Foppa forced to play his hand??
Posted 2:26 PM ET | Comments 3
There is an article in today’s Ottawa Sun (http://ottawasun.ca/Sport...07/10/23/4597676-sun.html), which talks about how Foppa is getting close to making his decision and may be choosing between Ottawa and Colorado.
While I won't speculate on which team he's likely to go to, I will say that this makes sense. Last week I talked to someone who told me, at that time, that Foppa was going to have to decide soon and likely won't be able to wait until after Christmas like he wanted. Why you ask?
Unlike the NHL of yesterday, today's teams and GM's don't have the luxury of spending wildly to obtain the "last piece of the puzzle". I can guarantee you that if you ask around at least 29 teams are interested in Foppa. However are they in a position to afford him?
First any team will have to prove that they are ready to win the cup now. It is my belief that Foppa wanted to wait until after Christmas to decide, so that he can weed out the pretenders and obtain a short list of teams that have a true shot at winning a Stanley Cup.
The problem is, by waiting until the New Year to decide he limits the teams he can go to because of cap issues. If any of his current "desired" teams have injury issues and are forced to bring up or obtain players to fill the injury gap, they likely won’t be in a position to afford him. Based off of http://nhlscap.com/teamnumbers.htm there are only 12 teams who are projected to have more than 5.5 million worth of cap space, assuming their roster stays as it is now. Remember these numbers can't be verified as often only the teams involved know the true cap estimates.
With that said those 12 teams are:
West
Anaheim (5.6 million)
Columbus (10.5 million)
Chicago (6.4 million)
Los Angeles (7.8 million)
Nashville (16.4 million)
Phoenix (14.3 million)
San Jose (11.3 million)
East
Buffalo (6.2 million)
Florida (5.7 million)
NY Islanders (7.8 million)
Pittsburgh (12.5 million)
Washington (12.5 million)
Missing from this list of teams are the usual suspects when it comes to the Foppa rumors. Vancouver, Ottawa, Philly, Colorado, and Detroit all have between 2 and 5 million worth of cap space. This can cause problems for Foppa if he is looking for a substantial payout over a 2-3 year term. The rumored teams simply don't have the space to accommodate him and his rumored 3 year 5 million a year contract. Further to that, the longer we get into the season the lower that available cap number will be both for this year and years to come as UFA's and RFA's are signed.
Along with that comes the roster space issue. While Colorado may love to have him, are they willing to replace Sakic or Stastny as the number 1 and 2 centres on the team? Likely not which means unless Foppa is going to play wing on Colorado at least he'll be the number 3 centre.
All this reasoning leads one to believe that if Foppa wants to play in the NHL this year, on a team that HE chooses then he's going to have to make the move sooner than later as the well of desirable teams will likely dry up fast.
While I won't speculate on which team he's likely to go to, I will say that this makes sense. Last week I talked to someone who told me, at that time, that Foppa was going to have to decide soon and likely won't be able to wait until after Christmas like he wanted. Why you ask?
Unlike the NHL of yesterday, today's teams and GM's don't have the luxury of spending wildly to obtain the "last piece of the puzzle". I can guarantee you that if you ask around at least 29 teams are interested in Foppa. However are they in a position to afford him?
First any team will have to prove that they are ready to win the cup now. It is my belief that Foppa wanted to wait until after Christmas to decide, so that he can weed out the pretenders and obtain a short list of teams that have a true shot at winning a Stanley Cup.
The problem is, by waiting until the New Year to decide he limits the teams he can go to because of cap issues. If any of his current "desired" teams have injury issues and are forced to bring up or obtain players to fill the injury gap, they likely won’t be in a position to afford him. Based off of http://nhlscap.com/teamnumbers.htm there are only 12 teams who are projected to have more than 5.5 million worth of cap space, assuming their roster stays as it is now. Remember these numbers can't be verified as often only the teams involved know the true cap estimates.
With that said those 12 teams are:
West
Anaheim (5.6 million)
Columbus (10.5 million)
Chicago (6.4 million)
Los Angeles (7.8 million)
Nashville (16.4 million)
Phoenix (14.3 million)
San Jose (11.3 million)
East
Buffalo (6.2 million)
Florida (5.7 million)
NY Islanders (7.8 million)
Pittsburgh (12.5 million)
Washington (12.5 million)
Missing from this list of teams are the usual suspects when it comes to the Foppa rumors. Vancouver, Ottawa, Philly, Colorado, and Detroit all have between 2 and 5 million worth of cap space. This can cause problems for Foppa if he is looking for a substantial payout over a 2-3 year term. The rumored teams simply don't have the space to accommodate him and his rumored 3 year 5 million a year contract. Further to that, the longer we get into the season the lower that available cap number will be both for this year and years to come as UFA's and RFA's are signed.
Along with that comes the roster space issue. While Colorado may love to have him, are they willing to replace Sakic or Stastny as the number 1 and 2 centres on the team? Likely not which means unless Foppa is going to play wing on Colorado at least he'll be the number 3 centre.
All this reasoning leads one to believe that if Foppa wants to play in the NHL this year, on a team that HE chooses then he's going to have to make the move sooner than later as the well of desirable teams will likely dry up fast.
So do we already have Forsberg #21 stiched into a jersey yet for him?
Stay away from Detroit if your looking for a 3 yr deal worth anything close to 5 mill!!! He must think he's in his prime and not injury prone! Any team that signs him for 2-3 years must have lost there mind. Also, there's no way Ottawa will do that with Spezza RFA this upcoming summer...wait until the summer Sens fans, someones gonna throw him a nice offer sheet, GUARANTEED!
NO WAY he gets more then a 1 and a desparate team maybe 2 year contract. and 5mil lol. Teams will dump salary to get him, and will make room... still WAY to early to even speculate where he goes.