Off-season Will Make (or Break) Dynasty; Big Buff Gone

Probably biased to Burish… but I love the way the man plays with heart. One guy you never have to worry about taking a shift off. He knows his role and plays it well.

I see the fact that our cap room may be skewed by what we get in return. We have the talent in the minors to fill what we lose. I really think the Hawks will be able to make something work for either Buff or Steeg that includes draft picks to fill in our vacancies cause by promotions to the NHL. If we do pick some one up it will not be quality, which in turn will not take a hit.

Moving Huet will not be difficult. I think it will be the last move made. How they fill the roster will determine him being bought out or shipped to Rockford.

also a caution as to trusting a team’s comments about operating “in the red” – NHL teams’ books are cooked more thoroughly than governmental budgets (although in the opposite direction).

For many years the Hawks were reported as “in the red” but the owners were making good money (from parking and concessions and other revenue streams from games that weren’t in the teams’ reported revenues).

They are great players with great futures ahead of them. The carousel of saving money where it can be saved may vault them up to the bigs. While I do agree that experience is lacking, I look at it as who from the system would you rather have make the leap.

While the trades are the most difficult. It is easiest to project that the younger of the Hawks facing free agency are most likely to settle with the Hawks and the possibility to play for the Cup once again. Their next contract would be the one that really multiplies their salary and having added playoff experience magnifies that. Obviously all this is relevant if production grows.

I’m not sure how much. some people say all of it, some people say about $960,000 of it b/c we had a buffer left on this years cap for $640,000 of it. i don’t know which to believe to be honest.

and there may be more shaved off for other bonuses (a Toronto paper was saying about $4 million shaved off next year due to bonuses this year).

It allows a team to exceed the Upper Limit by up to 7.5% due to performance bonuses. All performance bonuses, earned or not, count against the cap. If a bonus becomes impossible to achieve, then the team gets a cap credit back for the remainder of that season. At the end of the year, if the actual bonuses earned cause the team to exceed the Upper Limit, that excess is applied against the following seasons cap. Doing the math on the salary cap it allows for roughly $4.2 million in bonuses.

I don’t agree with all of these “this will happen,” “that will happen” declarations because of the reasoning (“Ladd will demand more for less”). I think some of them are very realistic possibilities but I expect us to fight a little harder for some of our more desirable players and letting some of the others walk — as people like to say, you try to sign your best players.

For that reason — I know people are trying to remind everybody that we get people back in some of these cases, since they’ll be trades. I’d agree that we shouldn’t expect every single player we lose will be replaced by a pick. But, who do people envision us getting? I have to imagine there will be at least one mid-level player we get back — I find it hard to believe that we dump a third of the team and ice that many AHLs next season.

$2.38mm is a sunk cost. Essentially you have to think about his contract being $4.77mm, and whether you can find a suitable replacement for that much. Given the difficulty of finding a comparable puck-moving defenseman (Niedermeyer is too old, right?), I have to wonder if this is a smart move.

It would cost us $5 million a year for a comparable replacement player. Add $2.3 million to that – and voila – that’s 7.381 million to be rid of him and replace him – i.e. more money that he costs to keep.

and didn’t his absence do anything to make people realize his worth?

I know Soupy’s contract is an “albatross”, but if we did buy him out, doesn’t that mean we’re letting him off as a free agent? Exactly who will we get to fill that hole in D?

Honestly, I feel like we’re weakest (shallowest) at D and centers, so why do people think we should be throwing them away? Personally, I want us to trade away forwards for more D prospects, true 2nd line centers, or (possibly) a baby goalie.

But I freely admit I suck at this kind of stuff; this is why I don’t play fantasy.

By that rational: trade in the Cup for more cap space?

but HOW exactly is Soupy’s contract worse than Huet’s? We do at least get production from Soupy and there are teams who would actually want him based on abilities. Who is willing to do that over Huet (except for maybe the 2 teams that traded for Toskala last year)?

of the $3 million guys, unfortunately. But if you’re worried about keeping overpaid players, getting rid of Buff/Bolland/Versteeg should help that.

because I just don’t see another team taking him (even in a package deal), especially with the no-trade clause. I don’t think a buyout makes any sense for the long term.

I know campbell didn’t put up as many points as we wanted to see during the regular season, but remember through the winter when the MVP’s of the team were Campbell and Kane? He was playing D the best I’ve seen him on the Hawks, and his puck-moving skills are as quick as ever.

I know it’s already been mentioned, but we saw how important Soupy was once he was out with the injury. He was a huge part of getting past Nashville, and his +11 was tops in the playoffs.

As far as being overpriced, maybe he is a little, but just think…Kim Johnsson’s salary this year was $5.3 million

but many over at NM just LOVE VerBeauty.

Possibly the only time in the entire regular season that Buff made me jump out of my seat. I won’t miss him one single bit, but I’m concerned that he’s earned staying power with the organization. I have absolutely no idea why, but he seems like a coach’s pet.

bowman’s experience is a little worrisome, but you have daddy right next to you. Plus I think he did a lot of work,making sure we could re-sign kane toews and keith while still under this cap crunch.
  his johnsson trade was sad in that we didn’t get anything back from him..but we did dump barker’s multi-year contract for a one year that’s done with now…I think a lot of that was getting someone for the playoff run(oops), while dumping off a multi-year deal

But you’re right, he’s an unknown to me also. I trust his old man so as long as he’s around I guess I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves otherwise.

"Capologist" working for Boss: “Sir I wouldn’t advise doing this but if you really want to here is how we can make this happen.”

"Capologist" as Boss: “We are NOT going to spend our Cap Money this way…”

IMO, the ‘Hawks have the correct support staff and Stan’s big value is his money-mgmt.

Battle of California has a very fine pair of fact sheets about him:
Patrick Marleau Facts
More… Patrick Marleau Facts!!!

In all seriousness though, this is kind of what I meant when I said I thought we might get some significant player. I wouldn’t expect somebody of Marleau’s caliber, but I’m willing to bet Stan is keeping an eye out for potential centers.

That said, having a “Hat Trick of Patricks” line would be sick!

but if it were to somehow magically happen, considering he was the only Shark who could consistently score off of us in the WCF, i wouldn’t be distraught over it to say the least…

of course, the Hawks hate from other fanbases would probably explode twice as much as it has in the past week.

The Hawks won the Stanley Cup with 6+ minimum salary type players.

Some of those players grow into bigger salaries. Some stay, some go. The ones that leave typically get replaced by another minimum level salary player. That’s how the system works for all teams nowadays. But every year, people freak out over the turnover.

Things are tight for the Hawks this year, but by no means is the situation or future dire. Plus, a lot of teams are in the same boat.

had over-cap issues. They had to go with less than a full roster for awhile at the end of the season to stay under the cap.

I should just stay away until late July, and then play catch up. Speculation ruined the economy and now it’s ruining my mind.

LINKY

And it’s possible his playoff run was a fluke.

so we are the new Scum

there are unicorns and actual pots-of-gold in the world you live?