What should/can LOU do right now

[LucifersDog]

I don't think there is much he can do. What do you think?

[xxchaznjxx]

i'm not saying this is the problem or doing this is going to help any, but he's got to get this rolston/cap situation taken care of. rolston is going to come back and when he does it will affect the roster and players know this. this is something that needs to be addressed. not that it will make our defense play any better. but maybe this is taking a toll on the guys.

[MantaRay]

The damage to the franchise is done. This isn't just about this year now, this will take at least five years to correct the new environment.

[Dead]

I don't think there is much he can do. What do you think?

Ensure mantaray can not enter prucenter

[CRASHER]

Ensure mantaray can not enter prucenter

sh!t I'd go the other way... he seems to know it all right?? Give the fracker a job in the front office... least the press conferences would be fascinating

[Devs3cups]

The damage to the franchise is done. This isn't just about this year now, this will take at least five years to correct the new environment.

Wait, I dont think we are such in a hole for the next five years. In 1-2 years elias is done, 6 mil there, and there is marty etc. etc. The young guys will come in, Kovy doesent realy affects something, 6.66 mil cap hit isnt bad at all.

I can see this team being good in 3-4 years with magnan grenier, taormina, parise, kovy, josefson, henrique , tedenby etc. etc.

Just wondering who the goalie will be???

[Lateralous]

I think the big thing is to get this cap issue straightened out for the future. Lou has saddled this team with so many crappy contracts that he needs to move a few of them out. If any offers come through for guys like Clarkson, Rolston, White or Salvador that don't require us adding additional assets, I think you have to make those moves.

[LucifersDog]

Some people say no problem yet we are only 4 points out of 8 seed but I say all 8 team have 2 or more games on us. I also think cap situation is a big distraction.

[RunninWithTheDevil]

the goalie will be Mike McKenna and we will win the cup

[MadDog2020]

"This is sh!t".

[ThreeCups]

The damage to the franchise is done. This isn't just about this year now, this will take at least five years to correct the new environment.

FIVE years?!?!? No way, if this turns out to be a "rebuilding" year, it will be a QUICK rebuild. If god forbid we miss the playoffs THIS season, we will be in them next year. I still believe we will get in this year for what it's worth....

[Don]

The damage to the franchise is done. This isn't just about this year now, this will take at least five years to correct the new environment.

What do you mean by "correct"? Do you believe that we will have sub-.500 seasons for the next 5 years? Do you believe we will miss the playoffs for the next 5 years? What is this "next five years" thing?

[Egg]

I don't see any quick fixes out there right now. We need a PMD , but so does 3/4 of the rest of the league.

Other teams have players that they are rumored to be unhappy with , but I do not see any of them being able to step in and help us right away.

Pipe-dream --- Elias + ? for Iginla Never going to happen but nice to dream.

Connolly in the dog house in Buffalo

Hudler in Detroit

Kaberle in toronto

Havlat in Minn

Any others that anyone else can think of?????

Log-jam of Defensmen in Calgary making over 3 million per. One will have to go before next year. Ian White perhaps or Regehr? Doesn't solve our needs of a PMD really. I guess White is decent but not ideal. Calgary needs a C for Iginla , which we do not have one to offer. Not sure how they are for wingers , but we would need to move 3 mil to absorb White's contract or 4 mil for Regehr.... so not seeing that happen.

Anyone else notice that so far this year , there are alot of 'plugs' that are on fire for other teams?

Jeff Halpern - 10 pts in 14 games

Manny Malhotra - 10 pts in 13 games

Clarke MacArthur - 11 pts in 13 games

I know that over an entire season , they will undoubtedly drop off in production , but so far they are a huge bargain and wish we had someone along those lines.

All bottom 6 guys in prior seasons earning next to nothing.

Gritty , hard working , making under 2 mil per and contributing.

Sharks need a Defenseman , but obviously we cannot afford to dump one of ours with how horrible our defensive zone coverage and play has been of late. MAYBE White or Salv in exchange for ??? I cannot see getting any real value in return from the Sharks for White or Salv( NTC with White as well? cannot see him waiving it )

[ATLL765]

The Rolston situation really needs to be addressed. Does anyone have the numbers on what our cap situation will look like once he gets back? Right now we have Rolston, Salvador and Salmella on LTIR and soon Parise will be there too. According to capgeek, we have $7,781,523 in cap relief due to players on LTIR, once Parise is on there, it will be 10mil+, I'm not sure exactly how much because I'm not sure if they prorate the cap number for LTIR, which I imagine they do. Either way the number will be right around 10mil give or take 500k. But once Rolston gets back, we lose a lot of that relief, so I'd like to know exactly what we'd be looking at once he gets back.

[Devil Fan]

I did some "estimation". I assume 1/5 of the season is gone and Rolston's cap hit should be around 4M while Parise's cap hit is around 2.5M. According to capgeek's LTIR cap space, we've 2M in space but adding Rolston's salary (4M) back but putting Parise's (2.5M) on LTIR means we add a total of 1.5M. That means, once rolston returns, the team will only have approximately 500,000 cap room to call up a player.

Important: my calculation could be wrong, so feel free to correct me.

