Kopitar and Doughty, 99% retained.

I feel like Tampas more likely to shed salary with some of their solid but overpaid players rather than give up Serg

Love how CF censors F-a-gemo's name by default.

I don't really think offer sheets are going to happen in any kind. We would've already seen some if they were a thing. Teams have probably made a quiet agreement on not making such deals during this covid time since it's pretty much f*cking up everything many of the teams planned to build.

As for the return for Sergachev, I think a NHL ready player rolling with their ELC and a first should be a start. Sadly though with the list of prospects you do not like to include to a trade have more or less all the interesting names from TB's point of view.

I personally would want Vilardi+1st for Sergachev. Either 2021 or 2022 is fine.

I think taking on Johnson, giving up one of the cheap, young forwards ready to play in the NHL, and giving up at least a 2nd round pick and a somewhat highly regarded prospect is a must. But if Tampa isn't getting a deal done soon they might have to look at an even cheaper offer.

What this really depends on is if 1) Sergachev can sign for 1-3 years and less money, and 2) how much LA can absorb in salary, and maybe more importantly how unwilling other teams are to do that.

I think the Bolts would want Vilardi, but I think if the Kings could net Sergachev without giving up Byfield, Vilardi, Turcotte or Kaliyev I’d consider it a good deal for Blake.

Not sure the Kings want to move anything other than a 2nd and prospects.

I don't know if the Kings want to take on Johnson but if they are getting Sergachev it's worth a look: Kings send Lizotte for Sergachev (sign and trade 6Mx7), Tyler Johnson ($1M retained)

I agree that offer sheets are unlikely.

I should have clarified on the prospect list. Those players would not be available if a 1st was included in the trade. I think they'd consider moving one of those players (not Byfield) if a 1st wasn't going back to Tampa. Sergachev is a good player, but not worth a 1st+Vilardi IMO.

Canucks gave up just a third rounder to get Schmidt and his 5.9 X 5 contract. Kings could spend 6m on a UFA(s) and not give up any prospects and picks. So I think Sergachev trade value is very low...if only that LA can spend 6m on competent NHLers. So I don't see any offer sheets coming especially from a team that has cap and probably a lottery pick candidate.

I think that an offer sheet is still possible. Depends on who Tampa signs first. If another team gets either Cirelli or Sergachev to sign an offer sheet, this puts Tampa in a bind to match. They would have to move Johnson quickly within the 7 day window to do this. If another team then signs the other to an offer sheet, then what? So for example, Cirelli signs for $5mm for 6 years. Then Sergachev signs $6.5mm for 5 years right after Tampa matches for Cirelli.

I'm not saying that an offer sheet is impossible, but that it would be a mistake for LA to give one for Sergachev since it would result in them giving up a potential lottery pick.

However, I think a team would have to significantly overpay to acquire either player (IMO $6.5M wouldn't get it done), since you're asking them to leave the best team in the NHL to go to a significantly worse team. All of the teams with the cap space to get it done aren't exactly Cup contenders.

Sergachev is the unquestioned top priority of the RFAs. Hard to put a value on him since he would be signed over Cernak and Cirelli.

If we're ignoring all of that and assuming 2021 1st is off the table, then it starts with a prized prospect, preferably a defender. Then you could start adding more mid to upper tier prospects and the 2022 1st.

Didn't say the 2021 1st is off the table. Just that it needs to be top 10 protected if included since the Kings don't want to end up like San Jose and give up a top 3 overall pick.

If a 1st round pick is included in the trade (2021 or 2022), then the Kings wouldn't give up the guys I mentioned in the description, as the 1st plus one of those guys would be too much to give up. A 2022 1st, a "prized" defender, and more is significantly more than LA would be willing to pay.

I could see the Kings doing something like a top-ten protected 1st, a 2nd, and a prospect like Kale Clague or Rasmus Kupari/Akil Thomas. If they were to forego the 1st, I could see the Kings going with something like a 2nd, Grans, and Clague.

I wasn't using the Kings in the example, just going over what could possibly happen and put more pressure on Tampa.

Understood, but there's a lot of teams out there that have their own cap troubles. I can't imagine that a team like Columbus is willing to risk giving up two 1sts just to put the screws on the Lightning.

