Official Best Offseason Ever Thread

[WaukeeBlues]

Shattenkirk signed for 1 year with Tampa Bay.

Saw that. Kinda surprising. Their "big 3" (Hedman, McDonough, Sergachev) are all lefties so maybe pairing him with one of those guys to mask his defensive deficiencies?

3rd pairing PP specialist only?

$1.75 isn't bad for him but Tampa is right at the lid. They've only got 10 forwards signed, with 2 D to send down (freeing up ~ $1.5) for a new grand total of about $10.876 in cap space for Erne and Point to hit exactly 12 forwards.

That's tight. That's really tight. Even if we put Point at just below Kuch dollars with the now-famous "Tampa discount" of $9.25 that's less than $2 million bucks for 2 more forwards. 1 on the ice and 1 in the press box.

Good for Shatty I guess but I don't really get it from Tampa's perspective.

[JCShutout]

I could still live without Eddy, but if he comes cheap enough then by all means sign him and let Mikkola develop a bit more in San Antonio. Near the deadline trade Eddy and bring up Mikkola.

As a sort of related aside, I had a brain fart and couldn’t remember if Reinke was a r or ld, so I googled him up and his profile pic is some dude on the Philly Eagles. Nice try, Yahoo sports! I needed the laugh for sure.

I'm kinda the same. Would be good to have that defensive depth, I'd prefer to have him on the team, but if the price is too much... oh well. We move on. I'm particularly against anything more than a 1 year deal considering Pietro, Dunn, and Schenn are all coming due next offseason.

If Eddy can be had at a reasonable rate (under $3m), sign and keep him. No way JayBo plays beyond this year. (Or at least you have to plan for him to be gone), and that gives you 2 solid top 4 (assuming Eddy rebounds) LD options, and Mikkola can come up to cover for injuries and have a bigger role next year in Gunnar's final year.

I think the Blues can make Petro, Dunn and Schenn fit with JayBo retiring, and a Steen buyout or Allen trade. (I could see Allen getting traded in his last year if he plays a really solid 35 games this year. Someone with a rookie/young goalie or an aging goalie who needs a better backup will take a flier on him for one year to see if he can be a short term solution)

[theohall]

Being in Jacksonville and following Tampa as my "2nd" team, I don't get the Shattenkirk signing. Tampa's big flaw in the playoffs defensively, was a) not having defensively responsible defenseman (like Shattenkirk) and b) forwards over-playing the offensive side of the puck.

So... look at Tampa's defenseman:

Hedman - who always pushes offense over defense
McDonagh - a solid 2-way defenseman
Sergacheev - another push offense over defense guy
Cernak - a more defensive guy, but he pushed his offensive game his rookie year (last year) sacrificing his D game which got him there

Then Coburn, Witkowski, Rutta, and Shattenkirk.

I can see Shattenkirk being effective IN THE REGULAR SEASON as a 3rd pairing guy, but...

No one in those 7 screams defensive defenseman and we all know Parayko playing that role specifically was a major factor in the Blues winning the Cup, while the Bruins best defensive D guy was Chara who the Blues clearly wore down.

What happens when a team basically only has one guy who truly is a defensive d-man in the playoffs? We know the Blues had more than one...

IMO, Horrible signing by the Lightning and actually wrote that in comments on The Athletic before he was signed.

Lightning aren't winning the Cup in 2020, IMO, regardless of their regular season success, which they will have again, giving them the repeated false self-confidence.

[WaukeeBlues]

Being in Jacksonville and following Tampa as my "2nd" team, I don't get the Shattenkirk signing. Tampa's big flaw in the playoffs defensively, was a) not having defensively responsible defenseman (like Shattenkirk) and b) forwards over-playing the offensive side of the puck.

So... look at Tampa's defenseman:

Hedman - who always pushes offense over defense
McDonagh - a solid 2-way defenseman
Sergacheev - another push offense over defense guy
Cernak - a more defensive guy, but he pushed his offensive game his rookie year (last year) sacrificing his D game which got him there

Then Coburn, Witkowski, Rutta, and Shattenkirk.

I can see Shattenkirk being effective IN THE REGULAR SEASON as a 3rd pairing guy, but...

No one in those 7 screams defensive defenseman and we all know Parayko playing that role specifically was a major factor in the Blues winning the Cup, while the Bruins best defensive D guy was Chara who the Blues clearly wore down.

What happens when a team basically only has one guy who truly is a defensive d-man in the playoffs? We know the Blues had more than one...

IMO, Horrible signing by the Lightning and actually wrote that in comments on The Athletic before he was signed.

Lightning aren't winning the Cup in 2020, IMO, regardless of their regular season success, which they will have again, giving them the repeated false self-confidence.

