Lightning at Leafs - Game 7 - 5/14 7PM ET

[gphockey]

Nice job boys.
Toronto gave them all they wanted.
Guessing Point out with either pulled groin, pulled hammy or hip injury.
Defense, secondary scoring, worlds best goalie and playoff shutdown experience won that series.

Round 2 tough series, likely to go 6 or 7 games.

Get through 2, maybe the Canes in 3...another tough series

Get through 3, likely facing the Aves....another tough series

Out

[Hoek]

I'll believe we'll face the Avs in a final when I see it happen, lol. They always choke.

[Iceman]

He’s out of our price range now. Everyone can see the player he is. It’s too bad bc he seems to really fit in with the boys and clearly likes competing for a winner.

The only way we re-sign him is if we trade Killorn, which I'm actually in favor of since we need to get younger and have more salary flexibility. There’s a possibility in my mind (hopefully not unrealistic) that we trade Killorn for a decent pick (or two … or a pick and a prospect … or a pick and a young 3rd line type with potential) and then use the salary we saved to sign Paul.

Love Killer, but he is one of our oldest top-9 forwards and he’s coming off a career year, which helps his trade value. I think the math works to do the following …

1. Pay for Point’s raise (~ $2M)
2. Sign Palat for one year at ~ $4 or 5M
3. Sign Paul for something like 3 years, $7.5M ($2.5M AAV)
4. Fill the 12th and 13th forward and the 7th dman spots with rookies or minimum salaries

This only works if Paul and his agent are reasonable.

Paul turned down 2.5M AAV from Ottawa, wanted 4 years 12M and that was before he increased his value since coming over. I would say at this point it would take at least 4 / 14M and IMO the Lightning would be smart to find a way to make that work.

[Pat664422]

I'll believe we'll face the Avs in a final when I see it happen, lol. They always choke.

I don't see that happening. I think goaltending was their problem last year and they seemed to have fixed it. I think either the Lightning or the Avalanche are going to be the winners this year.

[Bolthed]

Paul turned down 2.5M AAV from Ottawa, wanted 4 years 12M and that was before he increased his value since coming over. I would say at this point it would take at least 4 / 14M and IMO the Lightning would be smart to find a way to make that work.

That’s still doable if Palat walks or Killorn is dealt. Paul has become a priority in his short time as a Bolt. Depending on what happens with the rest of this postseason run, it wouldn’t shock me if JBB wants to transition away from our 30+ year-old wingers and move on from both Palat and Killorn. Their combined cap hit this season was $9.75M. That’s a lot of room to maneuver. And again, our pro scouts have been killing it for several years now (I’d go as far back as the Cernak and Sergachev acquisitions in 2017).

[Donnie D]

Our salary cap problem isn't this summer - it's 2023-24 when Sergachev, Cirelli, Cernak and Colton are all due new contracts.

One would think that Palat would want term. That means we are going to have difficulty keeping him. Killorn's deal runs out at the end of 23. You are going to need both of those salaries to lock up the 4 RFAs to long term deals. If we are going for another cup next year, and there is no reason we wouldn't, they probably keep Killorn for another season and let him walk.

From the quotes at expansion, I think Killorn is the most likely to take a haircut and reduced term to stay beyond 23.

[Bolthed]

Nothing gets my old friend DD to come out of hiding like Killorn trade talk!