Goodbye Perron. Thanks for the years, but it’s time to move on from him.
The_Astros_Cheated
Sprong, Perron, Fischer, Veleno, and Reimer are likely all out. Not sure what’s gonna happen with the rest.
Hylyx_
I don’t mind Perron back in a depth role but his contract shouldn’t start with more than a 3
Fluffybestcat
I would still bring Perron back to replace Fisher’s spot. Then ideally Fischer to replace Czarnik/Aston-Reese’s spot as a backup. That’s in a perfect world though
EatingFurniture
I think we sign Veleno back cheap.
Caboose119z
Fischer is a no brainer to re-sign for me. Isn’t due a raise or a paycut and fits in well. That said you can find more Fischers. Perron only if he takes a huge paycut and 1 year. Absolutely incredible locker room guy. Kane is the priority, would love to see a 5×3 but I think we get outbid. Don’t see how we can keep Sprong or Gostisbehere. Raymond and Seider matching 8.5x8s seems fair. Veleno on a 1 or 2 year deal or trade bait.
Need to find a way out from Holl (buyout isn’t bad) and at least one other contract whether its Petry, Maatta, or Copp. Possibly Fabbri.
Need to figure out who’s splitting with Lyon because he can’t do it himself, it sure as shit ain’t Reimer, and Husso is a huge risk.
Way2Grizzled4U
I really want Kane back.
Fair-Chipmunk4376
I’d be willing to clear out some dollars by trading Maatta, possibly Fabbri. Kane is a priority and I wouldn’t mind Perron back on a cheap 1 year deal. Our prospects of bringing back ghost and sprong probably aren’t great but would not mind ghost back in a sheltered role with a better d partner. Husso or a Holl buyout I think could be in the cards as well.
coltron57
Kane, Perron, and Fischer are the three I’d want back most in that order. It’s going to be a snug cap fit next year once Seider and Raymond get paid unless we can move one or two of the overpaid deals.
Medievil_Walrus
$27M in cap…. $16 assumed to be Raymond and Mo.
$11M left for…
A top 6 winger (Kane).
A middle six winger (Perron)
A top 4 D (Ghost)
A 4C (Fischer)
A 3C (Valeno)
Wonder how many minimum /entry level deals we roll with and who those guys will be.
Also wonder how we can eject Petry and Woll.
Early-Apartment-7866
Gostisbehere deserves to return purely after the last two games. Absolutely unbelievable effort.
Vinnym222
Perron, Fabbri and Veleno to me have got to go
lets_kill_time
Guys we need a real 4th line with some punishers. We don’t have a single tough guy or aggressor that can take the game to the opponent.. we gotta sign Fischer and need some of the cheap defensive forwards that bring nastiness to the game. Lafferty, Cizikas, Watson types.
WarOtter
I… forgot Taro Hirose existed.
Ok_Message_1330
Well here’s the problem: Inconsistent goalie, 5 bottom pair defensemen (not counting ed), and a good amount of pending free agents. It’ll definitely be an interesting season.
Medievil_Walrus
$27M in cap space, but…
Cutting Husso would cost $1.6 for two years. And save over $3M in cap space for 2024.
Cutting Holl would cost us $1.1 for two years and save $2.27 in cap space for 2024. That’s a no brainer.
The_ManWithNoName
We can’t bring back every player. We would be the same team as this year. Kane is number 1 priority for me. I’d be good with Joe coming back too. I think we need new blood with the others. Perron is really showing his age, speed wise. Ghost will cost too much. I see him wanting a payday. Just my opinion lol
Hawks1523
I just want Kane back 🙁
markkusmad
I think they like Fabbri. He probably deserved better than 4th line duty this year. I liked him on the 3rd these last few games.
