Friday Morning Fly By: Actually Found Some News

Close. The first player is Pat Falloon.

FALLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNN ohhhh i love names that fans can say whenever they touch a puck

Good idea or bad idea trying to sign Carts and Giroux before the season the starts ??

Giroux: Good idea. Lock him up for good value now.

Carter: Bad idea. We may need him for trade bait later. Signing him to a long-term deal may dissuade potential buyers.

I agree with you both with the contracts. I really think we need to lock up Giroux long term (10+ year deal) so we get a good cap hit and keep him for a long time.

Carter I don’t want to re-sign until next off-season, if at all. I don’t know how we are going to afford everybody next off-season. I see G as our future and I DO NOT want to see him in another team’s uniform so we need to keep him. I really want to see how everybody pans out this season to see who is worth keeping around, and we don’t have to worry so much about Carter since he is a RFA, so nobody will really take him away from us (and if they do we’ll get a ton of great picks for Homer to trade).

Those are interesting lines. Obviously, the Briere line is looking good (or were a few months ago), and that Richards line looks somewhat interesting even if I wish G had someone other than Carbomb to be a finisher. But the Carter line … although I think seeing G at wing and Carts at center makes sense, unless Zherdev really did learn two-way play in Russia that line needs Carter to return to being a good complete center. Given that it is a contract year for him, and that he’s drifted away from that responsible play to being a sniper-style player, I don’t see it unless Lavvy really reads him the riot act. JVR is still maturing … seems risky. But hey – that’s what training camp is for, right?

And signing G ASAP should be a top priority for Holmgren. The kid just keeps getting better – and I do think his skills will rapidly surpass the rest of the team this season. Get him now, pay him on somewhat-unrealized potential, and save the hassle and extra cash from signing him at the end of the season. Carter I think would be great to keep, but the new contract would definitely be a hindrance if they want to keep any options for the trade deadline. And really, can they afford to keep him? With Zherdev, Leino, and Boucher all becoming UFAs (assuming they want to resign Leino, maybe keep Zherdev, and move Backlund up) and Giroux, Carcillo, Powe, AND Carter as RFAs … there’s only so many dollars in the salary cap. The only caveat is that Carcillo and Powe could play out the RFA contract year with the mandatory raise, O’Donnell could come off the books as a UFA as would Boucher, and that would leave a little extra room. But still not enough in my mind.

On the lines:
Hartnell-Briere-Leino staying together is good

I’m a bit worried about the others. Carter still at center, OK I can’t say that completely surprised me. Playing with JVR, I think we’re gonna see a lot of missed shots. Playing JVR and Zherdev together also rings warning bells on the defensive aspect of that line (and when we’ve got Briere centering another line…). I’m a bit unsure about how that line pans out. One thing is for sure is that if Carter becomes 08-09 Carter and JVR continues his development and Zherdev gets his head right then that line has the potential to be explosive. We can dub it the ‘unlocked potential line’.

I feel Giroux is being wasted, a) at wing, b) with Carcillo on his line, c) on the line that will be matched against other top lines and expected to play good defensive hockey against them. I’d rather him be allowed to score, be creative and set up plays with players good enough to receive his passes and know what to do with them.

Those lines could work. I’m just a bit uneasy as of now.

On the contracts?
- sign Giroux now. As of now we know he’s got potential but he hasn’t broken out into superstar level…yet. Say he goes off and scores 80 points this season, then we would have to pay him a lot more. I’d rather we give him 3 years or so at fairly cheap. What are the rules for ensuring he’s an RFA at the end of his next contract? Whatever they are I think that would be the best option. Locking him up for 10 years would be awesome but I don’t see that happening now.
- sign Carter later. Much later. Really, if we sign Carter now we are looking at saying goodbye to Zherdev and Leino already, and as Geoff pointed out in his SBNPhilly article, Carter is really still an unknown quantity. Let’s see what we’ve got in him before giving him superstar money and telling a kid like Leino who could be a superstar that his services will not be required after this season.

That’s interesting. Anyone know anything about JP?

I agree on both points. All the games should be worth the same amount of points. It simply makes the most sense.

I’d also rather see a 3-on-3 OT than a shootout.

Awkward.