After a weekend out of town and some time trying to tie up loose ends to get the new Canes and Coffee site launched, I poked my head back into the hockey world last night to see what I had missed. As is often the case in late July and all of August, the answer was not much.
Of the things that did happen, I think the Derek Stepan signing today for $6.5M/year could have the most meaning for the Canes. With the long-term situation for Eric Staal still in limbo, the Stepan signing for $6.5M/year might counter the O'Reilly signing for a hefty $7.5M/year and maybe serve as a last data point for Ron Francis and Eric Staal's camp working together in August to finalize something. Using my informal Twitter poll and my more detailed blog from last week (You can find that HERE.) , I think something like 4 years for $6.5-7M/year is probably fair, and I actually think that Eric Staal could get a bit more than that in a bidding war next summer (cough...Toronto). I would be thrilled to see him signed at $5.5M/year, more realistically expect $6-6.5M/year and be a little peeved that he was not more generous if he gets $7M/year.
A few other random Canes bits heading into the dog days of August:
--In terms of building the roster, I am right where I have been for multiple weeks now. I still think the Canes would benefit from adding one more veteran top 4ish defenseman. And with Ehrhoff waiting and waiting, just maybe he is coming into Francis' budget range. I think this fills out a legitimate NHL top 4 which is a minimum requirement for taking some kind of shot at making the playoffs. It still leaves one opening for youth to claim a roster spot in training camp. And most significantly, it builds a bridge on the blue line that enables the kids to develop properly and move up the depth chart when they are ready not when they are forced into it because of lack of other options. Then after that, I look to add one skilled/scoring type veteran forward on the cheap ($1.5M or less) on a 1-year deal. That still leaves at least one slot for a rookie to win, and the Canes are light on NHL ready forwards.
--Jeff Skinner. His name continues to pop up and for lack of anything else to talk about in August will probably continue to do so. I do not doubt that Ron Francis will listen to offers for Skinner, but I think it is like this: 1-Canes are suddenly a bit short on raw offensive fire power with Semin gone, no new additions and no real raw scoring options certain to bust onto the NHL roster this fall. 2-The fact that Francis has already been around the block a couple times on Skinner offers and has passed thus far seems to indicate that he is looking for a fair value deal, not to just unload risk and/or salary. 3-So while I am sure that there will be additional talks and rumors, it seems most likely that Francis keeps the offensive upside of Jeff Skinner when he cannot get a fair return for it.
I am long on record of trading Jeff Skinner but only for a fair return. In addition, I liked the idea of using him to add a young top 4 defenseman. But with Hanifin and Fleury and a suddenly stocked pipeline on defense, I now lean more toward buying short-term veteran “bridges… on a rental basis on defense (i.e. Christian Ehrhoff). So if I was going to trade Skinner now after the Hanifin draft and Wisniewski trade, I think I would want a good top 6 forward back ideally with scoring. At that point, it starts to make more sense to just keep Jeff Skinner and hope again that Peters can somehow keep the scoring and add the defense.
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