How Marc-Andre Fleury Prepares For His Season

What about the offer sheets https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/offer-sheets-rock-edmonton-oilers-after-smooth-start-to-off-season-1.2162138

This is the story I'm currently following the closest.  Love me some drama in August.

Mr. Cheatachu, what is your opinion on the offersheets?

I don't think looking at MAF and his getting ready for the season is a good look. That isn't about how the elite goalies get ready for the season, that's about how the old veterans get ready for the season. I'd have to imagine that MAF has modified his offseason training 2 or 3 times during his career, and the look we have now is for a mature old body, and to try and regain reflexes and quick eyes. 

Fleury needs to cover a lot of the net and needs clean lanes to see the puck. He needs to pick up pucks when they are first shot, not through screens to be effective. When he's in net, our defense will have a far harder task ahead of them.

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

Mr. Cheatachu, what is your opinion on the offersheets?

I don't think looking at MAF and his getting ready for the season is a good look. That isn't about how the elite goalies get ready for the season, that's about how the old veterans get ready for the season. I'd have to imagine that MAF has modified his offseason training 2 or 3 times during his career, and the look we have now is for a mature old body, and to try and regain reflexes and quick eyes. 

Fleury needs to cover a lot of the net and needs clean lanes to see the puck. He needs to pick up pucks when they are first shot, not through screens to be effective. When he's in net, our defense will have a far harder task ahead of them.

My opinion on the offer sheets is it's fantastic. If you want to talk about weaponizing the cap, and understanding why the Capitals purchased CapFriendly, this deal is it.

Broberg - $4,580,917 (per the CBA, $2.29M to $4.58M: second-round pick)

Holloway - $2,290,457 (per the CBA  $1.51M to $2.29M: third-round pick

Rumors around the oilers camps is that Broberg was asking for $1.8M and Holloway wanted $1.2M.  They didnt.  Even if Evander Kane went on LTIR, they can't fit Broberg or even Holloway.

So where does that leave them?  They have 7 days to try to trade Ceci ($3.25) and/or Kulak ($2.75M) but, since everyone knows the oilers nuts are in a vice, if the oilers want to retain both players they are both going to have to match the (inflated) offer sheet AND give up significant picks:

Quote

Garrioch reports interested teams have a set a high price on taking back a contract from the Oilers. He notes the price to move either Ceci's $3.25 million cap hit or Kulak's $2.75 million salary could be a first- or second-round pick as teams feel they have the Oilers front office cornered.

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/report-edmonton-oilers-exploring-cody-ceci-brett-kulak-trades-to-clear-cap-space-for-offer-sheets-1.2162752

But hey, signing Jeff Skinner for $3M is looking brilliant right now.  Is Broberg worth matching at $4.58M & giving up a 1st and/or 2nd for the right to do so?  woof... 

Personally, it's great for the players.  This is the intention of the whole RFA/offer sheet process right?  It benefits the teams because they are guaranteed compensation back for their players under the RFA, but it doesn't benefit the players because most GM's are too chickenshit to snipe players from their peers.  Look at the Carolina/Habs drama as exhibit 1a as to why teams are shy about doing this.

21 hours ago, MrCheatachu said:

My opinion on the offer sheets is it's fantastic.

Finally I have someone who gets excited about this stuff with me. For years over on the Vox HW, I was advocating for sniping a player from someone. Late in Fletcher's era, knowing he was on the hot seat, I thought he should have gone after someone and let the new GM (Fenton) deal with the repercussions.

That the Blues have the Oilers in the nuts vice is brilliant. A Western Conference foe where you subtract from them, add to you and you become much better. I was in favor of doing this with Montreal and PK Subban when he was an RFA. At the time, we had the cap space, though later it would have been tough. The problem he would have rectified back then was our right side defense was too small. As it turns out, Subban wouldn't have been as good as his contract, but I thought adding him next to Suter would have been real good. Somewhere along the way, his effectiveness just plain fell off a cliff.

Next year, we will have a chance to use this same strategy. While I think B. Tkachuk will be a legitimate target, if this falls through, I'd say pluck a guy. But, we'd need our ducks in order so we'll need RFAs resigned early if we're playing hardball. I'm not sure who to target, but keeping our draftpicks (rounds 1, 2, 3) would be a good idea. 

What I think was amazing was the Blues setting this up by reacquiring their 2nd round pick from the Pens in what looked like a head scratcher. Then the other shoe drops on Edmonton!