Jak trade:
Birch going out would have let them take back up to 11M or so since they are under the tax and low salary trades have more salary matching flexibility, so Poeltl easily fit in there. Increase still leaves them ~1.7M shy of the tax.
Birch's salary coming off next year is important, as until we see what other deals happen, they could be looking at re-signing 3 key FA's.
Mock scenario I came up with: waive Thad to save 7M, then you have 6 spots to fill. Set aside two minimum salaries and ~4M for a mid-1st rookie, and that leaves 61M for those three guys. If Jak is 20M per year, that's a starting salary of ~17.5M. If Gary is in the middle of the previously rumoured 20-25M AAV range, that would mean 19.4M starting salary on a long term deal. That would leave only 24.3M (4/110, 5/140) for Fred. Cap could go up a little, which would help. Or they trade Otto or Boucher to free up some cap. So, possible to keep them all together depending on how hot Fred's market is, if you can find ~5M somewhere, be it through cap rising, cheaper than expected deals for the other two FAs, or shedding another contract.
Still, much cleaner to trade one of the expiring guards.
Birch going out would have let them take back up to 11M or so since they are under the tax and low salary trades have more salary matching flexibility, so Poeltl easily fit in there. Increase still leaves them ~1.7M shy of the tax.
Birch's salary coming off next year is important, as until we see what other deals happen, they could be looking at re-signing 3 key FA's.
Mock scenario I came up with: waive Thad to save 7M, then you have 6 spots to fill. Set aside two minimum salaries and ~4M for a mid-1st rookie, and that leaves 61M for those three guys. If Jak is 20M per year, that's a starting salary of ~17.5M. If Gary is in the middle of the previously rumoured 20-25M AAV range, that would mean 19.4M starting salary on a long term deal. That would leave only 24.3M (4/110, 5/140) for Fred. Cap could go up a little, which would help. Or they trade Otto or Boucher to free up some cap. So, possible to keep them all together depending on how hot Fred's market is, if you can find ~5M somewhere, be it through cap rising, cheaper than expected deals for the other two FAs, or shedding another contract.
Still, much cleaner to trade one of the expiring guards.
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