With our defense already filled out last time out, which can be viewed right here, we move on to the All-Cheap team top 6.
Originally we were going to try and do all forwards in one fell swoop, but in reality the group of top 6 and bottom 6 can be very different. Just as 3Cs are different than 2Cs, and fourth liners are different from first and second liners, it seemed only fitting to separate them.
With a top 6 you are looking for some obvious key elements. When you think top 6 you think scoring, skill, and playmaking, but you also think of players like Jonathan Toews or Anze Kopitar. Players who exemplify great all-around play, playing tough match-ups and a lot of minutes. We will be looking for a player like that, along with some good complimentary wingers and goal-scorers. Like before we are going to try and get within the range of certain offensive numbers posted by other teams around the NHL. We will explain the selection process and what we are looking for as we progress, just like last time.
With $19.2 million already spent on defense and goaltending, we endeavour into the All-Cheap team's offense.
#1 Center
It is arguably the most important position in the game, so of course it will get its own different selection process. Why not? The position of 1C gets the brunt of difficult matchups, and is expected to excel at almost every aspect of the game. Faceoffs are important, production is important, and being an all-around good two-way player is also fairly important. With that in mind our group to select from seems exceptionally small doesn't it?
Overall, your best and brightest number one centers in the league player around 20 minutes a night, with good faceoff numbers, and generally score above 55-60 points (Sorry Tyler Bozak, you do not make the cut.). They are also usually good possession players with corsi and goals for above 50% (you would hope).
If we were going to spend a little extra money on our cap, a #1 center would be where it was at. This is about finding the cheapest for value 1C though, so let's see who is available given some of those numbers.
If we put our baseline at around 1500 total minutes, War-on-Ice gives about 26 players to select from (There are others available though who did not come up due to injury time loss).
Here are some names that stick out right away:
Mike Ribeiro - $3.5MM Kyle Turris - $3.5MM Ryan Johansen - $4.00MM David Backes - $4.5MM
Other names worth considering after a stellar 2014-15 season include:
Tyler Johnson - $3.33MM
and if you wanted to go a tiny bit more expensive
Tomas Plekanec - $5.00MM
Obviously this is not a group that rivals Kopitar, Crosby, or Toews, but then again those three make a ton of money. Actually, Kopitar at $6.8 million is probably hands down the best for value number one center right now in the league, but he is one year away from a massive pay date that should be in range of the 8-9 million area and beyond. Also, Kopitar's 2014-15 was actually not so productive when compared to some of the other players on this list. It was a down year for the Slovenian, and he actually came in at 19th in scoring amongst centers. That is behind almost all of the above listed players.
So let's pare it down.
If we are not in a position to select Anze Kopitar due to lack of production, that it should be noted that Ribeiro, Plekanec, and Backes all scored less. Ribeiro and Plekanec in particular also had very poor faceoff numbers (43.2 and 49.9% respectively). Backes remains a solid faceoff man at 54.6% In regards to possession, Plekanec, Backes, and Johansen were all barely above 50% corsi for. At least they are above 50, however, compared to the likes of a Nick Backstrom (57.5) or Claude Giroux (59%), it pales in comparison.
Tyler Johnson, likewise, has a very low faceoff percentage (48.7) and a modest corsi for of 52.5%. Kyle Turris runs nearly the same sort of numbers.
In fact, when you start going through all the different hero charts on OwnThePuck, each and every one of the cheap candidates is BARELY if at all in the range of a 1st line player. Some of them are, but it is of no convincing manner.
This is not what we want.
Time to up the game and get a true elite No. 1 center for our money.
With this, the answer is pretty clear who we should get:
Joe Pavelski herp, John Tavares.
Yes, we originally had good old Joe Pavelski as the original 1C, but due to simple oversight and human error we left off probably the most easily valued contract in the NHL. John Tavares at 5.5 Million dollars a season. He is amongst the most talented centers in the league, right up there with the likes of Toews, Kopitar, and Crosby, and took an incredibly home town discount out on the Island in order to make himself that much more valuable. He is a franchise center getting paid like a 2C. He put up close to 90 points last season, does just about everything for the Islanders, and still holds a good 52.2% faceoff percentage. No excuses on his oversight, JT is the real deal, and his cap hit is nothing short of spectacular for an Islanders squad trying to build a contender.
Hands down, he is the #1 Center of the all cheap team. Now, for his wingers.
Top line wings
With Tavares anchoring the top line, we need some wingers to go along side him. We have a much higher selection amongst wingers then we would centers because, frankly, a lot less goes into playing wing. We want to see offense, and we want to see decent defensive capabilities. The latter, however, is not a deal breaker.
We can spit ball a little on our limitations on this one, but I'm sure you can already think of a few names to toss out there. Here's a start:
Jamie Benn - $5.25MM James Van Riemsdyk - $4.25MM Chris Kunitz - $3.85MM Jiri Hudler - $4.00MM **Note that Hudler can play both wings** Max Pacioretty - $4.5MM
All of these players had wonderful years. There are so many to pick from it can be exceptionally difficult. If you want to go with a real obvious top line, it is definitely Jamie Benn for one. However, Benn's run and gun style game has reflected poorly on his defensive numbers. The guy can score no question, but his suppression numbers rank as some of the worst out there for a top line player.
For this, we will take a little more conservative approach in both money and defensive ability.
With Nick Foligno pricing himself out with his newly side $5.5MM AAV extension, the $4.5MM AAV price tag for Max Pacioretty seemed incredibly affordable. He was 13th overall in points per 60 last season, and is coming off a second straight year where he nearly touched 40 goals. He is a positive possession player, and pretty much brings everything you want for a top line winger.
