Finding a tough minutes center from the UFA pool

that makes him too old to go back to Jr’s right? I know there are overage players down there but I can’t remember if the cut off is 19 or 20.

If he’s too old to go to Jr he should stay in the AHL for at least a season.

Why am I seeing so many people suddenly giving Leino over 3 million a year when last week it was generally agreed here he was not worth more that 2.5?

Now that we have cap space we can just piss it away? I don’t get the sudden shift in assessing his worth.

Oh I think if they definitely send Schenn to the AHL this year. I think the guy will be a stud but a 3.1 mil cap hit for a third line rookie is a little high to me for this year. I think with a few minor moves this team can still compete for a cup. Roster could end up looking a like this. I left Halpern at 600k only because I haven’t seen anything about what kind of deal he’s looking for but there’s enough cap room left to adjust the salaries

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
Jakub Voracek ($2.500m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / James Van Riemsdyk ($1.654m)
Ville Leino ($3.000m) / Daniel Briere ($6.500m) / Scott Hartnell ($4.200m)
Wayne Simmonds ($2.000m) / Jeff Halpern ($0.600m) / Kris Versteeg ($3.083m)
Darroll Powe ($0.850m) / Blair Betts ($0.700m) / Andreas Nodl ($1.000m)
Ian Laperriere ($1.166m)

DEFENSEMEN
Matt Carle ($3.437m) / Chris Pronger ($4.921m)
Braydon Coburn ($3.200m) / Kimmo Timonen ($6.333m)
Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m) / Sean O’Donnell ($1.100m)
Oskars Bartulis ($0.600m)

GOALTENDERS
Ilya Bryzgalov ($5.666m) / Sergei Bobrovsky ($1.750m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $62,013,095; BONUSES: $1,700,000
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $2,286,905

That’s a good point regarding the linemates. That’s probably what helps Belanger’s Corsi Rel a lot.

Reasoner spent most of his time playing with Radek Dvorak and Stillman but that was only 25% of the time, so I’m unsure how he was used exactly.

I feel he is just one of the player who hasn’t really gotten their shot in the NHL. He’s almost a point-per-game player in the AHL, but he is 30 years old. His one full NHL season, with Phoenix in ‘06-07, he managed a decent showing while playing in front of a horrid defense (and that was the year BEFORE Bryz got there). I frankly don’t understand why he hasn’t stuck.

Todd, where does one get these stats? Are they just sitting somewhere waiting to be read, or do you guys plug raw data into a tool (ie, spreadsheet)?

I’d like something along the lines of JVR-Giroux-Steeg, Hartnell-Briere-Voracek, Simmonds-HL-Nodl, Shelley (inevitable)-Betts-Powe.

Gagne-Richards-Knuble got tough minutes and put up tons of points as well. I think it is more important to shelter Danny B then have a shutdown line. Basically just don’t have two lines that need to be Sheltered that would be bad.

And Schenn is listed as big as Richards 6ft 1 in close to 200lbs.

If Leino is signed, there’s no money or playing time for a third line center unless Schenn is in the AHL. And even if you want Schenn in the AHL for a year, unless you’re giving Leino a one-year deal, the same problem comes back next year.

Nah, you did it better.

My look at the RFA cap hits was more detailed than Geoff’s (BtN numbers instead of hockey reference), but came to the same result. My look at this was much less detailed than yours, focusing more on how/why we had to let go of Leino and less on who we should plug in.

Yeah, I posted something on Carter at the Cannon, but I don’t think we have much of anything on Richards.

Richards’ role is the source of a long-running debate on here in comments, but I don’t remember any articles that addressed it directly. Geoff has argued that Richards’ value comes from two places: achieving neutral-plus results from the toughest defensive situations, and being a great producer on the power play. Others have argued that he was our best player and was being wasted by not giving the opportunity to score more (which usually meant they didn’t like the defensive-minded Andreas Nodl on his wing).

In retrospect, I’m a little surprised I don’t recall a “see, this is what I’m talking about” article from Geoff. But I don’t think he ever laid it all out in a post; instead, it’s buried in thousands of comments on the daily link dumps.

Yes I class Simmonds as Top 6. When LA put him in the Top 6 he did a good job.

I’d still say he’s kind of a tweener, but he does put up more points with better linemates.

What was Mike Richards’ rookie season like, just out of curiosity? To me it looks like he needed some time to become the player he is today.

I think Schenn may have a bit more potential on offense, and he is going to develop into a good two-way forward. But Richards probably has the edge on defense.

I was just curious. There were implications that there was a shortage of favorable centers, But I kind of disagree. There’s 4-5 guys out there that could come in and fit until Schenn gets back

IMO

You are dead on right. Even in Philly they matched up on the fly to dominate and keep Richards away from Krecji. They wanted them against Briere and really dominated the entire series.

For some reason the Flyers recently (Stevens and Lavi) don’t seem to try to force matchups on the road. The other teams do it to us constantly and we just seem to accept the matchup when on the road. That is one point that I thought that Hitch did a masterful job. Maybe Lavi will work on that during the offseason to add to his game?

Bergenheim

THIS.

I would.

Darroll Powe had 12 giveaways all year, according to NHL.com … that doesn’t sound like a give-away machine to me. By comparison, Nodl had 29 in 14 less games.

I am more for throwing him into the role for the start best way to learn is on the job and with good supporting cast I think he can do fine at the role splitting it with Giroux’s line. I don’t want to waste the ELC years in the AHL I don’t want him playing wing, though drafting Coutier that might make more sense because is potentially a better shutdown center with even more size down the road. Coutier is probably a year or two away and maybe makes the team in time for Danny to be bought out who knows.

Most importantly I think is very important to clear Schenn bonuses this season. So we have the room to resign Carle, Coburn and JVR in the offseason.

I am on board with your logic but I am still ALSO concerned with the offense lost with Richards and Carter gone. Cole brings back some of the goal scoring, some of the leadership and playoff experience and continues to add size to the lineup. If I am not bringing back Leino and instead signing a shutdown center the offense is going to be pretty thin this year. Much thinner than I would like it to be. And why there are Centers available in this exercise to take those minutes away who it is going to cost too much on the offensive end to do so unless you get one who would regularly play on the 4th line and then get spotted in for D zone draws and matchups when needed.

So you got a cheap goalie decently?

I am perplexed – NOW WHAT? There’s lliterally nothing left. Can’t even sign Gagne as a decent winger top help shelter Talbot at center. I just don’t know.