If reports are true that Skinner is looking at 9 mil for 8 years, Cats gonna get more then 7
Perhaps he does, but with Wardo, Kunitz, Kruger, etc. coming off of the roaster, plus Crawford at the end of the year, he should be covered.
Stan will try to be aggressive in free agency, but the Hawks have nothing to offer to any good free agents. The Hawks have missed the playoffs 3 years in a row (Nashville sweep basically was them missing). No one knows what Colliton is either. At least free agents before could look and see Q and know what to expect.
The Hawks will be picking from the 3rd/4th FA tier again until they can prove they are a playoff team on their own (building from draft out).
The best use of cap this offseason will be acquiring one year dead cap space contracts from current playoff teams.
This is not a playoff team anyway you slice it. They need to completely retool the bottom 6 and their defense is a mess. Goaltending is also a big question mark.
Stan needs to keep playing the long game regardless of how much pressure they might be from marketing to sell tickets.
You do this right and you can establish another extended window of competitive hockey. Or you can rush it make the playoffs but then completely fall apart again due to poor roster construction over the long run.
The key to that is, "1 year of dead cap". Unfortunately most dead-cap contracts are longer than that: See also: Seabrook. With how many FA's are coming up at the end of the 2020 season, the 'hawks would be fucking stupid to take on any dead cap beyond a year. Part of the rebuilding of the winning culture is retention of blue chip contracts.
Plus, I think Stan is in the hot seat. He has his guy behind the bench from the get-go and thus has no excuses for not getting it done. He has the #3 pick. He has 6+ players playing for their next payday this year. Unless he has an internal plan approved by McDonut and Rocky where he punts this coming season, taking on yet more dead cap might very well get him fired.
