Curt

Not that your numbers are wrong, but I think it just muddies the issue to keep quoting PP production when ES play is the discussion point. Everyone agrees that he is very good on the PP and should be on the #1 unit. During his best stretch of the season (those 26 games) he was doing pretty well at ES. If he can do that for a whole season, that would be good in the top 6. Though if he is going to have long stretches where he goes cold, that’s not great. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be on the top line, or top 6, but I don’t think he has been so impressive at ES that he simply must be there. There are scenarios where he could end up on line 3 and it would make sense.

He started the season off so poorly that there was nowhere to go but up. In his first 16 games, he had 0 ES goals. After that, he had 7 ES goals in 26 games before getting injured. After coming back from injury in mid February, he had 2 ES goals in 12 games. So during that middle stretch of the season, he was doing pretty well. Scoring at ES at about the same rate that Reinhart and Skinner averaged for the whole season. If he could keep that up for a whole season, that’s acceptable in the top 6.

Technically probably a hire by Matt Ellis for his PD department, but I’m sure KA was in the loop.

Last season VO was placed in an ideal situation at ES. 1st line mins with the two best passers on the team. He scored 9 goals in 54 games. Im not saying that he can’t improve upon that, but if you are worried about messing up what he had going last year, there isn’t much there to mess up. VO scored at about the same rate as Girgensons, Okposo, Johansson, Vesey, and Sheary.

I’d be happy with 85% of the player he was at age 35. That would still be the 3rd best C that Buffalo has had since the tank.

Skinner you can’t, because he has a NMC. Anyone with a base salary of less than that $1.125M, saves you less. Teams have actually done this with players at times, carrying only 22 on the roster. The reason I think it could make more sense this season is because of the taxi squad. Normally I assume that if a player is sent down, they can’t practice with the team, but this season, there is the taxi squad. You just have them report to the taxi squad, which is already traveling and practicing with the team anyway.

Thanks for the additional info. I had thought it was 1.4M, not 1.125M. The rest I understood. You are misunderstanding the point, I think. All the stuff I quoted above is not what was proposed. The idea is not to leave Okposo in the minors all season, or to have him leave the NHL team at all. The idea was to “send him down” to the taxi squad on off days, as a PAPER TRANSACTION ONLY, and then calling him back up for game days. In this way they could save some cap hit over the course of the season. They absolutely would not call someone up to take his place on these off days because it defeats the whole point. I’m estimating that this might be feasible for up to half the days during the course of the season, thus perhaps they could save $0.5M cap hit. The stuff about IR players using up excess cap space is relevant, and I don’t know how much that generally costs a team per season. It’s possible that this is likely to make such a process pointless, but I’m not sure how likely. Ive also said that I think there may be a way to approach this that everyone is comfortable with. It’s certainly not something that I would force through if it was going to create bad blood, as you say.

Ok. Isn’t the max cap savings from having a guy in minors normally $1.4M? Regarding the bolded, how does that work? This is new info to me. You definitely would not be replacing him on the active roster at those times, because the whole point is that it’s only on off days, so why would you need to? The stuff about players on IR is irrelevant because that’s going to happen either way, no?

How so?

Just makes it a little more likely that Boston falters and Buffalo can surpass them. Everything seems to be coming undone all at once for Boston.

He has to clear waivers (would anyone take him? no), then he can be sent to the “minors” which would be the taxi squad that is practicing with the team anyway. Having Okposo in the minors for the whole season would save $1.4M in cap I believe. So if they can have him in the “minors” for close to half the season, on as many non game days as possible then call him up for game days, then maybe they could save $0.5M in cap space, which could be useful wiggle room to add at the deadline.

Agree, he will certainly play to start the season, and will continue to play unless he really stinks it up. This whole discussion just started with whether they would consider sending him to the taxi squad on off days to save a little cap space, purely as a paper transaction.

I mean, I could say the same about your weight placed on Krueger’s words in this recent interview. You are right though that it really only matters what they do, and that the players feel that there is confidence in them.

I would be more worried about Washington’s gt if they planned on starting Holtby, though they do need to solve their backup question. I think they have plenty of F depth with Ove, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Oshie, Vrana, Wilson, Eller, and Haeglin. Pens I think improved this offseason, but need their top guys to stay healthy. Philly has a deep roster, but i don’t think they have the top end players that some other teams in the division do. Bs have a lot of holes, need to get healthy and need to see what their D works without Krug. Rangers could surprise. That have the top end guys, and a lot of talented young guys who may or may not be ready for the next step. I’m not positive that Islanders get in. They could but it’s no given. This division is kind of interesting in that there are a lot of young goalies with good teams who are depending on them. Washington, Pittsburgh, Rangers, Islanders, and Flyers all have goalies 25 or under with no more than one season as a starter. Tough to predict what some teams are going to get in net.

If they liked Sheahan that much over Lazar, they probably would have signed him in the offseason. He doesn’t even have a contract yet and they just signed Lazar to a multi team deal. Not saying that Sheahan won’t make the team or play, but I wouldn’t be penciling him in over Thompson, Lazar or Reider just yet.

Meh, maybe he just doesn’t see a move coming soon, and wants to keep it positive. A couple months ago, the most positive thing he could muster was “they are our goalies right now”.

I don’t fully agree with your assessment of the division. Why do you project Flyers out to tops in the division? I do see them among the better teams, but I don’t see where they are clearly ahead of Washington in particular. I think the division is Washington up top, NJ at the bottom, and a jumble in the middle.

Did Carter ever have that speed???

If they could move Okposo cheaply, I think they would. If Okposo becomes so bad that he can’t even play even on the 4th line, they definitely would be trying to move on from him any way that’s feasible. Im sure that the players on the team would have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand they love Okposo and hate to see him go. On the other hand, if someone is not playing up to par, they know it, and they are all adults who understand that this is a business as well as a game. Players get moved all the time. There are respectful, classy ways to do it. But anyway, this discussion wasn’t about “dumping” Okposo. It was about waiving him to the taxi squad in order to save cap space, knowing that no one would claim him, and whether or not there is a way that Okposo and the team would be ok with questionable optics of it. It could potentially be spun as a positive thing, for the team, but would the players go for it?

Interesting, but I can’t imagine that 2-way players are guaranteed their NHL rate by opting out, even for medical reasons. Otherwise I think dozens of AHL vets would be scrambling to find medical reasons to opt out. Seems like the lawyers would have noticed that in the fine print.

I understand what you are saying, that it could be viewed as disrespectful. However, I feel like there is an approach to it that could be acceptable to all. It could approached/viewed as Okposo being a leader, helping out the team, and maybe increasing their ability to make improvements for a playoff run. I don’t know if he would be inclined to view it that way though, and I’m sure they would get his sign off beforehand. These are paper transactions only. It would have no effect on Okposo’s ability to be a part of the NHL team at all times.

Nope. Okposo would be paid the same whether on the NHL roster, taxi squad, or AHL. This is true of any player with a one way deal.

I thought the same thing. He has Larson stats, usage and play style. He possession numbers aren’t as good though.

Yeah, definitely is a collective bargaining issue. Was just theorizing about changes. You are probably in the right, from a moral standpoint.

Potential 4th line C and PKer. Big body, pretty good at FOs.