Okay Odie and theYotesDiva are asking… if you were GMDM, what would you do with the team next year? Pick your roster, trade or buy players and keep your budget realistic. The NHL should be putting their money where their mouths are. They say they will do what it takes to get this team on its feet. Well, this team needs to be competitive and GMDM needs an operating budget worth the name and as the DIP, put up or shut up time has arrived. (apparently GMDM submitted a couple of budgets to the NHL/Moyes and actually got 1 of them approved!)
Well I just couldn’t decide on some of the players to help get the Yotes moving forward again so I asked for professional help and it was Carson to the rescue. Your guest blogger extraordinaire is 11 years old.
This is our guy, Carson, with Bryz at the 07-08 Game Night with the Coyotes. He first played hockey when he was 6 and then he really became a fan of the game. Carson became a fan of the Yotes because he got season tix in the 06-07 season after his family moved back to Arizona from Maine. Carson is also a HUGE University of Maine fan. He doesn’t have a favorite player, but likes them all. ICarson hopes the Yotes stay. He hopes we have a great season. He wants his intro to end with… GO YOTES AND BLACK BEARS!!!!
Goalies:
Ilya Bryzgalov: Under contract for the 09 season for 4.250 Million. I agree that he’s still our starter, with the caveat that after what he showed in the World Cup, he better bring it here at home or he won’t be our starter for too much of the season. GMDM is already looking around if I’m reading recent comments correctly.
Al Montoya: .750 Million for the kid. He showed that he has some serious chops at the end of last season. On one hand, I love this idea, on the other hand, with Bryz often goin schizoid, can we afford to only have 1 rookie option in our net? I think bringing in another goal keeper to camp and ‘may the best goalie win’ is a better strategy.
Goalie I’d like to see push Bryz:
35 yr old Legace (does anyone think Manny has anything left in the tank and deserves another shot? What could it hurt to give him a try out offer? We can always just-say-no if Monty turns on the after burners) *Legace is perfect to bring to camp for free test run*
Wish list goalies -
28 yr old Andersen (For long stretches, Craig has proven he can be THE man. He could push the hell outta Bryz. Raise from .575 to 1M)
31 yr old Clemmensen (has already shown promise beyond expectation and at 1.5 *raise from .500* he could be a steal, although a longshot that he’ll be available)
6M max in net
Carson adds -
Forward Lines:
Doan – Mueller – 3 choices (IF Mueller isn’t going back to center I’d like to see one of the following on their line.) approx 8.500M
Pahlsson: 31 year old former Selke candidate (mentor to our own possible Selke candidate Hanzal?). He made 1.4M a raise to 2.5M for 2 years might be enough to sway him (we only need him to give Porter time to come up).
Malhotra: 29 yr old seasoned but not worn out. Was making 1.5M could be had on another 2 yr 2M contract
Antropov: 29 yr old looking to make a difference and prove TOR wrong about him. Was 2.05 could be had for maybe 3 years @ 3M
(IF Mules is really going back to center then I’d like to see a very fast RW on this line… maybe Lisin?)
Lombardi – Prucha – Upshall: If it ain’t broke, pleeeze don’t try to fix it. We’ve already got Prucha locked down for around 2M, and Upshall is an RFA and should be signable for about the same 2+ million. Combined Salary: just under 6M
Hanzal – Tikhonov – fill in any of the LWs (all mean summabitches who can TCB and actually play the game, cuz let’s face it, no one is scared of Fridge) at: Combined Salary: 4M
28 yr old Winchester/STL – L .600
27 yr old Moen/SJS – L .925
Or my dream man…. 29 yr old Tanguay/ MTL – L 5.375 which would take this lines total up to about 7.750M (since we’d have to seriously overpay Tanguay) We have plenty of room.
I had added 37 yr old Brashear/ Was – L 1.200 (even though Carson disagreed vehemtly) But now that GMDM has picked up Vandemeer, we really don’t need Brashear anymore anyway.