The Jackets sweep of the Lightning is so unprecedented and so bizarre I don't know, to this day, what the huge "take away" is. I think it's a combination of things as a lot of these are. First is the Lightning not having played meaningful hockey for about 3 months before the playoffs started. Boomer on Sirius XM radio broke it down statistically and it was incredible: Lightning were still winning games but the goals-per-game went through the roof. Translated: Lightning were still winning games, but in scores of 6-4 now whereas before they were winning 4-2. The other weird part is they started fine! Went up 3-0 on the Blue Jackets to start game 1. Then they go outscored 12-2 for the rest of game 1 and into games 2 and 3. BJ's woke up, the game got really tight, and Bolts couldn't score. But they were giving up the same number of goals as they had been.

You also can't ignore the fact the Bolts scored 1 goal each in games 2 and 3. I don't care what the defensive situation is, you're not going to win many playoff series if you score 1 goal each in 2 games.

The Lightning have to get comfortable playing in tight checking, brutal hockey games. Maybe that's the only take-away, I don't know. Then again the 2019 playoffs were just madness all the way through for so many reasons. Maybe it was just "one of those years." So hard to say. After all, the Lightning went to the conference finals last season, going 7 games. Though it's worth noting they didn't score a single goal in games 6 and 7 of that series.

Who knows. The margin between the team that bows out in 7 in round 1 and the team that wins the Cup is so razor thin it's often beyond comprehension what makes the difference.

[gaijin]

Edmundson gets 1 year, $3.1 million.

[StL Dan]

Interim HC Craig Berube: 06/24, offered and signed 3 yr contract with the StL Blues

UFA
Carl Gunnarsson 06/27 - signed 2 yr, 3.5M contract (1.75M AAV) with the StL Blues[/i]
Michael Del Zotto- signed 1 year FA deal with the Anaheim Ducks[/i]
Jared Coreau- signed FA deal with the New York Islanders[/i]
Chris Thorburn
Pat Maroon

RFA
Joel Edmundson 08/06 - Awarded 1 yr, 3.1M contract with the StL Blues[/i]
Oskar Sundqvist 07/21 - signed 4 yr, 11M (2.75M AAV) contract with the StL Blues[/i]
Ville Husso 07/20 - signed 1 yr/ 2way contract with the StL Blues[/i]
Jordan Binnington 07/13 - signed 2 yr (4.4M AAV) with the StL Blues[/i]
Robby Fabbri 07/12 - signed 1 yr, 900K contract with the StL Blues[/i]
Zach Sanford 07/08 - signed 2 yr, 3M (1.5M AAV) contract with the StL Blues [/i]
Sammy Blais 07/01 - signed 1 yr, 850K contract with the StL Blues[/i]
Ivan Barbashev

Existing contracts with caveats
Tyler Bozak has 10-team no trade list
David Perron has 5-team no trade list
Jaden Schwartz has 15-team no trade list

Full no trade clauses:
Vladimir Tarasenko
Alex Pietrangelo
Alexander Steen
Jay Bouwmeester

**Chris Butler 07/03 - announces retirement from the NHL[/i]

[StL Dan]

Ivan Barbashev remains the only unsigned RFA.

According to CapFriendly.com, the Blues have slightly more than 1.9M left in cap space for 2019-20.

[theohall]

That arbitration result is a big win for Blues management and probably a kick in the jumblies for Edmundson

[WaukeeBlues]

Ivan Barbashev remains the only unsigned RFA.

According to CapFriendly.com, the Blues have slightly more than 1.9M left in cap space for 2019-20.

Despite what Armstrong might want in terms of cap space for the year, if we're keeping the roster as constructed, we're going right up to the lid. Doesn't Barbie want Sundqvist money? $2.75 per, or close to it?

Only solution would be to send a guy down (like MacEachern, clears $750k), carry just 22 players into the season, which gets us to $2.72 million, which is right there with where Barbashev would likely sign.

But then we have zero wiggle room, much less the $2 million cushion that Army was looking for.

[JCShutout]

Barbie wants Sundvqust term, but less $ https://twitter.com/lkorac10/status/1158798229766586368 EDIT: I think, if Barbie can really be had for $1.75/y, I think the Blues do that and are done. I think they like the defensive depth Eddy brings, and if he walks next year, that's money for Petro, Schenn and Dunn.

That leaves them with more a bit under $1m cap room. Less than the $2m DA said he wanted, but that should be enough room to bring up Kyrou, MacEachern, Mikkola, Reinke or Husso if necessary. (but not more than one at a time)

[theohall]

Thought this posted, but apparently it didn't.

One thing to remember is more cap space will become available through the season as salaries are paid. Yes, it's slow, but it makes ~1M in cap space at the start of the season more workable as the season progresses.

[StL Dan]

Thought this posted, but apparently it didn't.

One thing to remember is more cap space will become available through the season as salaries are paid. Yes, it's slow, but it makes ~1M in cap space at the start of the season more workable as the season progresses.

That's news to me. Was not aware of that dynamic.

Also, I've seen some reports - in the Twitterverse - that remaining cap space after Eddy's contract hit is 2.7M.

