Cammalleri an unrestricted FA? If so it’ s gonna take more than $3.6 per year to sign him.

Cammalleri is talented, no question, but this team has filled its quota of small forwards already. If we’re going to replace Marty, I think we’d be wise to address the size issue at the same time.

It doesn’t matter where you load a contract, the cap hit is the average per annum over the life of the deal. Backloading the kids’ contracts, as you suggested, doesn’t open up any more cap room than paying them up front would.

It actually behooves a team to FRONT load a deal for a player because a) it rewards the player for doing a good job (obviously, you the would-be-GM think that if you’re willing to to give a player a long term deal for his services), and b) the contract becomes easier to move the deeper you get into it. If a player outlives his usefulness, and the team wants to divest itself of that asset, it’s much easier and cheaper to do so via buyout, or through a deal, as the new team would only take on the average per annum of the salary on the remainder of the deal. Which is why Pahlsson’s cap hit was a meager 300K for the Hawks when he was acquired at the deadline.

Beauchemin.

“Heatley for Campbell in 2009” – ?

..more offense and better defense…just like 28 or so other teams in the NHL. Haven’t the Pens just proven that you don’t need a Campbell type on D? Sure they have Gonchar but he was invisible in the playoffs due to the bad wheel. Their core of D-men are all plodders like Scuderi, Orpik, Gill, Eaton etc….they have Letang who has some offensive upside but he’s still pretty raw and makes plenty of mistakes. The Hawks just need improvement from the guys we do have (other than Keith/Seabs who are already there) and having the Kanes and Versteegs and other young players getting smarter and working harder on the back checks will help too. Flipping out Walker for another D-man will help, but it’s not going to be the solution. Having the entire team committing to the defensive end, and the Campbells and Kanes hitting the weight room will be more of a plus than acquiring another overpriced D-man. I really don’t want Walker back but if Tallon can’t find a better physical D-man at a decent price I think he will be back. Unfortunately Q and/or Tallon believe Campbell’s physical liabilities in the D-end require a bruiser, and they’re probably right, there was no shortage of opposing players taking runs at him when he wasn’t paired with Walker…I just hope there will be a 7th D-man like a Johnson back to platoon him with…like I’ve said before, Walker is ok to suit up against the Flames and Canucks and those teams with a slower core of big D-men but he needs to be in the pressbox against teams like the Wings.