Offseason plan

[bernjean]

I have a busy offseason ahead of me. I am in a fairly good position cap wise since I was able to plan most of my roster so I didn't get too many salary raises at the same time.

Here is my roster:

Centers
Tavares, John - C - NYI $5,500,000 2017-2018
MacKinnon, Nathan - C,RW - COL $6,300,000 2022-2023
Galchenyuk, Alex - C,LW - MON $2,800,000 2017-2018
Spezza, Jason C - DAL $7,500,000 2018-2019
Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan - C - EDM $6,000,000 2020-2021
Zetterberg, Henrik C,LW - DET $6,083,333 2020-2021
Nestrasil, Andrej C - CAR $912,500 2016-2017

Wingers
Pacioretty, Max - LW - MON $4,500,000 2018-2019
Jokinen, Jussi C,W - FLA $4,000,000 2017-2018
Simmonds, Wayne - RW,LW - PHI $3,975,000 2018-2019
Zuccarello, Mats W - NYR $4,500,000 2018-2019
Williams, Justin W - WAS $3,250,000 2016-2017
Jurco, Tomas RW - DET $900,000 2016-2017
Clutterbuck, Cal - LW,RW - NYI $2,750,000 2016-2017
Connolly, Brett - RW - BOS $850,000 2016-2017
Radulov, Alexander W - MON $5,750,000 2016-2017

Defense
Hamonic, Travis - D - NYI $3,857,143 2019-2020
Rielly, Morgan - D - TOR $5,000,000 2020-2021
Ekblad, Aaron - D - FLA $925,000 2016-2017
McNabb, Brayden - D - LA $1,700,000 2017-2018
Klingberg, John D - DAL $4,250,000 2021-2022
Murphy, Connor - D - PHO ??????
Petrovic, Alex D - FLA $1,050,000 2016-2017
Johnson, Erik - D - COL $6,000,000 2022-2023
Byfuglien, Dustin - RW,LW,D - WPG $7,600,000 2020-2021

Total Salary:
$98,773,809

Salary to shed:
$25,773,809.00

Here is my current plan:

Big salaries out through drop or trade:
Spezza (7.5M$), RNH (6M$), Zetterberg (6M$), E. Johnson (6M$)

Fringe players not minor eligible anymore that will probably leave as well:
Nestrasil, Andrej C - CAR
Jurco, Tomas RW - DET
Still debating with Connolly, Brett - RW - BOS (Will he get a chance with the Capitals?)

With Byfuglien losing his winger eligibility, I'm stuck with 1 too many D (we can start max 7) and also a whole lot of cap hit on D.
I'm thinking of trading one of my D for a forward to replace either Jurco or Connolly who are, let's face it, fringe players at best.
Jurco used to be in my minors (100 games before they must be in your lineup) and Connolly was a nice option since he does a little bit of everything with a really cheap price tag.

The players that are gathering trade interest at the moment are Byfuglien, Klingberg and Hamonic.
Byfuglien has the biggest cap hit of the 3 but he is also one of the most valuable player I have with my league's setup.
Klingberg is signed for 6 years at a really cheap price tag.
Hamonic is really good in my pool also because he hits/blocks and still produces at all the other cats. He is also signed long term at a really cheap cap hit.

However, I do have McNabb, Petrovic and C. Murphy who are all really cheap options to fill out those hits/blocks stats.

In my minors, I have a few options also to fill out my roster who are not over 100 games, but will soon (this season or next but I won't have to move them in my roster before next offseason if keep them in my minors all season):
Nylander, William (R) C,RW - TOR
Lindberg, Oscar (R) C - NYR
Mantha, Anthony W - DET
Rychel, Kerby (R) LW - CBJ
Ritchie, Brett RW - DAL

Dumoulin, Brian D - PIT
Reinhart, Griffin (R) D - EDM
Reilly, Mike (R) D - MIN

Would a trade of Hamonic for Reilly Smith make any sense?
Should I try to trade Morgan Rielly instead?

What is the feeling on Justin Williams? I acquired him at the trade deadline to try and push for the win. I was loosing in the +/- cat and he was also producing across the board.
Will Jokinen reproduce something similar to last season's totals? He played a lot on Smith and Trocheck's line. Will Bjugstad take his spot?

