saskhab
'03-'04 Goalie Profiles Coming Soon!
Joined: 17 Oct 2007
Posts: 3000
Location: Saskatoon!
 |
 Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:46 pm Post subject: The Huet conundrum |
 |
|
AKA: Damned if you do, damed if you don't
In the Phoenix forum, E.L. wrote:
| Quote: |
Nothing to us, I'm afraid. I'd love to keep him, but signing him for more than one year would be a major mis-allocation of cap space.
Nobody wins picking the quiniela - you gotta pick the horse you think will win it for you, and that horse is Cryin' Carey Price. We'd still need to bring in a 1A veteran, but Huet at 5M+ per is a luxury we simply can't afford, not unlike Sheldon Souray's cannon shot and leadership. And at more than one season - he'll be a permanent back-up for us by the end of 2009.
In the cap world, we need to identify 5-6 must-keep guys, and hold on to them at all costs with long-term deals. Everyone else should be limited to 1-2 year deals and must be re-evaluated at every potential interval. If Patrick Sharp is that guy, fair enough, but a 30+ year old goaltender with two career playoff wins is not that guy.
As for Bryzgalov, there's a growing sense that letting someone get to free agency (either of the RFA or UFA variety) is a bad idea. Call it the Buffalo Sabres Lesson - the open market is too competitive now and teams are better off slightly over-paying to prevent the risk of losing quality players on the open market. I'd also say the offer sheet business will figure much more prominently, and Lowe's craziness wasn't a one-time thing.
Floundering teams with money would love to clear the decks of contracts and pick up a blue chipper coming off his entry-level deal. |
I'll leave the Bryzgalov part on there for reference.
Now, I don't disagree with Eric, but I don't think that we can't negotiate with Huet. If Huet wants 3-4 years, it might be a waste of time. There are very few teams out there that might want Huet so much that they'd negotiate those terms (Colorado seems the logical choice as of right now), and if he envisions a career into his late 30's, it's possible a 2 year deal could be arranged.
And what's the numbers on that? I'd guess anywhere between $4.25m per to $5.25m per.
Should we do it? I say sign it. Why? Well, here's why:
1. Options. With the recent demotion of Price, if he stays in the AHL for the rest of the year, we delay him hitting UFA by one year. We haven't tried Halak yet, but I think we should and get a feel for his NHL readiness. Halak is cheaper and at nearly 23, is at the age where he should be breaking into the league. Why waste control of Carey's best years by getting him acclimitized to the NHL? Next year, it could very well be a Huet/Halak tandem with Price in the minors still.
2. 2008-09 is the Centennial Year. Why is this important? Well, the team won't want to take a step back next year. This team has been built to be competitive for 2008-09, and losing Huet greatly diminishes our chances if you ask me. At the end of 2008-09, several veteran Habs have their contracts expire, most notably Koivu & Kovalev. It could very well be their last chance as a Hab. That year, Komisarek hits UFA and we'll have to pony up big to keep him. Higgins & Plekanec will be RFA's with one year left before hitting UFA. Those 3 will get a lot of money, and I know that's what Eric is looking at.
But here's my response to that... it's a 1 year issue. Worst case scenario to me is we play hardball to one of Plekanec or Higgins and wait a year for the big deal. As far as Koivu and Kovalev are concerned, we will hopefully be prepared to make a break with one or both of them. The early candidate on that is Saku, but who knows how it'll shake down in a year.
3. The unpredictable nature of young goalies. A 2 year deal should be plenty of time for one of our two goalies to emerge. And if one of them relegates Huet to a $5m backup for a year, then I say fine. It's a fixed cost scenario... Price has 2 years left on an entry level deal, and Halak's costs can be very controlled as a low profile RFA this summer. If Huet is still the #1 in 2 years, well, then we have a different discussion. But it's far too early to just hand them both NHL jobs and let them duke it out.
In conclusion, this team will be dropping contracts at a decent pace for the next couple of years, and while our core is being identified, there is still room for a veteran goalie making a lot of money. Next year, with a $55m salary cap and relatively small raises to put forth, Huet could be easily retained.
You've got to start envisioning the 2009-10 season (which in my proposal, we still have Huet) as a cap world of $57m-$60m, because the jump is going to be quite significant at least this year, and due to trends, likely to jump at least a little the year after. Right now, only a handful of players are under contract through that year. Markov & Hamrlik are, and Price and S Kostitsyn are on the final year of their entry level deals.
The only kink I see is if we have to sign a RFA to a very lucrative deal over this term. There are two possible candidates, in Kostitsyn this year and Latendresse (if he breaks out) the next. But I'm skeptical about the possibilities of either of them getting such a sheet, and fairly confident that Kostitsyn will be signed to a Plekanec/Higgins style deal this summer.
_________________
"Oh my God. There she is. Lovely Sally Slater. I should speak to her. But what the hell can I say? Anything that doesn't mention that I masturbate over her memory is probably a good idea."
- Mark Corrigan, Peep Show |
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
