Drop the 4th and should still be a pretty easy yes from SJ.

Those trades are pretty horrible dude

Still a "no" from the Avs; they cannot afford to re-sign Mitts. Also, why are Sabres trading him?

Do the Sabres really need the 750k retained, though? They'd have better luck and likely get a lower price if it wasn't using the final retention slot this year and next year.

Idk where you’re getting that we can’t re-sign him. We could make some simple moves to pay for him. Teams do it all the time and he’s not gonna get more than 7 million . Idk if this would be the price though probably a better prospect

How does those simple moves look if Mittelstadts gets 7M?

Philly pass - Philly might trade Laughton to a playoff team.
Buffalo should not trade Mittelstadt & Jokiharju.

I like the Joshua signing, but seems a bit high. Maybe 3mill Avv

So the Avs re-sign Mitts at $7M. Now they're $4M over the cap and still have 5 spots to fill plus they need cap space for call-ups. Landy LTIRetires? Now they have $7M but they have to replace Landy so that's going to cost quite a bit and they still have those 5 spots to fill and need cap space. Trade a few guys to make space? Who's going? And now they have to be replaced. I can't see the Avs making major roster changes just to sign an expensive 2C because the net effect would be the Avs are worse off.

They’d have to move RyJo I’d imagine in the original mittelstadt deal then move one of Girard, Manson or lehkonen. Lose one good player and a bad one for 2c of the future. Easier to find a middle 6 wing than it is to find a 50-60 point 2c

In any actual deal in season Johansen would more than likely be involved. Then to extend him they’d have to move Girard Manson or lehkonen

Yes, RyJo is inevitably going to have to be moved. This season or in the offseason, it has to happen.

For Mittelstadt to work at 7M it requires that you get rid of two of those contracts, not one. For example, Manson AND Girard. Which means that you have a massive problem at D. And that’s just next year. How do you solve Mikkos and Byrams extensions the following year? Please, feel free to play around with it, because i can’t find any resonable way to make it work..

It's actually fairly likely they just buy Joey out rather than pay good assets to move him which sucks but they can't afford to lose more assets just to get him off the books. I've been running some scenarios where it could possibly work to get someone like Mitts but it rests on some big assumptions:

1) The Avs would have to give Buffalo something they want; what they need is RD and G help, two things the Avs don't have
2) Landy never plays again
3) Still have to trade Manson

And that's just to start. I still don't think it works but I'm sure the FO is going over all scenarios.

You don’t have to trade 2 of them outside of RyJo. They’d have to fill the 4th line and 3rd pair with minimum guys until the deadline. If they really wanted to not do that they trade Girard and lehkonen for futures extend Drouin to replace him at a lower cap hit. I don’t think they need to do that though. I think they probably have to trade lehky the next year to keep Mikko and byram though

Any time anyone says that a team will have to make a trade to afford another player, they frequently skip the part where the player that gets traded now has to be replaced. They are not going to find a player that does what those players do on the ice for the price they do it at except for, perhaps, Manson. Trading Lehky should be a non-starter; he's the kind of guy you'd love to have 5 of because he does it all. Girard plays top-4 minutes at a reasonable cap hit. And the Avs have nothing in the pipeline ready to move up and take those spots at a cheap price so the Avs will be paying UFA rates to fill holes in the roster.

All this is to say: they might solve the 2C issue but they'll create other ones in the process and probably not be any better off for it. Also, if Landy comes back (which, at this point, we simply have to account for), they're definitely going to have to trade at least two players to have any hope of filling out the roster. That would, needless to say, create even more holes to fill.

They won’t buy johansen out that 1.5 mil dead cap 2025-2026 is massive for how cap strapped we are. A 3rd rounder isn’t gonna do anything for this team anytime soon anyway 1.5 mil is the difference in losing a good player or keeping them

You do realize you're talking about losing three significant roster players within the next two seasons and replacing them with scrubs to be able to sign one, right? How does that make the team better overall?

I don't think it's that farfetched to think he might get bought out; it's $1.333M for two seasons. If some team will take a 3rd, that's fine but then they don't have that asset to make other deals. You can argue that not having the buyout dead cap money is worth it but they may not see it that way.

2C is a deeper hole than a 3rd pair D. Ik byram has struggled this year but a top 4 of Toews-Makar Byram-Manson is still very good for next year. Drouin can likely be extended for a cheaper cap hit than lehky to save cap and give similar enough production if they thought they needed too. Healthy lehky is our 4th best winger even though he’s an awesome winger that’s clearly the cap you cut after whoever they choose of Girard Manson or Byram. If landy comes back a shell of himself it really wouldn’t matter much we aren’t winning another cup with his contract if he isn’t at least a 60-70 point player

Have you made a 2024/2025 roster moving only 1 piece (RyJo not counted), Manson or Girard?

Replacing Lehkys production/contributions at a similar/lower cap hit seems very hard. Even coming close to what he brings seems very difficult.

My opinion on this is pretty clear. Unless Landy retires, the Avs will have a very hard time adding a expensive 2C without some SERIOUS roster restructure.

2025-2026 after rants and Byram extension we likely have around 10 mil to re-sign LOC Georgie with no 2c or 4th liners or second goalie and the 1.33 dead cap while not much in reality brings that down to 8.7. That’s with no kovalenko if he plays really well also. No matter what they decide to do roster wise we can’t take that dead cap imo.

Yeah I had RyJo being moved in the original deal for mittelstadt and moved Girard. I extended mittelstadt 7x8 even though I think you could possibly get him a little lower and filled out LW and C on the 4th lines with minimums same with 3LD and goalie. The 4th and 3rd pairs are weak but you can fix that at the deadline

Okey i understand. You’re running a 20 player roster then, right?

No I was able to fit in 21. Signed Tyler motte Freddie olofsson Calvin de haan Caleb jones and Chris Driedger while bringing up kovalenko come deadline they probably want a 3rd pair d and 4c which with retention shouldn’t be to hard to get. Girard would also bring back a 1st and a prospect I think especially being on pace for 40 points on pp2. Would suck ass to lose him but it makes sense

Can the Avs afford to re-sign Mitts were the Sabres to trade him (which I don't think they would)? The answer is yes. Can they REALISTICALLY afford to? The answer is a resounding NO.