Montour's led the team in ice-time in both regular season and playoffs for the last two seasons. It's clear Maurice loves using him in all situations and is never shy about calling his number.
Montour's led the team in ice-time in both regular season and playoffs for the last two seasons. It's clear Maurice loves using him in all situations and is never shy about calling his number.
Wish we could keep him, but he's getting a raise and unless he's taking $4M or less, just can't see any way we keep him.
The guy's a horse and our best skating dman, he does a lot of things for the outlet and has been decent in the d-zone. But he's also been making dumb offensive decisions and his shot needs (needed?) re-calibration. Hoping last game gets him out of his funk.
Wish we could keep him, but he's getting a raise and unless he's taking $4M or less, just can't see any way we keep him.
He isn't worth more than Forsling, if Monty was considered more important they would have extended him first.View attachment 859900
He's easily getting +6mil and Glassman Ekblad has to be traded at the end of the season. Not sure why ppl expect Monty to settle for measly 4mil when he's been their best dman in the playoffs. If Gus their best dman in the playoffs then why Mo doesn't utilize him as such? I can't wait to see the surprised pikachu faces in this board when Monty is extended and Ekblad is shipped out in the next cargo train as soon as Zito gets his hands on Ekky's list of NMC teams.
He's easily getting +6mil and Glassman Ekblad has to be traded at the end of the season. Not sure why ppl expect Monty to settle for measly 4mil when he's been their best dman in the playoffs. If Gus their best dman in the playoffs then why Mo doesn't utilize him as such? I can't wait to see the surprised pikachu faces in this board when Monty is extended and Ekblad is shipped out in the next cargo train as soon as Zito gets his hands on Ekky's list of NMC teams.
If Monty takes 5 million and Reino 8, we can keep both. But yeah, Zito needs to do some magic to get Monty to take 5. Big selling point is the eight year since he is 30 years old. Teams would have to offer 7 on the open market to match and I don't see him leaving unless he gets 8 at least.
View attachment 859905
Yeah I was playing around with it and the above not impossible, but depends on a few things.
I don't think Lundell getting less than Luo, especially if he keeps playing well in playoffs. Lundell clearly ahead on the depth chart given his usage as 2nd-line Benny replacement. So I'd have him at $3M.
We could go with 21 skaters, but this year they seemed really reluctant to do it, so I figure we're minimum 22-23.
And the cap, we'll see where it lands, I was assuming $87.5M, only $300K difference, but could be meaningful when so close to cap. Hopefully it's the higher number, but with the Arizona situation and attendance only up like 2% year/year, we'll see.
Really curious on what Vladdy wants on his next deal. Dare to dream he takes a cap hit discount for term/cup chances?
3.0-3.5mil AAV?
Ship off Erod to Utah or something
If we do end up trading Ekblad to keep Monty, I'm not going to complain or be that surprised, they aren't far off each other and it'll be up to Maurice/Zito to decide what's the best fit. But I still think the most likely scenario is we keep the Forsling/Ekblad top pair and go from there.
This is the same situation with Ek as it was with Huby where ppl hail him as a top5 player in the league when he's easily closer to being a bottom5 player in the league.
I have no idea who this Ekblad you're watching because he's not a top pair player by any stretch of imagination. He's slow to gain speed and change direction, finds himself constantly behind the play and Gus has to bail him out, etc. One might argue that he's a smart dman with the puck but who cares when he's always chasing the puck like a headless chicken and can't make any plays in the o-zone when he has the mobility of a 747.
Zito isn't going to pay Ekblad +9mil per which he's going to get in the open market and he's not going to let Ekblad walk for free when Zito is going to need recoup some assets that he's lost in the course of building this team.
Erod's not going anywhere...he just signed a 4-year deal to have some stability. Would be an awful look on the org. No way Zito does that. We're not Vegas...