From the prior entry:
Just out of curiosity, what stupid money was lobbed out? I think the Suter contract was legit, I think the Parise contract was a little stupid considering there was 0 chance he came here from the get-go, and Weber was a good OS, Nashville was beating around the bush and Homer just decided to bulldoze the lawn.
This team, outside of the major injuries, was not much different then the team last year who knocked the Pens out of the playoffs. I think if you're going to fault anyone in the organization for the 10th place finish, its Laviolette moreso than Homer.
- GirouxForTheShow
The Bryzgalov contract was just dumb. 9 years, $51 million for a goalie who had good regular season stats and whose crowning achievement was getting the Ducks to the 2nd round in '05-06 and had done little in the playoffs since?
And a NMC? That was stupid money thrown there. Like the idea of bringing him in, but the term and the dollars were just moronic.
The Pronger contract was just as dumb. Sure, he was playing as an elite guy - and the Flyers are lucky because he's going to be on LTIR for the rest of the contract ... but what makes that contract stupid is that (A) it was 7 years, $34.5 million to go out to age 42, and (B) Holmgren totally screwed the pooch thinking it wouldn't be a "35 and older" contract, when the CBA was pretty clear it would be. Holmgren's only saving grace is that Pronger can't play and so he'll get that cap space to work with, otherwise he could be screwed in a couple of years with dead cap space from that contract.
The Weber offer sheet, though? That could have quickly become an albatross. Sure, if Nashville doesn't match it then the Flyers have a blueline of Weber, Timmonen, Meszaros, Luke Schenn, Coburn and Grossman - but that's another $7.8 million the Flyers would have had to choke down this year. They would have been hard-pressed to do that. Throw in the fact that it would be $7.8 million on the cap for another 13 years
and the new limits on burying cap hits, and Holmgren might be down to hoping Weber could be LTIR'd.
Of course, we wouldn't be talking about offer sheets to Pietrangelo and/or Shattenkirk this summer - but we'd instead be asking where he's going to come up with the money to fit in Giroux, Braydon Schenn and Couturier in the summer of '14-15 (Giroux could easily be $7 million on his own, the other two might be $7 million combined)
and replace Timmonen and Meszaros
and get a backup goalie
and fill out the rest of the roster
and not incur dead cap space and/or have to pay someone else to take guys no longer wanted.