I’ll be back later on tonight with my Colton Orr writeup, but as the free agent frenzy is about to start in a few days, I would like to officially throw out my #1 target.
I have talked in depth about the topic here, but if you are looking for my general thoughts, then here you go. Keep in mind that these are taken from conversations from that link, they may seem a bit disjointed, but it should give you a good idea why I want Forsberg on this team.
Ive been one of the first vocal Forsberg supporters here in Rangerland. Get him on this team as a 1 year stopgap. ALL the available centers via UFA are really 2nd line centers, who want first line money. you DONT do that int he cap era…not if youre smart that is. Give me forsberg, or give me Dubinsky.
Ee all acknowledge that we NEED a true #1 center on this team. lets assume Nylander is your #1 center now, but hes not REALLY a #1. the problem is none of the available free agents this year ARE #1’s, they are all #2’s camouflaged to fool people into paying them insane dollars for insane years. i want no part of 6 year 42 million dollar contracts unless youre talking about a guy like Thornton, Lecavalier, Crosby, Staal, etc.
Forsberg will basically buy us time. 1 year, lets us get to a better crop of free agency, lets dubinsky develop, lets anisimov develop, lets trade possibilities open up. everyone acknowledges that he has flaws, problems, and risks, but why else would a guy sign a 1 year deal? you have to take risks sometimes. this would be a worthwhile risk.
The hole they would fill is really a 2nd line center. and they would want 6-7 million bucks to do that. If you look at scaling of salaries, you should have, at most, 3 guys getting that much, and if youre a really good team, have only 1 or 2 guys getting that much. I could probably come up with a good solid mathematical model to work off of, but its probably not worth the time. Either way it all comes down to “what are they?” if you think that Gomez, a guy who has scored over 20 goals exactly once in his career, and who averages a meager 64 points per year, then by all means, sign him up.
How about drury? a minor step up at 67 points, albeit he scores on average 27 goals per season, which is definitely better than Gomez’s numbers by a wide margin.
How about danny briere? Hes right about the same in terms of averages.
NONE of these guys are worth 6 year deals at 6-7 per ,but ALL of them will get something like that.
When i talk about stop gap, im talking till something better comes along. till a major free agent becomes available, or a great trade possibility opens up. Again, i have yet to hear a single argument that Drury, Briere, or Gomez are worth the money most people are talking about (6 years, at 6-7 mil per). That is first line money. are these first line players? Imho. NO.
Risk, Reward. those are high risk (money), medium (good numbers, not superstar, 6 million dollar numbers) reward players imho. Forsberg is high risk (injuries, not contract), high reward (when healthy, the most dominant center in the game not named crosby or thornton).
-Inferno