Yeah, I can't come up with 1 good thing to say about last nights game. It was atrocious! And I can just see it now, Fenton is happy that Zucker at least is scoring, as that is driving up his value for a trade this off-season. And really, Spurgeon has made this his best scoring season of his career....just more trade value. And I think JEE is going to be used somehow in a trade this off-season as well.
Trading away Zucker and Spurgeon this off-season will open up about $10.7 mil more of cap space. The Wild are already sitting on about $20 mil in open cap space for next season. Sign Donato to a 4yr contract and Fiala to a 2yr bridge contract. With all that cap space, you can offer-sheet a few guys. The list of good RFAs for next year are (22yrs old and under): Laine/Jets, Connor/Jets, Tkachuk/Flames, Aho/Canes, Marner/Leafs, Meier/Sharks, Rantanen/Avs, Konecny/Flyers, Boeser/Canucks, Werenski/Jackets and McAvoy/Bruins. I didn't include Brayden Point or Kasperi Kapanen as they are 23.
Now, I know some of these are NOT leaving their teams, as the teams have the cap space to sign them. But to me, I think the Leafs and the Jets might be a little tight against the cap. There just might be something for Fenton to work on with these teams. And probably more effective to work some type of trades with these teams instead of offer sheets. Except in the Jets case, offer-sheet Laine just to screw with them.
As for FAs, with the idea of trying to stay young, I won't look at anyone over 29. You have Eberle, Lee, Duchene, Panarin (hahaha, not happening), Skinner, Nelson, Karlsson (again, not happening) and maybe Myers. Eberle and Panarin are the only 2 right handed forwards. So the prospects of getting a good player, that is needed, is from the younger list.
Problem is, the way the Wild's roster is constructed at this time, they have all LWs and no RWs, unless Kunin stays there. But on the left side, you have Parise, Greenway, Fiala, Donato, Foligno. And with Staal, Koivu (eventually) and maybe JEE...there is not much change to the roster. I wouldn't be looking for much in the way of Dman, even with trading Spurgeon away, I think the Wild are good with Dumba coming back and what they have in Iowa. I wish Belpedio was up so they could see if he works better with Brodin or Suter. My hope is that is would be Brodin, as they would then make the 2nd pairing for next year.
Thoughts on others the Wild should be looking for?
Forgot....the Wild should keep BB. If this is not a complete rebuild, but a reshuffle on the fly...BB is the best available to keep it moving forward.
