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I asked how your brackets are doing after Montreal swept Winnipeg . I didn’t hear back form many of you, but there are a few people who were a little surprised (at least in terms of the sweep). Winnipeg has 10 UFAs and 5 RFAs to address with about 14 million in cap space. After a strong post season a couple seasons ago, Trouba and Byfuglien moved on or moved out and that seemed to weaken the defensive makeup. Wheeler has 3 more years at 8.25m and will be 37 at the end of the deal. Connor(24) has 5 more at 7+ and Scheifele (28) has 4 at 6.1. Ehlers (25) has four at 6, Lowery (28) has 5 at 3.25. Little (33) is currently on LTIR and has 3 more years at 5.3m. Pionk and Copp need new deals. Stastny and Perrault are UFAs.

Here is Winnipeg’s Cap Friendly page.

The Canadian division just seemed like a very weak division while Matthews and McDavid were lighting it up on the scoreboard. If the division remains for another season (it’s been talked about) then Winnipeg probably just looks to do a couple upgrades. Perfetti is waiting in the wings. Wheeler and Little (LTIR) are over 30 and cost 14.2 million, but most of their long term guys are in their 20s. If the divisions return to status quo and Winnipeg is struggling, they’ll probably look at shedding some $.

This team may want to be in on the Eichel sweeps. They have some good pieces. Wheeler is an important leader, but at some point you may want to see if you can make room. He’s going to be on the decline, and Scheifele can step into the “C”. There was a lot of buzz about bringing Stastny back. If he will sign for lower dollars, they may try to work something out.

Losing Little for the year and Scheifele for the 2nd round certainly altered things a little, but Winnipeg looked slow as things went on. This team could look not only at Eichel, but also Jones. It will cost some pieces and picks but moving on from a couple of older players and resetting the core could pay dividends.

I don’t really see any deals to be had with Detroit. The players that would fit into that 26 and under group are locked in or will be. Pionk is an RFA, but I have to think they’ll figure a deal out there. The most attractive players would be a high cost and I’m not sure why Winnipeg would deal them. Native son Darren Helm will be a UFA, and I wonder if he would look at doing a league minimum deal to be able to play there for a year.

What do you think? Should Winnipeg just try to move forward as is (as much as possible). Should they try and move on from Wheeler and/or Little and swing for Eichel? There are good pieces, but I just don’t see how Detroit could make the right deal. Yzerman is full of surprises, so I’m completely ready to reverse course of it happens!



Check out some of my previous posts

I asked how your brackets are doing after Montreal swept Winnipeg

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