End of Season Interviews and Stuff
- Thread starter andyt
- Start date
OK ... 2022-23 is in the books, for better or worse. Metro Division Champs, Eastern Conference Finalists, with another banner to hang on opening night in October.
As of today, the Canes are one of only 6 NHL franchises with current contract obligations that put them below the salary cap. Six! Everybody else is over the limit before we even get into silly season. That's amazing, honestly. Of that six, only New Jersey is a fellow playoff team. In addition, there's a lot of front office turnover going on, with Pittsburgh and Toronto currently interviewing GMs, there's new leadership in Philly, and more changes are sure to come. Several other teams either have or will have coaching vacancies. With a flat cap and the vast majority of the league already in cap jail, this has the potential to be one whale of an off season.
Here's where the Canes stand ...
Forwards
Puljujarvi is an RFI with arbitration rights. Staal, Fast, Stastny, Stepan and MacEachern are UFAs. The only reporting we have on any of those is that the club was negotiating an extension with Staal back before the Holidays but it got back burnered at some point. Pacioretty and Kase are also UFAs
Defensemen
Ghostisbehere and DeHaan are UFAs while Coghlan and Lajoie both are RFAs with arbitration rights. No news about any of those guys. Gardiner will no longer be LTIR ballast as he's a UFA
Goalies
Andersen and Raanta are both UFAs. No news on them either
Minors
Most of Chicago's AHL vet crew are out of contract. Bokk and Mattheos are RFAs. Sawchenko is a Group 6 UFA.
Prognosis
I think everyone involved agrees that a scoring winger is a priority, along with extending Staal and filling in depth gaps on both the forward lines and on D. A revamp of the goalie group is also forthcoming with only Kuchetkov under contract. With key players like Aho, Teravainen, Pesce and Skjei entering their last contract seasons in 23-24 and about a million guys heading to RFA status next summer, this is either prime time for a big push with the current group or a massive overhaul. I suspect the former is more likely than the latter, but we'll see. The UFA pool skews old this summer without a lot of big fish, so this might be a trader's market and could set up for a lot of weirdness ... potentially amped up by pressure to make big changes in Toronto and Pittsburgh. The success of that Tkachuk move in Florida combined with a soft UFA market is potentially going to embolden some otherwise cautious GMs. There are also almost certain to be a number of buyouts and RFA non-qualifications with so many clubs strapped for cap space. In addition while the top of the draft board is very good indeed, it's also one of the deeper draft classes in years so there could be a lot of movement at or ahead of the draft as teams have plenty of quality players to target. Silly season could get very silly indeed.
As of today, the Canes are one of only 6 NHL franchises with current contract obligations that put them below the salary cap. Six! Everybody else is over the limit before we even get into silly season. That's amazing, honestly. Of that six, only New Jersey is a fellow playoff team. In addition, there's a lot of front office turnover going on, with Pittsburgh and Toronto currently interviewing GMs, there's new leadership in Philly, and more changes are sure to come. Several other teams either have or will have coaching vacancies. With a flat cap and the vast majority of the league already in cap jail, this has the potential to be one whale of an off season.
Here's where the Canes stand ...
Forwards
Puljujarvi is an RFI with arbitration rights. Staal, Fast, Stastny, Stepan and MacEachern are UFAs. The only reporting we have on any of those is that the club was negotiating an extension with Staal back before the Holidays but it got back burnered at some point. Pacioretty and Kase are also UFAs
Defensemen
Ghostisbehere and DeHaan are UFAs while Coghlan and Lajoie both are RFAs with arbitration rights. No news about any of those guys. Gardiner will no longer be LTIR ballast as he's a UFA
Goalies
Andersen and Raanta are both UFAs. No news on them either
Minors
Most of Chicago's AHL vet crew are out of contract. Bokk and Mattheos are RFAs. Sawchenko is a Group 6 UFA.
Prognosis
I think everyone involved agrees that a scoring winger is a priority, along with extending Staal and filling in depth gaps on both the forward lines and on D. A revamp of the goalie group is also forthcoming with only Kuchetkov under contract. With key players like Aho, Teravainen, Pesce and Skjei entering their last contract seasons in 23-24 and about a million guys heading to RFA status next summer, this is either prime time for a big push with the current group or a massive overhaul. I suspect the former is more likely than the latter, but we'll see. The UFA pool skews old this summer without a lot of big fish, so this might be a trader's market and could set up for a lot of weirdness ... potentially amped up by pressure to make big changes in Toronto and Pittsburgh. The success of that Tkachuk move in Florida combined with a soft UFA market is potentially going to embolden some otherwise cautious GMs. There are also almost certain to be a number of buyouts and RFA non-qualifications with so many clubs strapped for cap space. In addition while the top of the draft board is very good indeed, it's also one of the deeper draft classes in years so there could be a lot of movement at or ahead of the draft as teams have plenty of quality players to target. Silly season could get very silly indeed.
