Darren Dreger reporting Lightning close to deal with Matt Carle.

[Acehawk74]

Originally Posted by BurnTHalO

You can't sign a guy to a 6 year deal at $5.5 mil and have him be a #3/4.

In today's NHL...yeah, you can. In FA... that's what it costs. Does the contract equal his hockey value? No. However, D-men are simply cashing in. It's the way it is right now with Free Agency.

Look, I don't like the terms due to the length mostly...was hoping mostly for 4 years. But the cost is what it is.

As for the top dman to bail him out, let's see how he does in our system. He's improved a great deal from his days in SJ/here for the short 13 games we had him. I just hope it's enough to make us be satisfied with the signing overall.

[Hoek]

Yeah I have a bigger problem with the length than the money.

[timothy]

Carle must have been more impressed with Guy Boucher in the TB vs PHI games than with Laviolette...

[the_narrow_way]

4 years at 4 mil would have been very nice, but there's no way that would happen with the money that's been tossed around so far this FA period.

I'm not thrilled with 6 years although it's not so long it hamstrings the team. If he's not a great fit after a couple seasons, he's still young, should have market value, and would have 3-4 years left on his contract. In other words, he could be traded.

[BurnTHalO]

Originally Posted by Acehawk74

In today's NHL...yeah, you can. In FA... that's what it costs. Does the contract equal his hockey value? No. However, D-men are simply cashing in. It's the way it is right now with Free Agency.

Look, I don't like the terms due to the length mostly...was hoping mostly for 4 years. But the cost is what it is.

As for the top dman to bail him out, let's see how he does in our system. He's improved a great deal from his days in SJ/here for the short 13 games we had him. I just hope it's enough to make us be satisfied with the signing overall.

I disagree. If you are paying that much for a #4, that means you should have three dmen making as much or more than that, and no team could afford to do that. Now. It's a bad year to try and get dmen. But desperatly overpaying is what gets teams into a ton of trouble. If its not there, don't screw yourself for future free agents. I'd rather spend a less on a different Dman.

As for his play, he looked good two years ago with pronged next tohim. I thought he looked very similar to his short time here when he lost pronged last year, and i dont think it is a coincidence that he was the seventh rated Dman on his team in plus/minus.

[timothy]

Originally Posted by the_narrow_way

4 years at 4 mil would have been very nice

That was basically the deal the Sharks signed him to as a RFA the year before he was traded to Lightning. No way he's not getting a raise, especially since he is an improved defenseman since acquired by Bolts in 2008.

Problem with Carle is that (a) there's a bad taste still in everyone's mouth about the Boyle trade and Carle was innocent coming back, and (b) he played mostly under Melrose and was basically gone when the Lawton/Tocchet regime got established. So.. the few memories fans have of him aren't connected with anything good.

Carle's a big minute eater and he's mobile. Good signing, and I mean that for the money and the term.

[timothy]

I'm literally rolling in the floor laughing at half the posters on this board who just hours ago were howling about how Salo better not be the only D acquisition Yzerman made. And now... how dare he spend that money on that player.

Solid gold, guys, solid gold.

[Hoek]

It's not like we don't have cap space either.

[timothy]

Sharks re-signed Carle in Nov 2007 to a 4 year extension (as an RFA) for a cap hit of $3.4M. So, 5 years later he gets just a $2M raise as one of the most highly sought after defensemen in a weak FA market at the end of the CBA in the highest point of the cap hit, and this is a bad signing? That's barely a bump in salary in the grand scheme of the market. And he has improved a lot since 2007 when he got that extension.

You guys are goofy.

[ChaseSpace]

So we have a possible ~$13million left in free capspace(Ohlund LTIR) to sign Lindback and whoever else Yzerman wants to sign.

I think Tampa is making out like a bandit because they overpaid for a guy but aren't in cap hell.