To me, Fisher (although effective) should be the 12th/13th forward if he is brought back. I like Spring but as the offense dried up, I think he fell out of favour. I could see them bringing Perron back in a diminished role and salary, slotting him on the 3rd or 4th line (at times). They need another top 6 winger as it would slot everyone else down a line into better spots and match ups
In all reality, they aren’t all returning. In my mind, the Blueline dead weight needs to be moved on from. I would like them to find a way out of Hill’s contract and one of Petry or Maatta too. I liked Ghost as 3RD and if possible, I’d happily have him back. They need an upgrade to the 2RD spot. Something like:
Walman – Seider Chiarot – UFA Edvinsson – Ghost Petry or Maata
Or interchange Edvinsson and Chariot, pending how things are going. Chiarot can also play his offside, so there is a world they go with a top 4 of Walman – Seider and Edvinsson – Chariot, but it seems unlikely
Obviously, something needs to happen in net. Everyone likes Husso and in some regards it’d be a shame to cut bait on him as they did with Ned, but for what he’s being paid and how he’s played (coupled with the injuries), if they have legit playoff aspirations next year they need more stability.
Overall, I’d be good with moving with Holl, Petry/Maatta, Sprong, while elevating Berggren and retaining Ghost etc. I just don’t know if the money will be there
Skate_19
I wonder if Jared McIsaac’s time in the organization is done. Such a shame, he had a lot of potential but injuries absolutely ruined his chances
Walman-seider Eddy-pesce Chariot-maata Albert / Holl
Trade copps contract with assets to a rebuilding team For nothing!! He’s from Michigan so I doubt they will.
Buyout Petry!
Hopefully seider and raymond are both 8-9 x 8. Sprong I feel like he’s gone but I’d love him back. Veleno not sure how much he will cost but hopefully 2-2.5??
ChiefSwissBurger224
I think I’d be fine If we let Perron go
defenceman101
You know what would be cool. We do like we did late 90’s early 2000’s. Let’s take some pay cuts to get whom ever we want and win the whole thing
LawrkenTTV
Sprong, Veleno, and Reimer should all be absolutely gone. Perron will be a bummer but he should be gone too, Ghost is prolly gone in favor of Ed. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Maata gone as well.
Suitable-Giraffe9075
Bring back Kane, Perron and Fischer
jtm1450
Could be reading too much into this, but the way Kaner talked during his post-game interview, it doesn’t sound like he’s coming back… Kept using a lot of “they” “them” to refer to the team’s future.
Longjumping-Ad9678
26.5 mil in space.
(-17) Raymond and Seider for 17 mil combined.
(-6) Kane for 6 mil.
(-2.5)Fischer and Veleno for 2.5 mil combined.
(+3) Maata traded for late round pick to non contender (chicago or san jose).
(-1.5) Plug goalie a la reimer but less expensive.
(0) Berggren traded for picks.
(2.4) Elc deals for the guys with asterisks
This almost exactly evens out with the cap ceiling.
Fabbri traded to non contender if both of kasper/danielson manages to make the roster (highly highly doubt)
Debrincat – Larkin – Raymond
*Danielson/Kasper – Compher – Kane
Copp – Rasmussen – Fabbri
Mazur – Veleno – Fischer
Walman – Seider
Edvinsson – Chiarot (offhand)
Johansson – Petry
Holl
Husso
Lyon
Plug
This leaves the roster with a reasonable mix of vets, youth, and room to make further deals at the deadline.
-The-CameronDean-
If we can get rid of half our D, lose sprong and maybe fabbri, bring back Perron and Kane on team friendly deals, and get a decent goalie, we will be contenders! lol. LONG way to go for this roster
Kavemann
I feel like if we’re able to get some of the veterans on team-friendly and/or short term deals, we should look at trading for prospects or young players and bringing some of our own guys up. Admittedly, I don’t follow grand rapids as much as I should, but I feel like we’ve gotta have some boys ready to make their mark, right?
knifeyou
Does anyone know when free agency starts and when we are able to resign players
chicknsnadwich
Would really like to bring back Ghost. Perron & Veleno for the right price. Fisher and Sprong make for good bottom 6 forwards.
Sad it didn’t work out with Berggren.
sparr0w91
Fischer cheap and RFAs. All the other UFAs can go.
DarkRitNighthawk
Please god let Reimer walk. I’ll take almost any other goalie
detwings
Priority #1 is a new defensive system. Man to man ain’t it
Vaylor77
I don’t think we get Kane back. He’s either going to a cup contender or back to Chicago, my money is on the latter.