Staal, Stepan and Andersen have all said they want to come back. Staal said it might be short term or a series of 1 year contracts. Andersen said the same, he’d be OK with a 1 year contract. Stepan understands where he is in his career and has not talked to management yet.
CanadaCanes
Well-known member
I love the idea of Freddy and Staal both being back on one year deals, Freddy and Koochie with a decent reliable number 3 in the AHL works for next year! Stepan seems like Father Time is knocking.
CanadaCanes
Well-known member
I think this year's draft is going to be like a feeding frenzy for many teams! A deep, great draft class coupled with so many teams over or pushing the cap means lots of movement, and a few blockbusters would not be out of the question for sure.
With Staal, he turns 35 in September so leaning on a two year deal probably makes sense. Otherwise you start to get stuck with that over-age contract issue.
On goalies, it's gonna be down to the staff. I could see either Freddie or Raanta coming back to tandem with Kochetkov next season. It'll come down to how much of the load they're ready to lay on Kochetkov and how confident they are in the health of the guy they keep. With the market being what it is, I'd feel better about one of those two guys than anybody you could get as a UFA. And I suspect they will want to keep their trade powder dry for offensive help. Freddie on a 1 year deal, Kuchetkov as the 1B, a quality third guy cooling his heels in the minors knowing full well that he'll get some NHL time eventually ... it seems like an easy out, but it probably makes sense so long as you feel confident you can get 40-ish games out of Freddie.
cmaleski2
Well-known member
I'm surprised Stepan is interested in coming back given him being scratched in consecutive playoffs now. I would rather some kid with potential upside step into that spot than bring Stepan back but we will see.
I'm perfectly good with Freddie on a one year deal for $4.5 - 5 million.
I'm perfectly good with Freddie on a one year deal for $4.5 - 5 million.
I don’t think Stepan is going to find a better situation anywhere else. His family likes it here, he recognizes that the end is near, if he's willing to go the PTO/NHL minimum route again, there are worse options for your 13th forward. I’d rather the guy with upside play consistently, even if it’s 4th line. can Rees or Ponomarov fill the 13th forward role? Probably, Rees made it to the last cut. But would you rather them play consistent minutes or spend 25ish games in the press box?
Christer
Well-known member
I completely agree. He is probably content with a backup role aswell. Staal is a no brainer but not at 6 million. Maybe 2.5-3.
I once again suspect that Stepan's interest is more along the lines of eventually securing a spot on the staff if he's unable to grab the 13th forward slot again. Remember, he came to camp on a PTO last fall and only ended up on the game day roster after several shuffles. Most teams have a quality control guy on staff, and while Carolina doesn't do most stuff along normal lines of convention, they DO have a lighter pro staff than most teams. A repeat of that scenario wouldn't surprise me as I doubt there's a ton of interest in Stepan amongst the teams that are actually competing.
I really do feel like this year's draft could be bonkers. Yeah, Bedard, Fantilli and the Russian guy, blah, blah, blah ... not that. I mean the incredible depth of the player pool. We're talking about getting down to the teens before you run out of players who could conceivably walk into camp with a shot at a final roster ... even with a decent team. Maybe even a 2003 kind of draft. The kind that in the modern cap management era will tempt all sorts of GMs to re-position ... especially if they can dump cash commitments in the process. These guys are 18 so who the heck knows for sure, but there's a big jump in 2nd tier quality from the last couple of drafts and that's gonna generally mean movement.
HeyKurtz
Well-known member
I will make my comment on your goaltender thoughts on that thread instead. Perhaps we roll this thread into that one?
That's a giant thread, but maybe I can move a few posts ... scratch that. As usual, Andy beat me to it.
i combined the relevant posts from the Miscellaneous thread into here. The posts retain their time stamp from the other thread, so they’re interspersed with the comments already posted here.
Most salary projection sites have him in the $3 million and change range for a 1 or 2 year deal. Seems about right, and maybe he takes a bit of a discount to get a NTC, which would be fine with everybody I'd think.
HeyKurtz
Well-known member
For cap hit projections for UFAs and RFAs, I found a really cool resource from AFP Analytics, a sports data company. This spreadsheet--which you can sort--will come in handy over the next few months...
docs.google.com