To ANA: Miller, Hecht, Leopold To BUF: Koivu, Hiller, Lydman and Maroon
ANA is an aging team and has goal tending like Philly. That said, they have cap room and contracts expiring. In addition, Miller is bound to at some point become impatient..and his fiance is already on the left coast. We are at least a few years away. Hiller is a salary cap trade off and insurance for Enroth. IMHO Enroth has earned a shot at the job and is cap friendly for some years to come. Hecht is just a bad contract and Miller is the bait to get rid of it. I don't think Leopolds game is not eastern conference friendly and he is just too soft to play here....that said Lydman is tough as nails and a great leader who knows the system and works well in it. Koivu only has a few years left...but he adds a leader to the team and depth at Center the teams biggest weakness. His contract is both friendly in terms of cash as well as term. Maroon is a huge body and a great prospect to balance out the Gerbe and Ennis's of the world.
I save about 3.5 against the cap in this move as well. Connolly...GONE. Now I save 8M against the cap. Grier and Neidermayer, gone. 10.7 Saved. Ellis, Butler, Lalime and Rivet off the books...5.3 more or 16M total. Montador gone, 17.5M.
I keep and sign Stafford (but only short term...if not, bye), Gerbe, McCormick, Mancari, Sekera, Weber, Grags, Enroth. this is about a 4.5M give back. So now I'm 13M free. Roster looks like:
C: Koivu, Roy, Gaustad LW: Ennis, Gerbe, Vanek, McCormick (He is going to have to flip..) RW: Boyes, Pominville, Stafford, Kaleta W:Mancari D: Myers, Lydman, Grags, Weber, Sekera, Morrisonn G: Enroth, Hiller
I still need a C and some depth at D. My Depth at D? A guy like Andy Greene allowing guys like Brennen to continue to develop in Portland. I think 1.2 lands him without issue. You can make a real run at Brad Richards at this point. He said at one point he'd welcome a trade to Toronto...so here's not against the region and coming east again. If you get serious...he is here for 9M over 5 years or 6 years. And under this, I can afford to do that. So here are MY 2011-2012 Sabres with about 3.5M in cap room. (And knowing that Hiller and Boyes Salary will eventually go to Myers..)
C: Koivu, Roy, Gaustad, Richards LW: Ennis, Gerbe, Vanek, McCormick (He is going to have to flip..) RW: Boyes, Pominville, Stafford, Kaleta W:Mancari D: Myers, Lydman, Grags, Weber, Sekera, Morrisonn, Greene G: Enroth, Hiller
the lines at least start to pencil in like:
1: Vanek-Richards-Pominville 2: Ennis-Koivu-Stafford 3: Gerbe-Roy-Boyes 4: McCormick-Gaustad-Kaleta
So what do you think? Better then this years team?
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