Of course we will sign Raymond and Seider. I put in 8.5m for each of them. I would guess a 5 year contract, longish term but it puts them in a position to either move teams or re-evaluate their contracts when they sign an 8 year(which I would sign now if they accept). I would also sign up Veleno and Berggren for 3 year deals. Veleno I think is a pretty much guarantee, Berggren I can see having his rights traded and we look elsewhere.
I think Fischer is our top free agent to re-sign. I would do a 2 year deal to keep the Copp, Rass, Fisher line active a bit longer. He’s a huge addition to that line for what we pay him. Ghost would be my second one. If we can get 1 or 2 more years from him at his current salary, until ASP is ready to take over, I would take that deal.
Goalie gets a bit interesting. I think they should trade off Husso for considerations, and re-sign Reimer. The Lyon/Reimer duo was essentially our goal-tending this year, and this would dump a lot from our cap. Bring up Cossa for a few games here and there and let him fight for a starting spot and make it a 3 goalie rotation. I know we struggle in goal, but I don’t see a real answer until Cossa/Augstine mature and hopefully work out. Realistically, I see the wings going with Husso/Lyon with Cossa as a potential call-up or fill in next year.
Other moves would be to bring up Kasper and drop Holl somehow. Either trade him with Husso/Breggren/picks, or just buyout the contract.
Here is my projected lineup for next season. The only new free agent I added was Trevor Lewis at RW with a 1 year deal. He’s a veteran player who is defensively minded and has 2 Stanley cups(they seem to like these types). I would rather keep Sprong there, but I don’t think it would work out money wise.
First line- Cat, Larkin, Raymond(Everyone should have this one)
Second Line- Kasper-Compher-Berggren Berggren could change, and Kasper could center. Also we could trade Holl/Husso/Berggren to make money for Kane. Danielson could also earn a spot on this line, which would be my ideal second line going into next year of Kasper/Danielson/Compher.
Third Line- Ras/Copp/Fischer. Why break what works. While Copp is slightly overpaid, trying to trade off or change his contract wouldn’t be worth the assets involved when he is still productive.
Fourth Line- Fabbri/Veleno/Lewis(maybe sprong still?) The good thing about Fabbri is that he can play wherever in the lineup in case someone on the second line isn’t cutting it.
Defense 1- Walman Seider. Not much to say here. Maybe try out Ed/Seider for a bit
Defense 2- Chiarot Ghost. If we don’t get ghost again, any good(not Holl) right side D would work. Chiarot could also swap to right and let Johansson have a shot.
Defense 3- Ed and Petry. We’re not going to drop Petry’s contract. He’s a relatively cheap RHD which we need. They’ve played pretty well so far together, so I would expect them to start the season as a pair. I would like to see Ed putting up some points though.
Last D, Matta as the odd man out.
Goaltending, Husso/Lyon with Cossa as a potential call-up when needed.
KJTheDayTrader
As for the UFAS, I’d try to bring back Kane and Fischer. I think that Perron is slowing down. Ghost is a defensive liability but could be hard to replace. As much as I liked Sprong, the coaching staff seemed to sour on him because of his defensive deficiency.
DoM1n
Please Patrick, we love you here. Stay.
Lionsledbypod
i have a feeling we go into next season with a worse roster. No way we can resign everyone we need to.
oleslew-foot
Time to let the kids eat
pewira71
Fischer and Veleno for me.
Kane would be nice, but I think that he will go to another team.
All other UFAs are not signed.
Seider and Raymond get paid.
I suspect Berggren will be traded prior to draft day. Hopefully part of a package that includes the likes of Holl, Husso and some later round picks.
Our biggest needs in no particular order:
Top 6 forward (ideally a center)
Top 4 Defenseman
A 50-game goalie. We saw that Lyon can play a lot of games, but I think that about 30 is his limit.
I don’t think we have the cap room for all three, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Maybe some trade packages and finally bringing up some youth will help fill those gaps.
redlion1904
I played around on CapFriendly and I ultimately concluded maybe play the kids?
Assuming we sign Seider and Raymond to large increases (I put in $17M total for them) and try to re-sign Kane we are looking at a roster very similar to this year’s — which wasn’t good enough.
