad contending for the Stanley Cup. Especially when ticket prices are rising by as much as I’m hearing they are. Sometimes you do have to clean up the messes made by your employees (Tallon) in order to make sure the entire company doesn’t pay the price for longer than it has to. This applies in this situation. So as a Hawks fan I’m asking you Rocky, please take that money that has come out of our pockets as fans in order to make sure this team stays a contender for the Stanley Cup. It can be done and really it falls to you Rocky.
No comments:
Post a Comment