Rejoint: avr. 2016
Messages: 3,301
Mentions "j'aime": 1,512
I'm late to this party so apologies if I'm re-hashing anything.
I'd rather keep Holl at $2m. I personally like him as a half decent 2-way D man. He seems to get better the more opportunity he gets. I remember seeing him in a pre-season game 2 years ago and being impressed at his ability to carry the puck up the ice, make a solid outlet, and stay at home when needed. Nothing spectacular, but kinda what we need.
I think Dermott and Mikheyev will get a bigger salary. It's hard to see them give $2m to Holl but less to Dermott.
Leafs will be active on Pietrangelo, Shattenkirk, Bogosian, Demelo, Gudas, etc. and they'll give Lehtonen every chance to crack the squad. I can see Sandin, Liljegren and the 1st rounder all in play to trade for a d-man, too. I could see them targeting one of the Buffalo d-men (Montour, Miller or Risto) in a trade.
I like the Freddy concept...we wouldn't need to retain as I think part of the attraction for Ottawa is using him to get to the cap floor. That being said, I'd personally rather keep him another year and lose him for nothing than get 2nd round picks for him (assuming we can fit his cap hit after addressing the D). It would be a shame to improve the back end and not see how Freddy can play behind some competency.
All in all, there's no single concept you have that doesn't make sense on some level. It's unheard of to make 5 trades and 7 UFA signings in an off-season, but as individual acquisitions I could see any one of them happening.