[ATLL765]

Ok, so basically we don't have to move anyone around to keep the roster as is when Rolston gets back and we'd still have enough to call up an additional player at about minimum salary. I believe JJ is still counting against the cap at the moment, so I imagine we'd be able to send him down and gain whatever his salary is worth in extra space as well, so that'd probably allow room for 2 players to be called up that are being paid league minimum or slightly more. I don't think that's too bad then.

I guess our real problems will come when Salvador comes back...whenever that is. At that point we will need to clear however much his prorated salary will be minus whatever space we have from Parise still being on LTIR.

What exactly will be Parise's cap hit when he gets back? Is it his 3.125-minus the salary made while he was out? Or does he come back at a prorated salary for whatever is left in the season. This is all a bit confusing to me. I would imagine his cap hit would be prorated for whatever amount of the season is left+amount of the season played before being put on IR, which would be 1.57mil, so that would be the amount we'd need to have cleared by the time he returns.

All this would be possible via trade, but if nothing is open, we could waive Zubrus, which would give us some space and if he's claimed, would give us 3.4 mil to play with the following 2 years as well. Although I don't believe just waiving Zubrus would give us enough room at that point, but all this math is making my head spin, so I could be wrong.

[titans04]

Don't forget Corrente is on ltir too so his salary would be added back when he's activated. That is of course unless I'm missing something. Although Fraser and Josefson would met the ltir requirements too.

[ATLL765]

Don't forget Corrente is on ltir too so his salary would be added back when he's activated. That is of course unless I'm missing something. Although Fraser and Josefson would met the ltir requirements too.

I don't believe Corrente is on LTIR. They said he wasn't going to be out long and I read he was practicing with the team already and might play Wed, but JJ and Fraser definitely meet requirements for LTIR, although I think they can just be reassigned to Albany as well.

Also note that I didn't account for space that will be freed up with players being sent down when players come back, this will add at least 500k-1mil in space depending on when players come back and if someone is traded or not.

[AEWHistory]

Some people say no problem yet we are only 4 points out of 8 seed but I say all 8 team have 2 or more games on us. I also think cap situation is a big distraction.

Dude, while I love the enthusiasm and optimism, we are currently have the fewest points in the league and are tied for second most games played. It isn't like we're 4 pts. out and on the upswing here.... we're 4 pts. out of 8th seed, but EVERY team in the top 8 seeds has at least one game in hand, not to mention we're showing no signs of improvement yet. So while I'm all in favor of pumping up the team, I think right now these guys actually need to come back down to earth and get real. They need to work hard and Lou needs to start figuring out how he's going to fix the mess he's created or he's done.

But that's just my $.02.

[AEWHistory]

FIVE years?!?!? No way, if this turns out to be a "rebuilding" year, it will be a QUICK rebuild. If god forbid we miss the playoffs THIS season, we will be in them next year. I still believe we will get in this year for what it's worth....

Okay, I agree that five years is likely an overstatement, but think about this. Marty will be gone soon and, honestly, he might be 'gone' already. So that means drafting a goalie, grooming him, etc. Then there is the defense.... that Swiss cheese. And w/o Marty we will need a real defense because we won't be able to rely on his stick handling and his 70+ games a year. Finally, we actually need a more balanced group of forwards.

Wow, that's a bad list. So while I don't think we'll be building for five years, I don't think it is as crazy as it sounds. But yes, I agree that we've got enough assets to avoid this scenario. We just need to tweak the forwards; it is the back half of this team that is bass-ackwards.

[Pepperkorn]

Hmm.... I'm not there, so I don't know what he CAN do.

If he could, without damaging trust in Mac - I'd like to see him at a practice or two. I'd like him to be seen casually observing - being involved for real so no one on the team can accuse management of being out of touch.

From that vantage point he'll get a better feel for leadership - how players react to talk, tape, drills. He'll get a very real feel for team dynamic not just what the guys SAY is the team dynamic.

Then I personally feel he needs to take it upon himself to help out. Normally it's not his job to coach for goodness sakes. But he's taken away every viable option and he's got a sight no one else honestly has. And he should communicate with MacLean from this place of knowledge. As far as I can see Lou has to operate on heresay - and clearly that heresay has taken him and the team in the wrong direction. So he's got to get into the jungle albeit briefly.

There IS a breakdown and Lou has to find it - it is his job at this point. The way he's set up his staff, there is no one in honest authority there. Again -- it's the way things are - the fact - and it's not lack of trust. MacLean is doing as well as can be expected and it's down to lou to help him out of this. That is my personal opinion. Larry isn't going to. Oates isn't going to (and shouldn't). The team kind of sees now that they really can't. And seriously -- MacLean just can't see it - not the WHOLE picture. He may even be stuck unable to see for trying to avoid all the pitfalls everyone else fell into.

AND Lou has to make sure no one thinks THEY are the rate limiting step ont he process. It's not MacLean Lou doesn't trust, it's not the players -- it's a specific connection not happening.

and --- just somethign to think about.... can Stevens learn manipulation -- man neither of those two can lie Lou or Stevens... I can't either. Burns is the master manipulator because he was dead honest with ZERO arrogance.

If there is any truth to his retiring then I think he has to step

Edited November 8, 2010 by Pepperkorn