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- Sep 25, 2008
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- 15,529
There's another conundrum, who do you play with Doughty? Because right now Mikey being able to eat those minutes while DD is the puck mover of the pair keeps the cost down of pair 1, say you added Shea Theodore (not happening) how would that pair even work? No the issue with pair 2 is that Roy, while he's been productive, doesn't move the puck out of the end vs chipping off the boards. Gavrikov has a much better first pass, which largely comes from his stick work and spacing to be able to gather pucks and then move them, but he's going to get a raise and will be gone no matter what. His problem is that he's a second pair and that's it, not a top pair driver.That Chychrun situation felt like AZ waited too long and had to take what it got from OTT.
Salary wise there are many players making around what Gavi does, including 6M+ who could play alongside Drew and let Mikey drop to the second pair and support Clarke. Assets to trade wise not sure what it’ll take.
For next season Gavrikov could be fine with Clarke, but Clarke would have to be the snarl on the pair. He does have some of that in him but hes not as sturdy as Roy. The bigger issue is they do need someone to take that Gavrikov space if they choose to own rent Gavrikov next year like they did Roy this year.
No matter which way they cut all of this the reality is Clarke's ELC, combined with Spence, Mikey and Englund (or whatever left D on the bottom pair happens) will be incredibly important to bridge the rest of the lineup cap wise. If Blake re-ups Roy at 5-6 million.....well Spence better learn to play the left side with him and be ready for more $1 million dollar goaltending.