While we had some bad luck in missing the playoffs, we were not very good. In particular we were a bad possession team in our own end and we had to resort to extreme usage to cover defensive weaknesses. We were also so match-up reliant that injuries easily derailed us. These are expensive problems to fix and we don’t have a ton of money.
That said I would star by re-signing Fischer. He is not expensive and his energy line with Copp and Ras has been about the best either of those guys has looked (and Copp isn’t going anywhere).
I assume Ghost, Sprong, and Perron are gone which means we will be looking for some offense and have no real ability to get it in the marketplace. Raymond might provide some of it personally but he’s human.
The obvious addition is Ed. He won’t replace Ghost’s offense, of course. But the hope is that Ed gives us a real second unit and that when Walman returns to availability he and Seider can face less insane competition as a result. I believe there’s also some hope that we can offset the loss of Ghost on the power play by not having to shelter him five on five. If Ed “activates” Petry then a third unit of Chiarot and one of Holl, Maatta, or even Johansson could be favorable. I assume we will ship out or buy out the odd man of either Holl or Maatta; hopefully Holl. That takes a unit that was pretty bad and makes it more average. That’s our best hope at improvement.
Depth scoring was a strength this year but will be worse without Perron and Sprong. We could sign some more pugs for the bottom line but I would promote both Mazur and Kaspar. Play them together with Veleno or someone from the energy line or — this is crazy — Kane. I don’t expect them to be stars or replace the 35+ goals Perron and Sprong scored, but their second half’s in GR makes it seem like they’re ready and even if they’re both career third liners we might as well learn that now — and I think it’s reasonable that they could contribute 20+ goals. Veleno gave us 8 at age 20 on a worse team and Kaspar should be ahead of him in the coming year.
Additionally, neither Perron nor Sprong was considered reliable five on five and Perron was slow. The kids may be more versatile.
Finally, bringing them both up is arguably good for Danielson’s development.
The same could be said for Berggren but I think he does not have what this team needs and would try to sell “high” on him. And I think we know he is not versatile.
We’ve had three years running where a goalie breaks down down the stretch. I would love to find a way to add someone more reliable. I would have to assume that’s a trade. That is only going to help us if we play better in our own zone.
Valace2
If we don’t upgrade our 2c position next year, it will be more of the same unfortunately.
Yet another year trying to find a 2c, sorry I like JT but he ain’t it.
42 Comments
Goodbye Perron. Thanks for the years, but it’s time to move on from him.
Sprong, Perron, Fischer, Veleno, and Reimer are likely all out. Not sure what’s gonna happen with the rest.
I don’t mind Perron back in a depth role but his contract shouldn’t start with more than a 3
I would still bring Perron back to replace Fisher’s spot. Then ideally Fischer to replace Czarnik/Aston-Reese’s spot as a backup. That’s in a perfect world though
I think we sign Veleno back cheap.
Fischer is a no brainer to re-sign for me. Isn’t due a raise or a paycut and fits in well. That said you can find more Fischers. Perron only if he takes a huge paycut and 1 year. Absolutely incredible locker room guy. Kane is the priority, would love to see a 5×3 but I think we get outbid. Don’t see how we can keep Sprong or Gostisbehere.
Raymond and Seider matching 8.5x8s seems fair. Veleno on a 1 or 2 year deal or trade bait.
Need to find a way out from Holl (buyout isn’t bad) and at least one other contract whether its Petry, Maatta, or Copp. Possibly Fabbri.
Need to figure out who’s splitting with Lyon because he can’t do it himself, it sure as shit ain’t Reimer, and Husso is a huge risk.
I really want Kane back.
I’d be willing to clear out some dollars by trading Maatta, possibly Fabbri. Kane is a priority and I wouldn’t mind Perron back on a cheap 1 year deal. Our prospects of bringing back ghost and sprong probably aren’t great but would not mind ghost back in a sheltered role with a better d partner. Husso or a Holl buyout I think could be in the cards as well.
Kane, Perron, and Fischer are the three I’d want back most in that order. It’s going to be a snug cap fit next year once Seider and Raymond get paid unless we can move one or two of the overpaid deals.
$27M in cap…. $16 assumed to be Raymond and Mo.
$11M left for…
A top 6 winger (Kane).
