wienerdog wrote:
Why? Beacuse I don't feel comfortable paying a 40 year old inevitably broken-down Doan $6.5M for a paltry point production in 4 years, that's why.
Just remember Naslund at the end of his tenure here and how badly everyone wanted him off the roster. Doan will = late Nuck career Naslund v2.0.
And what's the alternative? It's to NOT pay him that much and let him sign eleswhere. You yourself said he may or may not be the piece we're looking for, but then you insinuate that this team won't succeed in the playoffs without him.
Well, this team was going nowhere after the season before last. They left nothing in the tank after game 7 and had zero recovery time. Kesler was fucked and everyone was gassed. Still, they managed a 2nd President's trophy, despite losing Daniel to a concussion at season's end - which fucked us in the playoffs, btw.
Sorry, I dont buy the "collapse" argument. I certainly don't buy that it means we need Doan at all costs.
Why the hell would we start opening the vaults for a guy that might or might not address what this team needs?
People just keep expecting that hail-mary manoeuvers = Cup, but that's not the case.
Doan at $5M, ok, but barely - precisely because it's not clear whether he will adequately get us over the hump.
Doan at $6.5M... fuck no.
Shane Doan would be one of the most valuable forward on our roster. If he's not scoring, he's at least playing strong defensive hockey and he is playing physical. Last year he logged over 200 hits...we don't have a single player in our top 6 even close to that figure.
I said I can't guarantee that Doan will solve our problems, but I think that he will help. I don't know if the Sedins are going to go ice cold and get completely shut down in 3 of 4 playoff series like the 2011 playoffs. I don't know that Kesler doesn't get completely ripped a part and injured again. I can't guarantee that Doan comes in and lights it up, no more than I could guarantee Alex Ovechkin could come in here and get his career back on track. At best, it's an attempt to solve a huge problem this team has.
Shane Doan is in excellent physical shape. While he may not be a 20-25 goal, 50-60 point forward at age 40, I think he has likely 3 more years left at this level. That final year coulud be tough, but at least I can see him being a valuable asset on our 3rd line at that point. Who knows what the cap will be like by that point. Another option is to front-load his contract so that the salary portion is low for the 4th year. That would leave him little incentive to continue playing (especially if we have won a Cup by then, and if we haven't then this team has a lot more to worry about than just Shane Doan), and we trade his contract to a cap floor team a month before he announces his retirement. They get to keep his cap hit on their books, we don't get stuck with his cap hit, and Doan enjoys his retirement.
This team won a President's trophy because our goaltenders played out of this world. If not for them, we probably end up in 3rd in the West. Once the playoffs hit and we faced stronger competition our team was dead in the water. I saw no life in this team in the playoffs, and it was the exact same attitude as we saw throughout the regular season.
We can either sign Shane Doan and address our needs, or we can hope that someone like Raymond or Higgins or Kassian are good enough to stick in our top 6 for the regular season, and hold our breaths trying to ignore the reality that in the playoffs we will be leaving our goalie out to dry by not being able to give him more than 1-2 goals of offensive support. But then again, all the goalie haters can turn their attention to Schneider being the next choker in this city.