[theohall]

That's part of why when there are late season trades and someone's contract has X AAV which seems like it shouldn't fit under the cap, it does, because all that matters is what's left. Someone else here pointed that out to me a couple of years ago.

What really screws with this - bonuses, because bonuses all hit at once and if the team winds up over, due to bonuses, they have to pay a penalty. That actually happened to Chicago several years ago.

[StL Dan]

Interesting. Thanks for unpacking that a bit. Glad it screwed Chicago over. Hopefully, the Blues find optimal flexibility within that system going forward.

RE: 2.7M cap space - JR just reported that number on Bernie and Michele during his weekly guest spot this morning. Now I'm wondering why sportrac and JR have different values. I trust JR, though.

[theohall]

Interesting. Thanks for unpacking that a bit. Glad it screwed Chicago over. Hopefully, the Blues find optimal flexibility within that system going forward.

RE: 2.7M cap space - JR just reported that number on Bernie and Michele during his weekly guest spot this morning. Now I'm wondering why sportrac and JR have different values. I trust JR, though.

700K is going to come off the books when Pouliot gets sent to San Antonio. That's where 700K is coming from. No way are the Blues carrying 8 D to start the season. The accurate number is 2.67M. They are just rounding up.

[StL Dan]

Interesting. Thanks for unpacking that a bit. Glad it screwed Chicago over. Hopefully, the Blues find optimal flexibility within that system going forward.

RE: 2.7M cap space - JR just reported that number on Bernie and Michele during his weekly guest spot this morning. Now I'm wondering why sportrac and JR have different values. I trust JR, though.

700K is going to come off the books when Pouliot gets sent to San Antonio. That's where 700K is coming from. No way are the Blues carrying 8 D to start the season. The accurate number is 2.67M. They are just rounding up.

I knew there was a reason.

[WaukeeBlues]

What is the deal with all the remaining UFA's?

I don't recall a year like this where so many were still left un-signed that we all thought should be by now. (Gardiner, Marleau, Thornton, Williams, Maroon, Phaneuf). Granted at least 3 of those are seriously contemplating retirement and have their own timelines but still.

Also these RFA deals are going to be a mess. Several of these guys are going to bleed into the preseason at least, if not the regular season. Believe you me.

I also don't get the rhetoric of "everyone is waiting on Marner so he can set the market." Really? There's 31 teams and hundreds of contracts and you can't figure out what the market is for Mitch Marner and Matthew Tkachuk?

Here you go, I'll make it easy: Auston Matthews signed 6 flippin months ago for 5 years at $11.634 per. The cap has barely moved. Last 2 seasons he's been almost exactly point per game and helluh talented.

*clears throat* Now... bare with me, because this is really, really difficult: Are you a point per game? [check box] Are you a demonstrably better player than Matthews (be honest)? [check box] Do you want more than 5 years? [check box, bring the AAV down a bit] Do you want less than 5 years? [check box, bring AAV up a bit, in relation to your answers on 1 and 2]

I feel like every year once these deals get done they could've been done on the back of a napkin at a coffee shop in about 15 minutes. Am I wrong?

"Auston doesn't want to go full 8"
"Well we do"
"He doesn't"
"We offer 8"
"He'll go 4"
"We offer 7"
"He'll go 5, final offer"
"Ok fine."

"We want cap ceiling"
"LOLZ"
"He should get McDavid money"
"LOLZ"
"Ok fine but he's elite top 5 and should be paid"
"Ok, now we're talking. We have no problem setting him up for life, so I'm assuming you want to front load this thing?"
"Duh"
"Ok, what about $9 per"
"No way"
"$10 per"
"closer but now"
"Ok I thought we just said not McDavid money"
"How about just less than McDavid, who, let's be honest, underpaid himself"
"Alright fine, $11"
"Ehhhhh"
"Seriously? Okay fine $11.5"
"ehhhhhhh"
"$11.55 and not going higher"
"$11.75"
"$11.6"
"$11.7"
"$11.65"
"$11.634"
"Deal"

[glen a richter]

Speaking of unsigned guys, odds on Barbie going to the KHL? Come on Army, get him signed already! He has to be asking more than is cap feasible or it would have been done by now.

[theohall]

Barbashev is probably more about term right now. Probably wants less years to avoid being underpaid if he improves. Consider if he signs a 1 year deal now, he has arbitration rights next year. The risk there would be the same one Edmundson took, which hurt Edmundson.

Totally agree on the BS with other RFAs waiting for Marner. There's rumors Marner will hold out or not be signed until Oct 1st. Are all these other guys going to skip camp, too, and/or hold out? It's just stupid considering the cap didn't go up to accommodate big raises.

I'm fine with all these other goobers holding out, though, because that just benefits the Blues in terms of opponents being prepared when the season starts.

[StL Dan]

Speaking of unsigned guys, odds on Barbie going to the KHL? Come on Army, get him signed already! He has to be asking more than is cap feasible or it would have been done by now.

This "official best offseason ever" thread just couldn't go off w/o, at least, a little bit of a hitch, right?