A middle six winger (Perron)
A top 4 D (Ghost)
A 4C (Fischer)
A 3C (Valeno)
Wonder how many minimum /entry level deals we roll with and who those guys will be.
Also wonder how we can eject Petry and Woll.
Gostisbehere deserves to return purely after the last two games. Absolutely unbelievable effort.
Perron, Fabbri and Veleno to me have got to go
Guys we need a real 4th line with some punishers. We don’t have a single tough guy or aggressor that can take the game to the opponent.. we gotta sign Fischer and need some of the cheap defensive forwards that bring nastiness to the game. Lafferty, Cizikas, Watson types.
I… forgot Taro Hirose existed.
Well here’s the problem: Inconsistent goalie, 5 bottom pair defensemen (not counting ed), and a good amount of pending free agents. It’ll definitely be an interesting season.
$27M in cap space, but…
Cutting Husso would cost $1.6 for two years. And save over $3M in cap space for 2024.
https://puckpedia.com/player/ville-husso/buyout?s=2024-2025
Cutting Holl would cost us $1.1 for two years and save $2.27 in cap space for 2024. That’s a no brainer.
We can’t bring back every player. We would be the same team as this year. Kane is number 1 priority for me. I’d be good with Joe coming back too. I think we need new blood with the others. Perron is really showing his age, speed wise. Ghost will cost too much. I see him wanting a payday. Just my opinion lol
I just want Kane back 🙁
I think they like Fabbri. He probably deserved better than 4th line duty this year. I liked him on the 3rd these last few games.
To me, Fisher (although effective) should be the 12th/13th forward if he is brought back. I like Spring but as the offense dried up, I think he fell out of favour. I could see them bringing Perron back in a diminished role and salary, slotting him on the 3rd or 4th line (at times). They need another top 6 winger as it would slot everyone else down a line into better spots and match ups
If all forwards returned, something like:
DeBrincat – Larkin – Raymond
UFA/Berggren (unlikely) – Compher – Kane
Rasmussen – Copp – Perron
Fabbri – Veleno – Sprong/Fisher
In all reality, they aren’t all returning. In my mind, the Blueline dead weight needs to be moved on from. I would like them to find a way out of Hill’s contract and one of Petry or Maatta too. I liked Ghost as 3RD and if possible, I’d happily have him back. They need an upgrade to the 2RD spot. Something like:
Walman – Seider
Chiarot – UFA
Edvinsson – Ghost
Petry or Maata
Or interchange Edvinsson and Chariot, pending how things are going. Chiarot can also play his offside, so there is a world they go with a top 4 of Walman – Seider and Edvinsson – Chariot, but it seems unlikely
Obviously, something needs to happen in net. Everyone likes Husso and in some regards it’d be a shame to cut bait on him as they did with Ned, but for what he’s being paid and how he’s played (coupled with the injuries), if they have legit playoff aspirations next year they need more stability.
Overall, I’d be good with moving with Holl, Petry/Maatta, Sprong, while elevating Berggren and retaining Ghost etc. I just don’t know if the money will be there
I wonder if Jared McIsaac’s time in the organization is done. Such a shame, he had a lot of potential but injuries absolutely ruined his chances
Debrincat-larkin-Ray
Mazur-compher-debrusk/kane
Rasmussen-kasper-sprong
Tough cheap winger-veleno-Fischer
Walman-seider
Eddy-pesce
Chariot-maata
Albert / Holl
Trade copps contract with assets to a rebuilding team
For nothing!! He’s from Michigan so I doubt they will.
Buyout Petry!
Hopefully seider and raymond are both 8-9 x 8.
Sprong I feel like he’s gone but I’d love him back.
Veleno not sure how much he will cost but hopefully 2-2.5??
I think I’d be fine If we let Perron go
You know what would be cool. We do like we did late 90’s early 2000’s. Let’s take some pay cuts to get whom ever we want and win the whole thing
Sprong, Veleno, and Reimer should all be absolutely gone. Perron will be a bummer but he should be gone too, Ghost is prolly gone in favor of Ed. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Maata gone as well.
Bring back Kane, Perron and Fischer
Could be reading too much into this, but the way Kaner talked during his post-game interview, it doesn’t sound like he’s coming back… Kept using a lot of “they” “them” to refer to the team’s future.