On his opposite wing, we just could not say no to the recently signed $3.25MM AAV bridge deal of Tyler Toffoli.
His minutes are extremely low due to the Sutter deployment factor of young players, but everything else is top line quality. He will get that chance on the all-cheap team.
Pacioretty - Tavares - Toffoli
Blue collar enough for you?
Between the three you have over 90 goals, positive possession, and excellent variety. All three bring decent speed, good size, good physicality, defensive responsibility, and top line production. Altogether they cost $13.75 million, or around two Dave Bollands and a Deryk Engelland.
Second line
With our work from first line wing selection we came across some other very good and cheap wingers. Ergo, second line wing was not so difficult.
On the left, another bridge deal man at $2.75MM AAV, Tomas Tatar of the Red Wings. Tatar, like Toffoli, was extremely productive in every manner, both traditionally and analytically, but was not afforded the ice time boost. In this instance, we could not NOT give Jiri Hudler his due. At $4.00 million Hudler is the man. He is up for contract after 2015-16 and will most certainly get a pay raise, but as for now take that $4.00 million cap hit and run. Also, with a RW tandem of Toffoli and Hudler, swapping from 1RW to 2RW is definitely doable.
The 2C spot is a little more important, given that it has to be good enough to support and not isolate the top line center. A good one-two punch of production and defense goes a long way. A good underrated center out there is David Desharnais of Montreal, he plays zero penalty kill time though, which is a bit of a buzzkill to his other solid contributions. A guy like Bryan Little is another good one, but his faceoffs are less than desirable at 49%. [strike]Thus, it was fitting to settle on 31-year old David Backes of St. Louis as a 2C. There were plenty of good candidates like Backes, Hanzal, Desharnais, or Bryan Little, because again, we are trying to go for the cheapest value here, but sometimes you have to just go with a good solid one-two punch. That is still relatively cheap I might add.
EDIT: Or you could be like this writer, and completely overlook the incredibly value of John Tavares at $5.5M. Of all the research done, even easy mistakes happen!
At a $6.0MM AAV, Pavelski brings incredible bang for his buck as either a one or two C. The only reason he does not suit up regularly as a No. 1 center is because of Joe Thornton playing in front of him most nights (or to his left more specifically). That being said, Pavelski still plays a healthy range of 20+ minutes a night, combined with one of the best faceoff percentages in the league at 56%, and back-to-back seasons of around 40 goals and 70+ points. His even strength corsi for % sat at 60.18%, which was amongst the top five centers in the league last year. Yes, better than Jonathan Toews even.
He also ranked 12th overall amongst centers in corsi against, and had the fifth best goal differential in the league amongst centers. In terms of deployment, most top centers do not get hemmed in with a lot of defensive zone starts. Guys like Tavares, Crosby, and Stamkos are deployed heavily in the offensive zone (all 20+% ZSO) , and to a lesser degree, so are Toews, Giroux and Backstrom (all 10+%). Pavelski is not quite on Kopitar or Bergeron status, who are much closer to 0, but his 9% ZSO ranks as some of the lowest offensively oriented deployments amongst top centers.
Pretty amazing that the Sharks fished the 31-year old center out of 7th round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.
So altogether, the All-Cheap team top six goes as follows:
Max Pacioretty ($4.5MM) - John Tavares ($5.5MM) - Tyler Toffoli ($3.25MM) Tomas Tatar ($2.75MM) - Joe Pavelski $(6.0MM) - Jiri Hulder ($4.0MM)
Out of the 6 forwards, while we cannot expect repeat years from all of these players, you are looking at probably 160-180 goals from your top lines. Roughly 2-2.5 goals per game over the course of an 82-game season.
Let's compare that to the potentially high scoring Washington top 6 of Oshie, Williams, Ovechkin, Backstrom, Johansson, and Evgeny Kuznetsov, (Maybe Burakovsky as well). That group could potentially score....between 160-180.
Likewise, the Penguins with Kessel, Crosby, Malkin, Perron, Hornqvist, and Kunitz would also likely score in the range of 160-180.
All are positive in possession, a number of them can play penalty kill minutes, and there are two good centers with good faceoff numbers.
How does the money compare though?
If you look at a cap team like Pittsburgh, they will be spending almost $37 million on their top six. Chicago, who has a pretty fluid top six after Hossa, Kane and Toews, will likely be spending in the range of 34-36 million on their top six. San Jose will spend around 30.
The all-cheap team is coming in at a solid $26 million top six. That includes several contracts like Tatar, Toffoli, and Hudler that will rise in the future. Nevertheless, there is around 5-7M dollars available for increases that would leave them to league standard with other competitive teams.
$19.2 million was spent on defense, and now $26 million on a top six. We are at $45.2M currently, and have just about 8 spots to fill on the bottom lines. How on earth will we spend the remaining $26.2 million dollars? The salary cap floor is $52.8 million, so we do not have far to go to reach that.
The team so far:
Max Pacioretty ($4.5MM) - John Tavares ($5.5MM) - Tyler Toffoli ($3.25MM) Tomas Tatar ($2.75MM) - Joe Pavelski $(6.0MM) - Jiri Hulder ($4.0MM)
John Carlson ($3.967MM) - Roman Josi ($4.0MM) Jared Spurgeon ($2.66MM) - Mattias Ekholm ($1.0375MM) Tyson Barrie ($2.6MM) - Thomas Hickey ($2.2MM) Jordie Benn (700K)
Cam Talbot ($1.45MM) Scott Darling (587K)
How does that top six look to you? Did I overlook anyone? Could it be better? Which players would you include that I missed?
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