Monday, June 23, 2008

With one week to go...

There are eight players of note who have unresolved contract situations (their respective cap hits and salaries from last season shown here)...



Who gets signed? Who gets offer sheets tendered by other clubs? Will any or all of the UFA's be signed before next Tuesday? How much will the new contracts (if any) be worth?

Have at it.



source: nhlnumbers.com

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Green probably will be the only one who gets an offer sheet. I can't help but think that Florida acquiring Ballard and Boynton at the draft may make Bouwmeester more vulnerable than Green, though. I don't think teams are going to throw around offer sheets; Lowe did it all last season, and nobody else joined in. If there are any, they'll go after guys that won't hurt with a huge overpay but they'll still target better-than-good talent. The Caps' other RFAs should be okay.

That said...

Gordon and Morrisonn get four-year deals. Gordon's going to be cheap, and he's dependable, while Morrisonn is a steady top 4 defenseman whose lack of offense could help drive down his price a bit. Say, $2 million annual cap hit for Mo, while a little less than a million for Boyd.

Laich gets a 2-year deal. That could help keep his price below Erat-levels by signing him up to his UFA years. If Laich proves that this past year wasn't a fluke, then he can cash in elsewhere while the Caps replace him with A. Gordon, Bourque, or someone else from the system. If he doesn't, the Caps aren't caught with a bad overpay for one good season.

Eric Fehr accepts his qualifying offer. It's the best deal he's gonna get.

Last season, McPhee signed most of the RFAs by late July. With the acception of Green, I see the same happening again.

Huet gets signed before July 1 to a front-loaded contract. Fedorov won't be...the Caps aren't going to offer a lot for a 38-year-old center (not with Nylander ready to go) and Feds hasn't been known to be a guy who cuts teams a financial break. Fedorov is a luxury--a nice one, but not one where you jeopardize the cap space (get him to an incentives-based contract paying up to $2 million). Apparently, the Caps have already told Cooke that they're not resigning him.

JP said...

Feds and Cooke are gone, everyone else is back at:

Huet - 3 years at $4.33m
Fehr - 1 year at his QO price
Gordon - 1 year at his QO price
Laich - 2 years, $3.5m
Green - 6 years, $33m
Mo - 2 years, $3m

But check back with me in an hour, as my thoughts on the subject are suceptible to frequent changes.

FAUX RUMORS said...

1)Until we read/hear that Huet is signed we won't believe he/his agent is really serious about returning.
2) Certainly its going to take as much/more than what Kolzig made last year to retain him. He'd be foolish, as the only real #1 UFA goalie this summer, to take less.
3) IF he's unsigned July 1st, consider him gone and an announcement that he's signed with the Senators soon to follow.

Anonymous said...

@JP:
I think if you flop the numbers for Green and Huet, it's more realistic, with the same contract duration.
I will be more than a little depressed if Fedorov is gone.

Red Rover said...

@ Shaggy,

Shea Weber just inked a deal at $4.5 million per (3 years, $13.5 million). There's not a snowball's chance in Hell that Green gets less than what Shea Weber is making.

Anonymous said...

Here's a wild guess; I think Green is going to get a humongous offer sheet from Tampa Bay. Their new owners have a ton of money, plenty of cap room and they've publicly stated that they're going to be wildly agressive in the free agent market. And what better way to make your mark than by crippling the best team in the division.

Ed said...

I think Green gets $5.5M a year and Huet gets $5M a year. Morrisonn will likely get $2 to $2.5M a year. The rest of the guys are role players and will get what is left with Laich probably making the most. JP's numbers are pretty good estimates overall.

Anonymous said...

@b.orr4--

From the Koules and Barrie press conference today: "I think we'll surprise people. Of the top five or six free agents, there's only one we won't be going after, and that's because he's a puck-rushing defenseman, and we think we have the best at that."

'Course, he could be attempting a lame smoke screen, but I still thought it was interesting. I think Tampa Bay will be more interested in UFAs than RFAs, actually....

JP said...

As a fan of gossip, drama and humor, I love the idea of Tampa extending Green an offer.

As a Caps fan, I don't.