Mark Bergevin spoke so candidly about so many subjects during his press conference on Monday that one of his most important remarks was almost forgotten.
Handled managing salary cap for the coming years.
“You have to be really careful. We have players whose contracts expire. Nick Suzuki, Jespery Kotaniemi, Alexander Romanov are young players who need (new contracts).” KK “next year. Nick and Romy (Romanov) in two years. With a fixed cap for a minimum of two years. Two years, maybe more, it affects other players It will be more and more important to manage our roof and also, it is important to ‘bring in’ the young players to replace the players you cannot keep. ”
Mark Bergevin is clearly preparing us for the next step. At the end of the season. There are not a thousand players whose contracts will expire at the end of the season. There are three: Thomas Tatar (4.8 million), Philip Danault (3 million) and Joel Jeremiah (2.6 million). Others are still under contract or free agents in exchange for compensation.
We suspected the Canadian would have to sacrifice one or two, but GM never said that clearly, also noting the importance of encouraging young people to take their place.
As teammate Guillaume Levranso mentioned Tuesday morning, the Canadian has already invested 66 million in 15 players in anticipation of next season. That leaves 15 million for Danault, Tatar, Armia, Kotkaniemi, Artturi Lehkonen and Victor Mete. Of the three, free agents for compensation, only the arbitration is entitled to be. It affects 2.4 million.
We can still make a qualified offer to Kotkaniemi without having to increase his salary significantly next year. It used the same process with Romanov and Suzuki the following year. But by keeping Danault and Tatar with a long-term agreement (it wouldn’t take less than four or five years), we’ll find ourselves stuck in a few seasons, especially since the cap appears to have been set at 81 million for many years. .
So Mark Bergevin let himself talk about the organization’s hopes on Monday. If the Tatars resigned, the victim of criticism from his boss, then a wing would be needed to replace him.
Cole Caufield, 33 points, including 17 goals, in 22 games in Wisconsin and the nominee for the Hopi Baker Cup awarded to the NCAA MVP, is in the eyes of the organization.
The Canadian general manager even allowed himself to assure that he would jump into the professional ranks after his season. Even without ruling out the possibility of joining Al-Kindy. For nearly a year until today, Lee expressed a wish to let Caufield mature in Wisconsin because he wasn’t prepared for the rigors of the professional ranks.
Portrait of Andre Pechette, archived press
Cole Caufield
“He’s playing really well,” he said on Monday. Scott Melanby lives near Wisconsin and drives to see him play regularly, Rob Ramage too. It has come a long way in the past year. It’s too early to tell you the exact plan, but expect to see him move to the pros after his season. Where he will play, we’ll see. ”
Bergevin also mentioned the name of young defender Jordan Harris. The 20-year-old is also a candidate for his team, Northeastern, for the Hobey-Baker Trophy. Harris has 16 points in 15 games since the start of the season in the NCAA, and is the second in scoring his club in all positions.
Caufield may be only 5’7 ” tall, but Alex DeBrincat, the Blackhawks striker of the same height as Caufield, proves once again that his size is not a hindrance. DeBrincat, a right-handed player like Caufield, has 16 points in 13 games since the start of the season in the left wing of the first streak with Pius Suter and Patrick Kane. He has scored an average of 31 goals per season since the start of his career.
The positions are less urgent to fill the defense, especially with young right-hand defender Cal Fleury advancing, but the team could lose a defender in the expansion draft. Harris, however, looks ready for the pro grades.
Kaiden Guhle’s debut matches in Laval will, no doubt, starting Friday, allow us to determine whether this 19-year-old defender will be considered for the position next year. In his case, it would be the junior team or the NHL due to his age and the rules between the National League and the Canadian Junior Championships, unlike Harris who could play with Rocket.
At the end of the winter we will undoubtedly be watching closely at Laval as Jesse Yelonen, the extremely fast, surprising right winger, perform in his first game. But meeting doesn’t make a career. Ylonen would be another winger if Tatar was not selected.
No doubt, to avoid the possibility of Philip Danault’s departure, Ryan Bohling remained at Laval, despite having played a lot on the winger last year. But next year the team will find themselves with a very small midfield with Suzuki, Kotaniemi, Evans and Bohling …
Danault remains essential to the team’s short and medium term success. We saw him again in Toronto on Saturday when he was in the heart of the Canadian comeback.
But with 6 assists in 15 matches and his assigned defensive role in Montreal, he will have to reconsider his claims. It would be surprising if Mark Bergevin would agree to give him an annual salary of over 5 million in the current context.
By announcing on Monday he was ready to lose out on players whose contracts were nearing expiration date Bergevin may have also been conveying a small message to a position he could not dispense with.
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2- For this episode of the podcast Zone exit, Cooperation between Journalism The 98.5 FM, host Jeremy Feloza receives journalist Mikael Lalancet, journalist from Journalism Guillaume Lefrançois and host of 98.5 FM Jérémie Rainville.
3- Yes, Mark Bergevin sent several messages on Monday. Guillaume Lefrançois talks the Canadian CEO’s key statements.
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