I'm tempted to try and deal Clutterbuck. The hits category is really a struggle for a lot of teams and he produces really well in that category, however, his 2.75M$ cap hit is getting expensive for his production. Coupled with the retooling I've been doing over the last couple of seasons by adding grit (Byfuglien, Simmonds, McNabb, Petrovic, Muphy, Pacioretty, Zuccarello, etc.) this might be feasible. However, if I do lose Hamonic and E. Johnson, that's approximatly 300 hits gone... What happened to Reilly last season? He went from 96 and 98 hits to 56 last year?

Lastly, would a trade of Rask for Talbot (++) really make sense? That would save me approximately 2M$ for added depth.

In the end, I'm always trying to win. I finished in the top 4 the past 3 seasons (4th, 3rd and 3rd). It's always a tight race and I feel like I have a chance this year again!

Sorry for the really long post, but I felt like I should provide details to help with the advices!

[Sulla]

Lots and lots of questions but the ones that stand out

- trade Hamonic, you have players in the minors that can replace him
- don't trade Hamonic for R Smith
- Williams is. Meh for me - probably 35-45 points so if I could keep Spezza and shed salary like his I'd be tempted
- I'd keep Clutterbuck based on other cuts
- depends what the +s are

[Eskimo Brother]

Lots and lots of questions but the ones that stand out

- trade Hamonic, you have players in the minors that can replace him
- don't trade Hamonic for R Smith
- Williams is. Meh for me - probably 35-45 points so if I could keep Spezza and shed salary like his I'd be tempted
- I'd keep Clutterbuck based on other cuts
- depends what the +s are

Not against any of this.
My thoughts in addition:
-I don't think Rielly's trade value is high enough for you to get a solid return.
-EJ would be the one that I would try to sell on D, if not, then Petrovic (He's getting shifted back with all the other D Florida has accumulated).
-I like the Rask for Talbot idea. Maybe make it a 2 for 2 deal to get rid of a smaller piece you don't need like Williams, and then you can grab back Talbot and either a better guy to balance out salaries, or a guy that is a cap bargain.

[Sulla]

Problem is that 6 million cap hit on EJ will be tough for anyone to swallow let alone garner a decent return imo

[Eskimo Brother]

Yeah I know, but he's the first one you try and move before you move onto other options.

[bernjean]

Thanks for the feedback!

So far, the Talbot owner is really hesitant to trade Talbot for Rask, knowing that he will have to sweeten the deal.
He'd rather just keep Talbot and keep rebuilding.

I will definitely try to trade EJ, however I am not holding too much hope. Might have to drop him straight up.

I also don't see a scenario where I can manage to keep Spezza's 7.5M$ cap hit. Especially now that it doesn't look like I'll be able to save some money with Rask for Talbot.
He was really good last year, but the price tag is really steep.

Can you elaborate on why Williams is meh? Going from 52 points to 35 (lower end of the prediction) is a big step back isn't it?
What about Jokinen?

I'll try to swing some deals and see how it goes!
Thanks!

[Sulla]

Pimarily because I think the Caps have to change something without changing anything - I think other guys get some of his ice time and he moves down the depth chart. TBH I didn't think he finished with 50+ points so maybe my regression is too high but as I say I think the Caps may try and help so,e of their other guys along over him

[Eskimo Brother]

Pimarily because I think the Caps have to change something without changing anything - I think other guys get some of his ice time and he moves down the depth chart. TBH I didn't think he finished with 50+ points so maybe my regression is too high but as I say I think the Caps may try and help so,e of their other guys along over him

Agree with this. Just no reason to think there will be a bounce back.
I would really be pushing the Talbot bit. If you both add something (him the better piece) do you think you could make it work?

[bernjean]

Right now it's a no go. I'll revisit this later in the summer.

He might have time to change his mind on the Rask vs Talbot idea. However, unless the + is good enough, I won't make it either.

[stevegamer]

I'd forget about dealing Johnson and try and deal one of Spezza or RNH with, say Petrovic to get the sort of player you want at a salary you like. If you can deal one of those two, you may find enough cap room to keep the other.