Sam Hitchcock: J.T. Miller Contract Is a Costly Mistake

good blog did you write it with Scully?

"Like the person who celebrates an uneventful doctor’s visit with the smoke of a cigarette"

Haha

Miller is 100% worth $5.25M a year and at his rate of scoring he was probably worth that on the market before the cap went up. The issues here as the blogger states is whether or not it was worth it to the Bolts? That I can't answer, but looking at your roster situation, there's enough players where you can sacrifice one area to keep a strong forward group.

I guess if not, Yzerman should have flipped him at the draft.

I hope the Habs take advantage of the Lightning's cap woes. Obviously they won't and instead they'll probably give them Kotkaniemi and Poehling for Killorn and Callahan.

What a terrible opinion.

5.25 per year for a 22 to 23 goals per season is not a mistake his no trade clause is limited so it's not like he would be hard to trade when yzerman hits his cap crunch

The point is that it's a costly mistake for the *Lightning* since they have bigger fish to fry in the upcoming few years. I don't think it would be a mistake to sign a player like Miller for that contract for another team if he was a UFA

there isn't a thing wrong with this contract

You literally called Miller a "role player"


WEW
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Keep in mind this is the same guy that said to trade Stralman (1 year left on his contract) for Kucherov and Point contracts.

You literally called Miller a "role player"


WEW
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- OzBolts

This blog needs Mike Stuart back.

While I understand questioning this signing for a lot of reasons, cap management is not the top of my list.

Next season, when the spam really hits the fan, the Bolts currently have a $50mil cap hit. Almost all of their "bad" contracts for the blueline will be done. Yes, they will need bodies on the blueline, but they will not have all of the dead weight contracts there.

This locks in Miller with cost certainty and lets the Bolts work on the next steps in the budget...from a cap perspective. From a player/talent/fit perspective...I am still not on board with this signing.

for years a many people have said the lightning are doomed with a cap crunch in the end yzerman moves guys out he needs to and sells players on winning and living in florida with no state taxes

they will get kucherov to sign for 8.5 avv and bridge point 4.5 for a three year term

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Just looking at numbers this is a good deal compared to others that have been handed out. Look at the Kane deal even though I know they are completely different types of players. He's not the trove of treasure that Garf thinks he is and his contract is awful. The Bolts could have done a lot worse here in my opinion

I'm happy with the signing. Miller is a big body that the lightning need. He needs to produce in the playoffs, I agree, but he is not the reason the bolts lost the Caps series. Not only do all our defensive contracts expire except for Hedman and Serg, but Cernak and possibly (hopefully) Foote will be called up next year and they will be under a million against a cap a piece.

I also find the statement annoying that Killorn, Stamkos, Johnson and Palat are declining when they just produced point totals of 47, 86, 50 and 35 (Palat's 35 points were in 56 games). There contracts are long but their NTC switch to limited where we can trade them to 16 or 20 teams to get out from the contracts if their game goes to poop. If there is one thing the NHL has taught us this year, is that teams can get out from bad contracts. So stop whining.

If this team was really in that much trouble and that poorly run, Yzerman would not have been nominated AGAIN for GM of the year.

Terrible opinion...respect it, but couldn’t be further of. He’s worth every penny of that

Just looking at numbers this is a good deal compared to others that have been handed out. Look at the Kane deal even though I know they are completely different types of players. He's not the trove of treasure that Garf thinks he is and his contract is awful. The Bolts could have done a lot worse here in my opinion
- Mino42

the florida state taxes helps yzerman a lot look at stamkos he took 8.5 avv in tampa when other teams offered him 11.0 avv. everyone thinks kucherov will get 10 avv I say he gets 8.5 to 9.0 avv

Just looking at numbers this is a good deal compared to others that have been handed out. Look at the Kane deal even though I know they are completely different types of players. He's not the trove of treasure that Garf thinks he is and his contract is awful. The Bolts could have done a lot worse here in my opinion
- Mino42

plus contracts look higher because the cap just went up from 75 to 79.5 in one year

Can we please get a new writer? This guy is clueless.

Signing Miller is only a problem if they refuse to address the main problem which is removing the likes of Palat, TJ and Coburn

Signing Miller is only a problem if they refuse to address the main problem which is removing the likes of Palat, TJ and Coburn
- xShoot4WarAmpsx

Why are you always wrong?

This is not a bad contract. Sure, more term than I would like, but that is the cost of doing business nowadays. It's not an awful contract and it's moveable if necessary. It's not too different than what Johnson and Killorn are pulling in. A team in need of size and secondary scoring would take this contract if necessary - it's not like Callahan's albatross.

I'm not taking the Tavares discussion too seriously. Although it would be nice to see him play here, it's not going to happen. Someone else is going to overpay and Yzerman is not giving up Kucherov to land Tavares (directly or through cap-hell). Ultimately, I think Tavares is going to stay in NY.

With the projected cap increases, and the contracts coming off the books in the next two seasons, the Bolts are not nearly as cap-crunched as the pundits keep saying. Yzerman will use his Jedi mind tricks to manage the cap like he usually does.