Habs77 Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Reports suggest Lecavalier will be available next summer... and it made me wonder how we can fit his salary into our payroll. I obviously had to approx. many salaries, but let's just say that'll every penny you can save here and there will be really key with the salary cap. Here's what I've come up with, for the Habs in the next 2 seasons... the first without Vinny, the second assuming he wants to come to Montreal: Players__________05-06 Salary___06-07 Salary Kovalev, Alex __________5_______5 Lecavalier, Vincent______________5 Theodore, Jose________4.5_____4.5 Koivu, Saku___________3.5_____3.5 Rivet, Craig___________2.66____2.66 Bonk, Radek__________2.394___2.394 Souray, Sheldon_______2.128___2.356 Markov, Andrei_________2_______2 Brisebois, Patrice_______2_______2__Or his replacement Ryder, Micheal________1.25_____1.5 Ribeiro, Mike_________1.25_____1.5 Bulis, Ian_____________1_______1.1 Perezhogin, Alexander__0.8588____1 Komisarek, Mike_______0.8588____1 Hossa, Marcel_________0.75______1 Hainsey, Ron__________0.75_____1 Higgins, Chris_________________0.85__Has to clear waivers to be sent down in 06-07 Begin, Steve___________0.608___0.646 Team option in 06-07 Ward, Jason___________0.45____0.5 Plekanec, Thomas_______0.45____0.5 Huet, Cristobal_________0.456___0.5 Bouillon, Francis________0.45____0.5 Lapierre, Maxim________________0.45__Has to clear waivers to be sent down in 06-08 Zednik, Richard________1.8___________"1.976 in 06-07, but traded" Sundstrom, Niklas______0.988__________not re-signed in 06-07 Team Payroll__________36.1016____41.456 So we're a little over for next year... but there's some tweaking BG can do to make it all fit. One thing GM's might start doing is give long term deals where you pay a guy like Koivu more this year when you don't plan to max out the cap.... and in exchange he accepts a lower salary next year so you can afford a big signing like Lacavalier the next year. When you look at the whole picture... you realize how tempting it is to buyout Rivet right away to make some extra room, or at least replace him with a better D who makes the same amount. Overpaying players REALLY hurts you in this salary cap era. Bonk also feels like a pretty expensive addition if he doesn't pan out btw. But if we can manage to make the above roster fit under the cap, our lineup look pretty damn good in 06-07: Perezhogin-Koivu-Kovalev Ribeiro-Lecavalier-Ryder Bulis-Bonk-Hossa Plekanec-Begin-Ward Higgins, Lapierre Souray-"Breezer replacement" Markov-Komisarek Hainsey-Rivet Bouillon Theo Huet ------------------------- Sure the lineup is prospect heavy at the bottom of the lineup... some of them can be moved for picks... replaced with cheap character players like Begin. Shouldn't change the total payroll too much. The following year, 07-08, we could let Kovalev or Koivu go... bring in Kostitsyn... so we save a few millon on the cap to pay other young players their salary bump up. But things would be very tight, to say the least... and would imply we plan to max out the cap, which I think the Habs would do to grab Lecavalier. - I put Perezhogin with Kovalev, both Russian and played together in Russia this year. - I put Lecavalier with Ribeiro, similar thinking. If we can't make the money work, if we just can't afford both Kovalev & Lecavalier... then perhaps forgetting Kovalev and grabbing a cheaper yet effective 1st liner... like Jeff O'Neil for example... might be a better move to position ourselves for next year. Just a thought. [Edited on 17-7-05 by Habs77] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycing Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Should be very interesting to see if Lecavalier would be made available come next season, and if he would want to come to Montreal or not. (Too much pressure?... he alwayz seems to do pretty good against us here... lol) Apart from that, we've gotta worri about the cap maybe being brought down a bit, meaning less money to spend. This could be quite possible if the NHL doesnt make much money after the fall-out of the lock-out.... Can't wait to get the show started and see how it all pans out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puck7x Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 If he's available next year, we'll sign him (or try to sign him)... No doubt in my mind. We dont need to worry about the cap till the end of the season anyways, we could sign lecavalier and then figure out how to get under the cap again (by trading away someone else). You cant pass up a player like Lecavalier just because of a silly cap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAussiePosse Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Where would he play? Because we have two, possibly three solid centres (Koivu, Ribeiro, maybe Bonk). I'm not sure how good Koivu is on the wing, and I think we already established Ribeiro in the corners is about as effective as putting Theodore in the role of enforcer. Can Lecavalier play on the wing? Also, does he even want to come to Montreal? Has he ever expressed more interest in us than any other teams. I reckon if he continues to do well in TB, where the fans, management and staff love him, he won't be leaving. Perhaps this generation's version of Stevie Y. Or Brian Leetch, perhaps we can get him when he's 40... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanpuck33_ Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Originally posted by TheAussiePosseWhere would he play? Because we have two, possibly three solid centres (Koivu, Ribeiro, maybe Bonk). I'm not sure how good Koivu is on the wing, and I think we already established Ribeiro in the corners is about as effective as putting Theodore in the role of enforcer. If we bring in Vinny, one of them will be gone, and no matter who leaves, we'd be upgrading with younger (or equal in Ribeiro's case) talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycing Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 I figure if anyone goes, it would be Ribs... we could probably trade him for a pretty good defenseman when the time comes or something.... guess it would depend on how his season goes. Koivu, well it's hard to imagine him going... And if Bonk has a good season, I figure he'll stick around as our defensive center... So getting Lecavalier would more or less bump Koivu down to the 2nd line I suspect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leafs Suck Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Originally posted by TheAussiePosseCan Lecavalier play on the wing? I believe he played on the W during the World Cup and look at how well he did there. I would buyout Ribeiro if necessary to get LeCavalier. I think that he would light it up in Montreal. BTW, since when is Kovalev back? I bet Bobo won't re-sign him. He should put his effort into someone like Zubov or Niederamyer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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