Topics in this edition of the mailbag include Jeremy Swayman’s situation in Boston, if Torey Krug’s injury will make St. Louis look for another defenseman, and much more. If your question doesn’t appear here, watch for it in next weekend’s column.
bottlesup: It looks like Dallas’s roster is set, do you see Jim making possibly another trade some point in the season or any other moves?
The answer to this question is going to depend on what happens with Thomas Harley, their lone remaining restricted free agent. They have a little over $6.2MM in cap space at the moment, per PuckPedia, but that’s with a 20-player roster. Assuming they want to carry an extra forward at least (Harley’s eventual contract would give them seven defenders), they’re closer to $5.4MM to play with.
How much of that will Harley take up? If the two sides work out a long-term agreement that covers his remaining RFA years and buys some extra years of team control, it’s going to be at a number that’s actually higher than their current cap space. In that scenario, instead of adding to their roster, they’d have to subtract from it to get back into compliance. From there, they’d probably wind up tight to the cap, limiting their in-season flexibility.
But if it’s a bridge deal, things change. Using K’Andre Miller and Evan Bouchard as some recent comparables, a two-year bridge for Harley should check in around the $4MM per season mark. If they did that and carried a 13th forward, they’d be around $1.4MM or so (depending on the exact cost of Harley’s deal and the cost of the 13th forward), giving them some flexibility to hedge against injuries. I could see them maybe using a bit of that to top up from a minimum-salaried extra forward to more of an impactful one around the $1MM mark which would then put them closer to $1MM in wiggle room.
At that point, the question of any in-season activity would be dependent on injuries and how aggressively they paper Logan Stankoven and Mavrik Bourque to the minors on off days to bank extra cap space. If there’s enough room left at the deadline, I could see them making a move to shore up their back end as they did with Chris Tanev back in March.
I’ll also mention the possibility of a three-year bridge, one that probably pushes the cost closer to $4.5MM. At that point, they’d have to fill the 13th forward spot with a minimum-salary contract and hold on to their minimal flexibility after that. In…
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