26.5 mil in space.
(-17) Raymond and Seider for 17 mil combined.
(-6) Kane for 6 mil.
(-2.5)Fischer and Veleno for 2.5 mil combined.
(+3) Maata traded for late round pick to non contender (chicago or san jose).
(-1.5) Plug goalie a la reimer but less expensive.
(0) Berggren traded for picks.
(2.4) Elc deals for the guys with asterisks
This almost exactly evens out with the cap ceiling.
Fabbri traded to non contender if both of kasper/danielson manages to make the roster (highly highly doubt)
Debrincat – Larkin – Raymond
*Danielson/Kasper – Compher – Kane
Copp – Rasmussen – Fabbri
Mazur – Veleno – Fischer
Walman – Seider
Edvinsson – Chiarot (offhand)
Johansson – Petry
Holl
Husso
Lyon
Plug
This leaves the roster with a reasonable mix of vets, youth, and room to make further deals at the deadline.
If we can get rid of half our D, lose sprong and maybe fabbri, bring back Perron and Kane on team friendly deals, and get a decent goalie, we will be contenders! lol. LONG way to go for this roster
I feel like if we’re able to get some of the veterans on team-friendly and/or short term deals, we should look at trading for prospects or young players and bringing some of our own guys up. Admittedly, I don’t follow grand rapids as much as I should, but I feel like we’ve gotta have some boys ready to make their mark, right?
Does anyone know when free agency starts and when we are able to resign players
Would really like to bring back Ghost. Perron & Veleno for the right price. Fisher and Sprong make for good bottom 6 forwards.
Sad it didn’t work out with Berggren.
Fischer cheap and RFAs. All the other UFAs can go.
Please god let Reimer walk. I’ll take almost any other goalie
Priority #1 is a new defensive system. Man to man ain’t it
I don’t think we get Kane back. He’s either going to a cup contender or back to Chicago, my money is on the latter.
Of course we will sign Raymond and Seider. I put in 8.5m for each of them. I would guess a 5 year contract, longish term but it puts them in a position to either move teams or re-evaluate their contracts when they sign an 8 year(which I would sign now if they accept). I would also sign up Veleno and Berggren for 3 year deals. Veleno I think is a pretty much guarantee, Berggren I can see having his rights traded and we look elsewhere.
I think Fischer is our top free agent to re-sign. I would do a 2 year deal to keep the Copp, Rass, Fisher line active a bit longer. He’s a huge addition to that line for what we pay him. Ghost would be my second one. If we can get 1 or 2 more years from him at his current salary, until ASP is ready to take over, I would take that deal.
Goalie gets a bit interesting. I think they should trade off Husso for considerations, and re-sign Reimer. The Lyon/Reimer duo was essentially our goal-tending this year, and this would dump a lot from our cap. Bring up Cossa for a few games here and there and let him fight for a starting spot and make it a 3 goalie rotation. I know we struggle in goal, but I don’t see a real answer until Cossa/Augstine mature and hopefully work out. Realistically, I see the wings going with Husso/Lyon with Cossa as a potential call-up or fill in next year.
Other moves would be to bring up Kasper and drop Holl somehow. Either trade him with Husso/Breggren/picks, or just buyout the contract.
Here is my projected lineup for next season. The only new free agent I added was Trevor Lewis at RW with a 1 year deal. He’s a veteran player who is defensively minded and has 2 Stanley cups(they seem to like these types). I would rather keep Sprong there, but I don’t think it would work out money wise.
First line- Cat, Larkin, Raymond(Everyone should have this one)
Second Line- Kasper-Compher-Berggren Berggren could change, and Kasper could center. Also we could trade Holl/Husso/Berggren to make money for Kane. Danielson could also earn a spot on this line, which would be my ideal second line going into next year of Kasper/Danielson/Compher.
Third Line- Ras/Copp/Fischer. Why break what works. While Copp is slightly overpaid, trying to trade off or change his contract wouldn’t be worth the assets involved when he is still productive.
Fourth Line- Fabbri/Veleno/Lewis(maybe sprong still?) The good thing about Fabbri is that he can play wherever in the lineup in case someone on the second line isn’t cutting it.
