#more realistically they’re probably just gonna trade somebody else to piss me off and we’re definitely not re-signing Smith now

[himbeaux-on-ice]

Its funny that Vegas saw the criticism that they were weak down the middle and went after the most expensive available center and he is going to be the number one center I believe. But for the cap hit I feel like that is going to be a problem later in the season since Jack is going to be on LTIR for months due to injury (also tbh it is probably why the traded MAF, get rid of one 9 million dollar player and replace him with a 10 million dollar one lol)

See, see this is why this move today drives me insane, bc that’s NOT WHAT THEY TRADED MAF FOR.

The whole idea in the off-season was, need to reallocate some of the money being used to pay two equal starting goalies (instead of just one starter and a backup) into more depth forwards who can score, because we keep running into a scoring problem late in the playoffs when tight-checking defensive teams are able to shut down our top 6 (the “big line” and the Misfits line), and then there isn’t enough offence in the bottom two lines (aside from Nic Roy and *checks notes* OH YEAH, ALEX TUCH) to pick up the slack or draw attention of opposing defenders enough to create opportunities for the top two lines.

And they went okay, well then to solve this therefore we will essentially liquidate Marc-Andre Fleury (because he is the older and more expensive goalie of the two goalies) to turn his $7 million (not 9) in cap space into free space which we will then spend on: 1) guys like Patrick, Dadonov, Howden to reshape the 3rd and 4th line to be more offence-focused, 2) a cheaper backup goalie, and 3) re-signing Alec Martinez because he’s awesome for us. And then they even said no, we don’t think we need to chase a “true 1C”, because we believe Chandler Stephenson is that player, and has shown us he can be — what we need is more depth.

Which was like okay, cool! Great! Controversial, in many quarters, due to the whole goalie liquidation thing, but sure, as far as offseason plans go it at least has a coherent philosophy and goal that is being worked towards! You were essentially taking the cap space that was one (1) goalie and turning it into several less expensive but hopefully offensively productive forwards, gambling that you really only need one starter anyway. That would honestly be a pretty smart strategy as far as the copycat league goes, given that you’ve watched Tampa’s ability to roll four offensively potent and extremely deep lines LITERALLY beat the EXACT teams that eliminated you for Cups TWICE in the last two years.

So WHY in the name of FUCK have you now decided to UNDO some of that by re-concentrating $10 mil of cap into ONE guy, ostensibly to play in your top 6, thus making them even more top-heavy??? WHAT was the point of all that!! I hope to god Buffalo was on Fleury’s MNTC list, because that’s the only reason I can truly accept not just TRADING HIM FOR THAT INSTEAD OF FOR NOTHING. [muffled screaming into hands] I’ve heard some say that if he gets the surgery he wants and it works, Eichel could be skating in as little as 3 weeks and rehabbed up to game conditioning by the new year, possibly even back in the lineup sooner than Tuch would have been. So like, they’re GONNA need to figure it out.

Anyway with regards to the 1C thing, I’m really only half joking when I say they should either play Eichel at 3C, or move the Misfits (who I really think work better with each other than any other linemates, but Pete may fight me on this) down to 3rd line and play him as 2C with *hand wavy motion in the direction of some wingers*. Fuck it! Roll 4 lines with relatively equal minutes and let the opposing coaches struggle to decide how the fuck they’re gonna deploy against THAT (who do you glue your Phillip Danault-esque shutdown player/line to now, as an opponent? Stone Pacioretty and good ol speedy Stevie? Marchessault Karlsson and Smith? Jack fucking Eichel? The surprisingly effective Kolesar-Patrick-Dadonov 4th line? you can’t cover ALL of them and SOMEBODY is gonna score on you). I think it would be very VERY funny and just might even work. But Chandler Stephenson has earned the 1C job on this team and is incredibly effective with his linemates (just look at the one game we had this season before everybody DIED for an example), he deserves to keep it regardless of his cap hit. You don’t build lines based on price tag.

The Pens have had plenty of success out of being like “here’s our 2C, fuck you it’s Evgeni Malkin, die” for a long time. I legit double-dog-dare the Knights to try the same.