I don't buy it. Grier would have moved Simek for future considerations by now if he had any value whatsoever around the league. Sure teams will have more cap space at the deadline but they're unlikely to spend it on Radim Simek. Maybe if he was 4 inches taller or had any sort of track record.
Rentals have a lot more value on an expiring contract when they present injury risks like Simek, he will have more value this year than he did last year
The GM calculus is a lot different when a team has zero play-off expectations - not really a fair comparison because the teams under Wilson and Grier had such vastly different competitive situations.
Maybe. Certainly, teams value size and physical ability when it comes to depth defenseman. But...Simek might not even be an NHL defenseman anymore. Teams will give a late pick for a #7-8 guy, but Simek might be even worse than that
Unless we're retaining 50% on Simek, we're probably not getting anything for him and even then I think we'd be lucky to get a 5th. Megna was a healthy cheap version of what you're talking about with an extra year landing a 4th that ended up being a healthy scratch depth piece for them. I think we'd be better off eating Simek's contract until it expires unless someone wants to send us a 7th rounder unretained with cap dumps coming back because we could facilitate a trade with our last retention slot for a 4th round pick or retain on Duclair or Barabanov that could push their value from a 3rd to a 2nd. I'd rather do that then worry about a 5th-7th round pick that a retained Simek may return.
We’ll probably get something along the lines of the Nieto trade in a reclamation project or an underwhelming prospect.
If it's an Andreas Johnsson type that expires at the end of the year as well, that's fine but it's hard to imagine Simek staying healthy enough through a season to even get traded. We'll see.
Simek is below replacement level - even when healthy, the only think he can do decently well is hit guys trying to cross the blue line, but he's slow so he can only do that so often. He's a black hole when it comes to anything else.
Why buy him out? What would the Sharks do with another contract slot? Also if players with a future can’t beat out Simik on merit why should the team make a spot for them right now. He’s literally the lowest bar to clear. Just ride out the contract for the season, waive him and send him to the Cuda if they need his roster spot, and then be done with it.
You save $650,000 in cash and have a slot open for one of Thrun/Okhotiuk/Gawanke/Pulli/Mukhamadullin. Right now, we have ten defensemen who require passing through waivers, six of whom I am certain will be on the roster (Vlasic, Ferraro, Rutta, Knyzhov, Benning, Burroughs), plus Simek.
Oh I would too, they're all 7-8D, if not worse (so is Burroughs), maybe a 6D, but we know that won't happen with Vlasic or Benning (he's our new PP1 guy!) or likely Rutta. It just seems pointless carrying ten different 6-8D.
I mean you can waive Simek as well to open up that spot and save 1.1ish or something like that. If he gets claimed then you save his whole cap hit, if not you still save his whole cap hit next year (basically). Personally I don’t think SJ should buy out anyone for the next few years until they actually need the the cap space.
I agree. The only way the sharks can spend to the cap in the next two seasons would probably involve being irresponsible with spending.
We don't need to be opening up any slots for young players right now, especially on D
That was supposed to be last seasons plans, was told how deep and scary the CUDA were going to be last year.
That was amazing and the loudest sustained cheering in the tank, I think until Donskoi's SCF OT goal
I had just put my son to bed to start the 3rd and then kept going in after each goal to tell him they scored.
SAME! Mother’s Day with mom, our first game at the tank, absolutely amazing