Defense 1- Walman Seider. Not much to say here. Maybe try out Ed/Seider for a bit
Defense 2- Chiarot Ghost. If we don’t get ghost again, any good(not Holl) right side D would work. Chiarot could also swap to right and let Johansson have a shot.
Defense 3- Ed and Petry. We’re not going to drop Petry’s contract. He’s a relatively cheap RHD which we need. They’ve played pretty well so far together, so I would expect them to start the season as a pair. I would like to see Ed putting up some points though.
Last D, Matta as the odd man out.
Goaltending, Husso/Lyon with Cossa as a potential call-up when needed.
As for the UFAS, I’d try to bring back Kane and Fischer. I think that Perron is slowing down. Ghost is a defensive liability but could be hard to replace. As much as I liked Sprong, the coaching staff seemed to sour on him because of his defensive deficiency.
Please Patrick, we love you here. Stay.
i have a feeling we go into next season with a worse roster. No way we can resign everyone we need to.
Time to let the kids eat
Fischer and Veleno for me.
Kane would be nice, but I think that he will go to another team.
All other UFAs are not signed.
Seider and Raymond get paid.
I suspect Berggren will be traded prior to draft day. Hopefully part of a package that includes the likes of Holl, Husso and some later round picks.
Our biggest needs in no particular order:
Top 6 forward (ideally a center)
Top 4 Defenseman
A 50-game goalie. We saw that Lyon can play a lot of games, but I think that about 30 is his limit.
I don’t think we have the cap room for all three, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Maybe some trade packages and finally bringing up some youth will help fill those gaps.
I played around on CapFriendly and I ultimately concluded maybe play the kids?
Assuming we sign Seider and Raymond to large increases (I put in $17M total for them) and try to re-sign Kane we are looking at a roster very similar to this year’s — which wasn’t good enough.
While we had some bad luck in missing the playoffs, we were not very good. In particular we were a bad possession team in our own end and we had to resort to extreme usage to cover defensive weaknesses. We were also so match-up reliant that injuries easily derailed us. These are expensive problems to fix and we don’t have a ton of money.
That said I would star by re-signing Fischer. He is not expensive and his energy line with Copp and Ras has been about the best either of those guys has looked (and Copp isn’t going anywhere).
I assume Ghost, Sprong, and Perron are gone which means we will be looking for some offense and have no real ability to get it in the marketplace. Raymond might provide some of it personally but he’s human.
The obvious addition is Ed. He won’t replace Ghost’s offense, of course. But the hope is that Ed gives us a real second unit and that when Walman returns to availability he and Seider can face less insane competition as a result. I believe there’s also some hope that we can offset the loss of Ghost on the power play by not having to shelter him five on five. If Ed “activates” Petry then a third unit of Chiarot and one of Holl, Maatta, or even Johansson could be favorable. I assume we will ship out or buy out the odd man of either Holl or Maatta; hopefully Holl. That takes a unit that was pretty bad and makes it more average. That’s our best hope at improvement.
Depth scoring was a strength this year but will be worse without Perron and Sprong. We could sign some more pugs for the bottom line but I would promote both Mazur and Kaspar. Play them together with Veleno or someone from the energy line or — this is crazy — Kane. I don’t expect them to be stars or replace the 35+ goals Perron and Sprong scored, but their second half’s in GR makes it seem like they’re ready and even if they’re both career third liners we might as well learn that now — and I think it’s reasonable that they could contribute 20+ goals. Veleno gave us 8 at age 20 on a worse team and Kaspar should be ahead of him in the coming year.
Additionally, neither Perron nor Sprong was considered reliable five on five and Perron was slow. The kids may be more versatile.
Finally, bringing them both up is arguably good for Danielson’s development.
The same could be said for Berggren but I think he does not have what this team needs and would try to sell “high” on him. And I think we know he is not versatile.
We’ve had three years running where a goalie breaks down down the stretch. I would love to find a way to add someone more reliable. I would have to assume that’s a trade. That is only going to help us if we play better in our own zone.
If we don’t upgrade our 2c position next year, it will be more of the same unfortunately.
Yet another year trying to find a 2c, sorry I like JT but he ain’t it.