State of the Loons - post free agency edition

It was thought that Czepiel would look to keep his payroll down and avoid getting involved in the free agency bidding, but we were wrong. We asked Czepiel why he changed his mind and raised his payroll by roughly $25 million for next year alone.

 “ One of my main goals when bringing the former Barracudas to New England was to lower our payroll by cutting the fat. We worked hard to rid ourselves of the contracts of players like Spezza, Moulson and Stastny whose production was not matching their high salaries. We also made difficult decisions to move on from productive players like our former captain Chara or younger players like Wennberg, Barrie and Toffoli. Those moves helped us rebuild our depleted prospect pool while giving us financial flexibility. We are still left with some bad contracts in Ryan, Bieksa, Cammalleri, Gaborik and Gorges that we are still trying desperately to rid ourselves of. However, the bright side is they all expire after the 2018-19 season.”

 “As a new franchise in a new market we still need to put a product on the ice that our new fan base will pay to come see. With no previous experience in UFA, I didn’t think that there would be as many talented players available as there were. So plans changed. We were able to sign a number one defenseman in Niskanen, a second line center in Kreici, and a starting goalie in Halak. We also brought in young players like Morrow, Yakupov and Pulkkinen that have a lot of talent. We are hoping that a change of scenery can help them whether it be in New England or Russia.”

“ I do realize that $25 million is a lot, but being a new franchise and having the reputation of a GM with an itchy trigger finger, we were in a position of having to overpay in order to have free agents choose New England. We didn’t have the luxury of Happy Jacks to seal the deal. But our payroll is currently about $77 million ($942,000 a game) which when u add in our advertising on twitter and in Around the CCHL, we are in a position to make a little money this year. Next year even with the likely resigning of Matt Niskanen we are going to lower our payroll by over $40 million just by shedding bad contracts. The Loons are in a much better shape now then when a fish was on the sweater.”

With free agency over, Czepiel and his scouts have turned their attention completely to the upcoming entry draft. It’s no secret who Czepiel is obsessed with and has made many controversial moves in order to put himself in a great position to grab the local phenom. There are rumors of Czepiel trying to trade up from the 23rd spot in order to grab one of the second tier defenseman that are available. To the disgust of many of the Loon fans, Dahlen and Puljujarvi’s names have been rumored as possible trade bait in his attempts. I guess that is why Czepiel has the reputation that he does.