I'm admittedly not familiar with LA's prospect pool outside of Byfield, but he really doesn't do much for Tampa since Point is already (he'll get 8 years) locked in with Kucherov as the future of the 1st line going forward. And Cirelli stays on the 2nd line in the case of trading Sergachev. The only thing we really need is Sergachev himself.

I understand that, but something has to get moved. Obviously the ideal solution is to move Johnson and Killorn, but if it were that easy they would have done it already.

The question becomes do you want to pay assets to move less desirable players (Johnson, Killorn, Gourde, Palat), or gain assets by trading away the desirable unsigned RFAs. We learned from Vegas that teams aren't going to line up to bail out teams with cap troubles.

I can say this here hopefully since Tampa fan's are less likely to see this, but my choice as GM would be to trade Cirelli. Having 3 RFAs like these 3 will command significant raises now and in 2-3 years. Trade Cirelli now and ensure a stable cap situation for the foreseeable future. A 2nd line center is much easier to find than a 22 y/o borderline elite defenseman.

Makes sense. Even if they do trade Cirelli, do they have the cap space to sign Sergachev if they don't move at least one of the other expendable forwards?

Someone still has to be moved. In an ideal world it is Johnson still, and then have Gourde move up to 2C. He's good enough for the role, but currently overpaid as 3C.

Curious to see if they can get a deal done for Johnson without having to give up significant assets.

I'm okay parting with a first if that is the price. Retaining salary is last resort for our situation I'd think. $1 million retained plus asset wouldn't be terrible though.

I think there would be a number of takers for Johnson if there's a 1st going along with him.

Disagree about losing Cirelli 100%. 23 year old 2C's that are Selke level in their 2nd year are far from easy to replace. Brisebois just needs to be patient and wait to see who's interested after the last of the highest prized ufa F are signed, then pay the 1st and possibly retain a little to move Johnson and get a 2nd or a 3rd for Killorn if trading him is the plan. Trading Cirelli for scratch off tickets or maybe prospects is a bad move for Tampa's future.

The math with having Cirelli as 2C does not work long-term if the cap is flat for 2-3 years or longer. Ideally we could make a bridge deal work for 2-3 years, which is easily possible with moving some people like you mentioned, and then get dollars for pennies by trading him. However, I am not exactly sure what kind of promises go into making some of these team friendly bridge deals.

If the cap is back to $2million+ growth a year after the 21-22 season, then perhaps things look a little better.

The cap should see growth potentially by the Summer of '22, so if the 3 rfas are bridged for a combination of 2 or 3 years, the math should work out. Between the expansion draft and the new T.V. deal, cap growth should occur by then or at the latest, the summer of '23. Tampa also will shed 5 million+ at the exp draft, as more than likely one of Palat, Gourde or McD is going to Seattle, depending on how Tampa wants to set up their protection list.

There are some unknown variables that make it challenging to factor everything in, but down the line can see Tampa's top 9 having Stamkos, Point, Kuch, Cirelli, Goodrow, Coleman, one of Palat or Gourde, Barre-Boulet and one other player, most likely a low cost vet or perhaps a younger player like Volkov, Stephens etc. If McD gets taken by Seattle, Tampa can still run a defense core going ahead with Hedman, Serg, Cernak and Foote as the top 4, with lower cost depth like Rutta, Schenn etc for depth. The roster will have some turnover regardless, but Point-Cirelli is the future top 6 C depth of this team. Stamkos seems to prefer the wing now, but obviously having him as a C option is also a nice luxury to have.

After 2, maybe 3 more years, Tampa will need to have had several draft picks developed and be ready to fill some of the losses on offense and maybe defense, but this was an eventuality regardless of what may happen now. In 3 years though, Tampa could choose to keep a couple extra depth pieces who will be 33/34, or keep the key rfas who will be 25/26.

I hope they can keep Killorn, Gourde and Palat for another run, and maybe two of them for 2 more, but many TBL fans were more than ready to move on from Killorn and Palat after the 2019 year, but they both rebounded very well this past year. I guess we'll see what Brisebois can do, since he also seems to want to keep Killorn as well as the 3 rfas. If he can somehow pull that off, he will be some kind of magician.