Carson adds a pretty good choice:
Lisin – Winnik – Boedker: This line would be fast and productive. I wouldn’t mind giving Winnik another shot at the brass ring. We have shit for size right now and Dwin would have no problem stepping up for his smaller line mates. Winnie can also skate and hang onto a puck long enough for these two speedsters to run circles around the opposition and get open. He has decent hands too, he just needs a finisher and both of these kids certainly can do that. Combined Salary: 3.15 million
Fedoruk: already signed for 1 more year, meh 1.05 million
Turris, go ahead and give me shit in advance for putting KT in the AHL. We should all be able to admit errors and Kyle was brought up too early. We should be ALL about putting these kids into situations to succeed and grow. A year with Ireland, proper strength training and building his confidence by shredding the AHL would make a monster out of KT for the 2010 season.
22 min and 25 max on the front end
Defensive Pairings:
Michalek – Sauer: A lock. Incomparable shut down pairing. Expect Z to break out more offensively, now that he knows he can absolutely trust this partner to cover him. 3.250 M
Jovanovski – Ahnelov : The big Swede was deemed ready for a shot but derailed by injuries. Stays at home, plays very safe, has a nasty edge that might inspire the return of JovoCop. 2 big guys with a history of nasty streaks,could become monumental deterrents to comin to deep into our zone and IF Jovo can get as confident w/ Jlov as he was with Z, we could also see a return of his points production. Salary: 6.575M
Yandle – Morris: Yandle will get a raise. Morris probably has the inside track since he is already on GMDM’s return radar, gets a raise but a 2 year term because even he must realize he hasn’t exactly earned the giant contract. This pairing gives us a great 2nd power play unit option. The risk is, we could see more of the not-so-great Morris but the upside is DMo is a known quantity who knows he’d have to get better or risk never seeing the big payday. Salary: 6M
- Komisarek – testing FA market
- Bergeron
- Leopold – Part of the Bouwmeester deal
** (all at around 2.500 – 3M for a total w/ Yands of 4.500 – 6M)
Hale: Could still improve with the right coaching. Salary : .725
*** We have to keep these filler defensemen to short contracts since we’ll have Goncherov, Ross, Summers and possibly Stone looking for spots within 2 – 3 years if everything goes well. (Hale, Jovo and Morris would be vacating within that period allowing the youngsters to step into their spots)
16M maximum on the blueline
Carson would like to give a shot to:
We spent about 43M minimum and 50M on the maximum on 21 players… leaving 2 more spots available for rookies to move up and down as needed, that’s sweetly over the cap floor and not too much over a reasonable budget expectation, is it?
We can’t make the same mistakes as last year with too many rookies, not enough vets. We need to improve but have to be realistic. Use what we have, tweak the roster enough to be competitive. Implement serious cost containment (save money on housing operations staff, maximize use of the fanbase and their contacts to further marketing efforts w/out extra costs, get rid of at least 6M in coaching staff costs) we have to maximize arena revenue (get more bookings), in other words spend less every where we can except the roster.
That’s what I’d do if I were GMDM… prolly a good thing I had help from Carson. Also probably a good thing I’m not the GM LOL
In other news… QOs went out to 12 Coyotes players…
Alexander Nikulin: Rumors have him going to the KHL.He’s still an asset, we’ll just have to wait and see what GMDM has in mind for this kid.
Shaun Heshka, definitely has the opportunity to step onto our main ice this coming season. It’s all in his hands to show what he’s got when training camp comes.
Sami Lepisto: A late round draft pick with a good reputation. Looking forward to seeing what he’s got to give.
The Coyotes did not extend qualifying offers to the following restricted free agents:
Alex Bourret, Garth Murray and Joakim Lindstrom.
The NHL Deputy Comish,Bill Daly, was in Phoenix and particpated in a media blitz.
There will be a Prospect Development Camp again this year. We’ll get to see about 20 of the kids, including Maxim Gonsherov from Russia and the newly drafted Coyotes pups.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:23 am
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