Great stuff after signing his contract. Way to go!
Especially the TOI is surprising. Only LaCombe played more (29:37 min). I hope he stays healthy - Luneau playing 25 minutes a game would solve so many issues we thought we have.
As we wait and see what Pat does with Leo, I wanted to see what the actual impact of signing signing has on the Ducks. I feel like this offer sheet on the Ducks could be the tipping point that removes the narrative/expectations around the league surrounding offer sheets, and we see it become something that teams strategically use to get players to bring in or create cap nightmares for other teams. We have already seen that teams are paying top dollar for their players out of RFA; bridge deals at lower AAVs become less and less prevalent.
Here's a breakdown of what Anaheim is looking at in 2028, assuming it's a $123M cap. I projected $12 million for Cutter and $10 million for Beckett (obviously could be less or more) and included the rest of the guys that are signed through the 2028/2029 season
2028/2029 Duck Roster - per Puckpedia
| Contract AAV | Per Salary of $123M Cap |
|---|---|
| Leo Carlsson | $18,000,000 |
| Cutter Gauthier | $12,000,000 |
| Beckett Sennecke | $10,000,000 |
| Jackson LaCombe | $9,000,000 |
| Pavel Mintyukov | $7,200,000 |
| Troy Terry | $7,000,000 |
| A.J. Greer | $4,250,000 |
| Ryan Poehling | $3,750,000 |
| Jeff Malott | $1,850,000 |
| Lukas Dostal | $6,500,000 |
| Total | $79,550,000 |
So, here's the problem -
$79,550,000 core commitment and leaves the Ducks with exactly $42,450,000 to fill the remaining 14 roster spots.
The Average Space: $3,032,142 per player for the rest of the lineup........
In 2028, NHL players will be looking for increases in salary in all positions. The Ducks have no second pair's defence, which demands 7–10 million, while the Ducks also don't have a third pairing, which will demand 2–5 million. Additionally, the Ducks would need to pay between two and five million dollars per player for the third and fourth lines and beyond. That said, I am just putting numbers that I could see the NHL being, so obviously take it with a grain of salt, and it probably will be different.
Curious what others think about the whole situation and some players that could be targeted in the future. Overall Pat should be fired for the blunder.
We can make something out of this awful situation yet. We need to recover losses and spread the burden. Let Leo leave. Fire PV and go back to the drawing board.
35 mil cap space without Leo and 8 first round picks in the next 4 years. We extend Minty and Cutter (18-20 mil?)We have 15 mil cap space left. Now we start the retool.
There are options: Larkin for example or ship a few picks to Seattle and get Wright. Why the hell not. I'm pretty sure he is mishandled by Seattle for his entire career. St Louis and Vancouver are retooling/ rebuilding. Try to get Parayko or Hronek. Even EP40 might be worth a try. Maybe we can ship Vatrano to Vancouver and a couple of first rounders and get Hronek and EP40 both (18mil combined). If Vancouver retains a bit we will still have room for one more player. Fantilli? Thomas? I'm pretty positive we can get two great players with all the draft capital and still have a bit of cap space left.
We won't replace Leo 1:1. That's not possible he is that good. But we can build a competitive team and look for solutions elsewhere.
Or we embrace the tank one more year. Ship away granny and Terry so we are as awful as possible and miss DuPont LOL 😂
Do we know which Number he will take?
Seeing Greer with the 10 would feel wrong haha.
I uploaded the mirrored version a few months back. Meanwhile wind pushed a picture into my sets and lots of damage was done. (2nd picture shows the scene a few minutes after the fall when I cleared the ground of all the small pieces - 6 sets were affected by the watch towers trying to fly)
I thought I just use this "chance" to customise it even more. Pretty happy how it turned out. Rerouting the cables was a bit of a pain and I am considering to buy a few extensions so I can fuse both sets into one circuit. Right now both sets are loosely connected with 2 bricks with pins.
Ps: all cables and lights survived the 2m fly to the ground and besides one helmet feather nothing broke (a few scratches but nothing serious) funnily enough one of the towers remained almost completely intact and punched a hole into my wall - that's one sturdy lad)
I hope we can convince Troubs to take a 2-3 year deal with 6M AAV or something like this. But he can probably get much more than that around the NHL. I don't think it is impossible for him to remain at 8M AAV if the contract is one of the shorter ones.
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If everything breaks we roll Luneau, Moore and Helleson. Hinds and Solberg should be tested on their weak side as well. I don't think we should compete with these insane prices right now. We are not in a hurry right now. Our window is just barely opening.
Sadly it wasn't enough this time. But it's great to see them perform.
I wonder if Zellys performance affects Verbeeks plans. It seemed like he was a sure trading candidate but I think his last 2 games should make anyone wonder if you trade him or extend him. It didn't hurt his trade value though 2 playoff games 1 g and 1 assist and a +2.
Yes last game was a tough pill to swallow.
That said even though we played better in most periods over the 3 games vs Vegas we really struggled to score against them. If 1-2 goals is everything you can get we will most likely lose 9/10 games (unless game 2 Dostal performance).
We need to figure out how to beat him. I would advocate we bring McT back (especially for the power plays) and give Vatrano a chance. We have 2 guys with multiple 20+ goals seasons under their belts sitting in the press box.
We can try out stuff imo. We play with house money and exceeded all expectations already. So let's change a few things and see how it goes. I would also like to see a Zelly/ Gudas 3rd d-men pair these playoffs.
Harkins, Hinds, Helleson do not play big minutes or roles anyways might as well try someone else for 10 minutes a night.
Sunday morning beer league level. My new Cutter jersey doing some magic 😎👍
Hope Gauthier can copy my success on Monday 😂