Projecting Klingberg into the second or high 3rd line is a little aggressive, I think. I know you aren’t a big fan of White and I’m not either, but by buying him out shouldn’t the intent be to make the team better instead of just treading water?

I’m not trying to justify the White signing at all, but the money wasn’t terrible on the contract. And for one season it was a fantastic bargain. At the time White was signed, Waddell probably took a look at his stats. White had finished in the top 6 scorers on Minnesota both seasons he played there and he had been a productive 20 goal scorer for Ottawa one season. White did have low point totals with Minnesota which should have been the clue that he wasn’t all that good, but Minnesota was a low scoring team. I’m sure that Waddell let that fool him and he rationalized that White could probably still score, but playing in Minnesota was hiding that. Waddell was wrong. If I could use one word to describe White in his NHL career it would be “inconsistent”.

Waddell had a very very bad habit of expecting 3rd and 4th line guys to step up into top 6 forward roles on the cheap, with mostly disastrous results. Steve Rucchin comes to mind. White has been awful for 2 years out of 3. John Sim is probably the biggest “success” in relative terms of bottom 6 guys that Waddell tried to make into cheap top 6 forwards, so that will give you an idea of how poor this idea is in general. White was just another link in that chain.

The Thrashers should have put White up on waivers in the hope that someone would claim him at 50% cost on the 2nd pass. That would have been slightly cheaper than buying him out. I don’t really care if they keep him for the final year or buy him out. Either is OK with me. At least with Waddell no longer being the GM I don’t have to worry about White being re-signed. And if the idiot GMs had ever agreed, as was proposed, to allow teams to pay a portion of the cost of salary of a departing player in a trade, White might have been tradable, although not for much.

There’s no question that he should be bought out. As Falconer points out, the financial effect is relatively neutral (though no one wants to pay a player to sit at home), but the player development effect could be significant.

White is tracking as a great example of age effect on NHL players. Points decline past the age of 30/31, with a bump year at around 34 or so, and then decline along the previous trend minus the bump year.

Expected points based on actual games played (Age 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35): 45, 50, 45, 50, 33

Actual Points: 40, 44, 37, 73, 26

His bump year is obvious (!), but we should expect him to put up about 30 pts or so next year, if he plays in 75+ games. As point of reference, that’s about what Kane contributed. Would rather have Todd White giving you those 30 pts, or next season’s rookie player?

Little – Antro – Berg
Kane – Pevs – UFA
Clarke – Slater – Prospect/UFA
Prospect/UFA – Reasoner – Thorburn
UFA

Assuming you buyout White, don’t bring Max or Boults back and make an offer to all your RFA (I am not sold on Clarke) then you are still looking at signing a top 6 forward, a 13th forward, and putting either a prospect or UFA on the 3rd and 4th lines. To me that is a rather tall order. I wouldn’t be surprised if White is kept as a 13th forward since he can play C or W and can fill in short term top or bottom 6. Granted he is vastly over paid but if you buy him out are you really going to find a better 13th forward for the 900k you just saved?

I think the failure in the cost benefit analysis is assuming White would take a 2nd or 3rd line role away from a prospect. I argue that White at his current price is still value added as a 13th forward which is a position that has no negative impact on the development of a prospect.

Zim made a comment on the team boards that White is a decent insurance policy, the question is can that money be better spent. Since the cap is really not a concern and buying out White and replacing him is a wash the saving is really only the salary of the player (Klingberg/Machacek) who replaces him. It might be better to have another experienced player around who can fill a role or two should the injury bug hit. 2.6 mil is an expensive insurance policy but it might be a better option for next season.

i recently had my neck problems diagnosed by the same doctors that treat the thrashers.

i thought it was totally hilarious that todd white as a senator is on their splash page getting run over by andy sutton.

http://www.atlantasportsmedicine.com/

time machine!