Ottawa accepts.

And runs.

That Imama contract is the most random long term contract AAV I've ever seen.

id give him an 8 year deal simply for his name

I agree Bjustad would be an interesting depth option pick up for the Leafs around the deadline. They are missing a big, centre option for their bottom line and in their depth options. I like what the Leafs have now but as an extra skater, I would be happy. 3rd round pick would be my max pay.

Ghost definitely wouldn’t be playing with Pesce, but I would imagine the Canes try to push Heimosalmi to a bit of a lesser prospect.

That's a no from the Rangers.

Personally, if I owned a NHL team (which would mean I was a multi billionaire), I would value a 4th and a 6th way more than 1.67 M$ spread over 2 years. I think pretty much every NHL franchise would see it that way

No idea if they see Romeo as a bust already or if they see him as guy who could potentially help Belleville for cheap... so no idea if it adds to the problem above.

For me, Zaitsev is a NO BRAINER buyout next summer (like Del Zotto last season)

lol I have repeated that so much already

But anyway, next ownership group will decide anyway

It's a slam dunk trade for Ottawa.

It is going to cost a lot more to move from pick 61 to pick 19 in this stacked draft. Look how much it took for the Coyotes to get pick 11. They had to give up pick 27, 34, 45. You are about 2 first round picks short there

It’s because you think that the only way to get rid of Zaitsev is by trading him

But look how the team got rid of some of Dorion mistakes

Matt Murray and Dion Phaneuf retained salary

Bobby Ryan, Colin White and Michael Del Zotto bought out. They could have paid another team to take them but it just made much more sense to buy them out. Draft picks have value ($$$) to teams. That is why teams are ready to buy players out IF the cost and the cap penalty doesn’t exceed the value they attribute to the assets they would have to lose by trading

In this particular case, 1.67 M$ spread over 2 years is nothing. The only issue is the cap penalty for the FIRST year but if the cap really goes up to 86.5 M$, then it’s easily manageable. The cap penalty for the 2nd year is very low so not a problem anymore… plus, most of that dead money will expire in the meantime

That’s the reality of having a rookie GM making a lot of mistakes…

$2.8 million the first year is a big deal, even if the cap goes up a lot it will still be difficult to improve the team. That's why I'd trade a pick to get rid of Zaitsev.

Yeah but you saw my thread the other day? I gave you the link

I gave Zub 5.0; DeBrincat 9.0, Brannstrom 2.0 and Pinto 5.0 while buying out Zaitsev and it all fit under the cap…

Everyone else is signed. I gave worst case scenarios for each (Pinto and Brannstrom will definitely not get that with their actual numbers) just to show that we have the space to maneuver

Yeah, and if I recall correctly that team heavily relied on young unproven players to fill the gaps which is not ideal.

https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/647528

The lineup was made with these players (made some changes but kept the same players)


Tkachuk - Norris - Batherson
DeBrincat - Stützle - Giroux
Greig - Pinto - Joseph
Crookshank - Kastelic - Kelly

Chabot - Zub
Sanderson - JBD
Brännström - Thomson

Forsberg - Hellberg


Forwards out : Motte, Watson, Gambrell, Brassard
D-men out : Hamonic, Zaitsev, Holden

Forwards in : Greig, Crookshank
D-men in : JBD, Thomson


Greig is going to be the next great young player to graduate, you'll fell in love with his game very fast if you're not already familiar with him.

Crookshank would have made the team out of camp last year if he didn't get hurt. He was great again in camp but I guess they wanted to ease him back into competition after missing out a full year. He'll be there at some point, probably even this season. He's another guy who plays the right way

None of the 7 guys I have as out will be missed. Maybe Motte but Greig will make you forget him fast.

The thing here is we really have to wonder if it's a good idea to COMMIT huge money to DeBrincat when we could maybe instead get a solid veteran RHD (like Nick Jensen for example) and a solid 3rd line RWer with that money. We already are commited to Tkachuk, Norris, Stutzle, Giroux and Batherson. Pinto and Greig will also cost some money eventually, and Formenton if he ever comes back

IMO, I would have done completely different than Dorion did and I would have Nick Paul and Connor Brown on my team with a young RHD. I could have used that 7th OA pick as well as many other assets to achieve it

I get what you're saying but what you outlined is the Sens relying on JBD, Thomson, Brannstrom, Grieg, Crookshank for success without any established NHLers for depth.

So it COULD work but its a big risk.

I also get what you're saying but a few things :

- As you can see, only Ridly Greig and JBD are either in the Top-9 or the Top-4. Note that we have had guys like Tyler Motte, Derick Brassard, Dylan Gambrell, Travis Hamonic or Nikita Zaitsev, etc in these roles this season. Let that sink in.

- I have been very high on Greig for a while, I think he'll be excellent right away and he could be playing right now but he's been injury prone so it delays the process. And don't forget that Formenton could come back, we never know.

- We took our time to develop JBD, he will be 23 y/o next season. He was Belleville's best D-man defensively in his rookie season and has looked quite good this season. Unfortunately, he got injured but I think he was seizing the opportunity to become a regular over Zaitsev and/or Holden.

- Jake Sanderson in his 20 y/o season carries Travis Hamonic and allows him to have good advanced stats... I'm sure he could help out JBD as well. Keep in mind, they already know each others pretty well from ND

- Angus Crookshank and Lassi Thomson are the only other skaters inserted but in very small roles. Like I said, Crookshank plays the right way and would be a very big upgrade on Parker Kelly. Thomson will also be 23 y/o next season and if he's not good enough for that role, could always sign a cheap vet like Holden

All that being said, things could be done way differently (and we'll see when new ownership/management/coaching happens), they don't have to give DeBrincat 9.0 per season (and I hope they don't). They could instead use that 9.0 for a RHD and a 2-way LWer (which still could be Formenton)


Tkachuk - Norris - Batherson
LWer - Stützle - Giroux
Greig - Pinto - Joseph
Crookshank - Kastelic - Kelly

Chabot - RHD
Sanderson - Zub
Brännström - JBD

Yeah, it definitely could work.