Here's my thinking...the Canes are more than one step away from truly being a Cup contender. Too many questions need answered, so use 2022-23 to do just that, and be well positioned in the offseason to get anything needed to win the Cup in 2023-24.
- Do the Canes have enough scoring: Based on the playoffs, the answer is no, but that could be misleading given how young they are and talent in the pipeline. So find out this year.
1) Sign Necas to a bridge and make him the 2C
2) Look for big years from Svech and Jarvis
3) Promote Drury
4) Replace Martinook in the line-up with someone with offensive upside - Suzuki
- Is the goaltending good enough? Use one more year to find out if Freddie can be counted on when needed in the playoffs. Regardless, Kochetkov with another year in minors will be ready for a promotion the following season, so either Raanta or Anderson moves on and Canes get 2 or 4.5m in cap space. It's actually a pretty ideal situation to be in.
- Are we well positioned in the offseason prior to 23-24?
1) Staal, Fast, and the two goalies are all UFA. I addressed goalie re-signing above. We can see if Fast is still effective and if Staal will retire or sign a team friendly contract in order to try to win the cup.
2) Try to dump or trade the Martinook contract
3) Since Gardiner is healthy, put him in the lineup for 22-23, unless he is truly great, he will be a UFA and free up 4m
So a chance to free up between 16-18m overall to address additional scoring and maybe goaltending of we need to let both Anderson and Raanta go for an upgrade.
So I know have 12m to fill two forward spots and a defensemen......
HMMMM, what to do about DeAngelo.
Offensive defensive are just so hard to find, especially at about 4.5m which I think if over 3+ years DeAnglelo will take. He is super hard to trust, but it's a modest number for that production. Just too hard to pass up.
Since I'm going to focus on seeing how much additional scoring Necas/Jarvis/Svech can provide and then probably getting a top guy in next years offseason, I want to make sure I have the other pieces, so I'll resign Nino since he is just hard to play against, pairs so well with Staal. But I will want a discount.
Mikhaelya is the "splash" singing this year. A bit of an offensive updgrade to see if KK can produce more offense as well.
McDavid, Connor
250 000 $)
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