Which Coyotes Unrestricted Free Agent Is Expendable?
by Carl Putnam on Feb 24, 2011 3:39 PM MST
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The Phoenix Coyotes have a number of players on their NHL current roster who will be unrestricted free agents (UFAs) at the end of the season. The team has a high number of UFAs, in part due to the ownership situation. Player's who are going to be unrestricted free agents have traditionally been more likely to be traded at that deadline than RFA's or players under contract for the following season. Click on this link to Capgeek see who on the roster is a UFA and how much their current salary is. For the poll below we excluded marginal NHL players as well as AHL players from the choices, as well as Petr Prucha given the fact that no one is likely going to trade for his rights.
Eric Belanger is making $750,000 this season. His late addition to the club was seen as another one of GM Don Maloney's value moves. Belanger has been productive and his numbers are in line with his career production. However, he is a stop gap and a 3C playing the role of a 1C or 2C a lot of nights.
Ilya Bryzgalov is making $4,250,000 this season. He is seen as the cornerstone of the team. If it weren't for the ownership situation he would probably already be re-signed to a multi-year contract extension.
Vernon Fiddler is making $1,100,000 this season. Fiddler's value is as a penalty killer and faceoff man. When he was out of the lineup the Coyotes really struggled to replace him.
Ed Jovanovski is making $6,200,000 this season. However, most of that is already accounted for. Few would argue that he isn't overpaid, however most of his salary this season is already paid for. While Jovo hasn't been the player he was advertised to be when he was signed, he is a reliable and physical presence on the blueline and a leader in the locker room.
Jason Labarbera is making $1,000,000 this season. While he has not performed as well as he did last season, he does have two shutouts in the limited amount of starts he has had. The question really is do feel Matt Climie could do as good a job as Labarbera can?
Scottie Upshall states were not available through our stats service due to his suspension. However, his stats can be found here. Upshall is making $2,250,000 this season. He is on track to meet or slightly surpass his career averages in goals and assists. His salary and production make him valuable both to the Coyotes and to possible trade partners.
Radim Vrbata is making $3,000,000 this season. With his recent scoring outburst Vrbata is on track to score his career average of 20 goals in a season. He is a -7 is his 16 career NHL playoff games.
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i've been an advocate to move JOVO if possible
only because i don’t see him taking a large paycut, which opens the books a bit to re-sign bryz with a raise and possibly get a true 1C under contract in the offseason. The young talent is there at D, with maybe a much cheaper (and healthy) vet a possibility on the blueline this season via trade or in the offseason. If the ownership gets sewn up then maybe they will even have an extra mill or so to throw around over the salary cap floor, rather than straddling it.
I’ll play devil’s advocate. You’ve already paid the majority of his salary this season (much less the entire contract), so why not use him for the playoffs. What do you think the Yotes could get for him if they trade him? Doubtful they’d find a D-man with replacement value. In addition, who would want an injured player with his deal expiring?
The Artist Formerly Known as CP2Devil.
Associate Editor at Five For Howling.
exactly...
the reason i said “if”… one copuld argue the Coyotes need scoring as much as they need D right now, and with the playoff race so tight, the Yotes could use the production now, whether it be on D or offense… A team more securely in the playoff race or out of it altogether may be willing to trade for him… you never know.
Rescue Goligoski.
He’s a good, young offensive defenseman. I don’t want the Stars to have him. Yeah, he still has a tendency to turn the puck over, but I think he makes up for it in scoring chances and he’s had some pretty good defensive plays recently.
by MyDearestObsession on Feb 24, 2011 5:52 PM MST up reply actions
are there rules to trading a player right after getting him?
I know there are certain rules like that in the NBA but I don’t know about the NHLs…. I like the NBAs cap rules though, what a player makes THIS YEAR is the cap hit, not an average over the contract life. This would eliminate all of the stupid contracts.
I don't think so...
Pens traded Martin Skoula and Luca Caputi last year to Toronto for Ponikarovsky and then Toronto immediately sent Skoula to New Jersey for…I think a pick, but I can’t remember. I don’t even think Skoula had time to unpack his gear. Goose and Skoula could also have different provisions in their contracts, I don’t know.
by MyDearestObsession on Feb 24, 2011 6:54 PM MST up reply actions
Someone who could get rid of massive salary… ahem… Gomez in Montreal
by Cruisin4aBruisin on Feb 24, 2011 5:30 PM MST reply actions
So
No one will want Jovo, contract or not, so that doesn’t matter. We have Belanger for so cheap that we would have to get an upgrade and not another value contract if we trade him. So all in all, I don’t see any worthwhile trades even though I voted for Belanger.
Just chasing a thought...
…but why not Bryz? From what I understand our system goalies are more than able to do the job well. If we’re that stacked then this seems to be the place where the losses would not be as hard felt.
But I’m a ‘none of the above’ guy if possible.
It's not what you've done but what you are doing that matters.
And the roses in this grand ol' stadium are once again Crimson. - Eli Gold, CTSN Broadcast of the BCS Championship Game at the Rose Bowl, 1-7-2010
It's all about the return...
The obvious choice is LaBarbera, but he won’t net much in return. Frankly, his puck-handling is weak and I cringe when he goes behind the net, b/c one game, it will cost us.
Upshall is someone who could fetch a return, but remember he’s only year away from a bad knee injury, and close to his stats last year.
Belanger is probably the only other player that I could see going for some value in return, but he has some intangibles like puck possession and FO % that make him invaluable.
Pretty sure we stand pat and let everyone get healthy over the last 20 games. We can play .500 the rest of the way, and still make the playoffs, but we’re better than that…
We can play .500 the rest of the way, and still make the playoffs
I’m not too sure about that… Plus, you definitely do not want to play the Wings or Canucks in the first round, and if we can avoid San Jose that would be nice as well… I’m hoping that the Yotes can play well enough to maintain the #4 seed throughout, and if they play really well and win the division, then I’m hoping SJ goes #4… They have too many weapons and have pretty much had the Yotes number all year. Plus, a couple extra white-out games would be very nice:)
we really need
a little scoring punch. a lot of our centers have the valuable 3rd line center qualities in faceoff percentage, defensive capability, etc. it could prove to be helpful if we move a guy like belanger and add a little more skill up the middle, maybe throwing in a low pick/prospect to snag one. maybe a guy like tim connolly? who knows
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