Sarasti

Seems Andersson will share an A this season along with Huberdeau, Lindholm and Tanev. Well deserved IMO

Zary is very close IMO. but I agree with you. Don't wanna see him bottom 6

Agreed. You can see the compete. Only move he bit on in the shootout he still stood tall with the desperation save. Big save on OT breakaway as well

Great poise from Wolf in OT and the shootout. Nice skill shown from Zary on his goal. Been really impressed with Zadorov since the latter half of last season. Thought Honzek showed short flashes but seems to not be used to the difference in speed between Junior and Pro quite yet.

Sounds like the Backlund contract is close. Somewhere around 4.5 AAV. Was going to quote the article but I cant find it in my FB feed anymore.

The Zadorov comparison tracks for sure. This game he was more inclined to disrupt plays with good position and an active stick. Along with his physicality he's frustrating for opposing forwards.

Kuznetsov is a nice steady presence on D and closes gaps nicely. Morin had some great pinches in the O zone. Need to see more of him before I make judgements on his defensive game

Stromgren, Honzek, and Lipinski were the most dominant line for me. Coronato and Kerins looked good on the PP. Klapka had a good game but seems to hold on to the puck for a tad too long when he was putting moves on.

Was a really deep draft. I wouldn't have budged on the 16th OA either

I'll be watching at 430 in the morning my time. Lol. Good thing its the weekend 😆

Of all the players I've read comments from concerning this matter, Formenton is the only one who declined to comment at all. Thats telling to me.

To be fair, when Kadri and Huberdeau were on the same line last season Huby was on his off-wing and Lucic was the third man. One of the stranger deployments we saw from Sutter last season.

Yeah I remember. Absolutely a fluke of a goal too. But hey good on him, I mean I have a total of 0 NHL goals 🤷‍♀️

Grazie! Good lord what a hit as well 😆

Havent seen an official date yet, but on-ice sessions started sept. 22nd last year

Smart for Matthews but puts TML in even more of a bind cap-wise for the duration as we have never really seen a team win a cup in the cap era with albatross contracts like that. Kane and Toews got 10.5 each after 3 cups and Chicago hasn't won a playoff round since. Doughty and Kopitar got huge deals after 2 cups and havent seen the 3rd round since, if im not mistaken. Pittsburgh got lucky that Sid is so superstitious with the 8.7 contract thing but even then, it took them 7 years and many cap increases to win again after Sid and Geno signed their big deals The biggest difference here is TML hasn't won Satoshi Nakamoto and have over 10M committed to 3 players anyway. If they don't win it all by the time Matthews is 30 he is likely gone. Big gamble IMO

Aye. I still think the whole eastern conference bias as far as voting goes is real. That said, Backlund garnered many a selke vote while not posting gaudy offensive totals. Fair to say in terms of pure defense against the games top stars Backs is among the best.

Some of this extends to the coach as well though, as we saw with Sutter. He always preferred to ice the vets in premium positions over giving a kid an extended look at the same spot. I'm pretty sure only Sutter liked the idea of Lucic with Kadri and Huberdeau.

Thats a hot take sir

Holy hell I remember ConnorFutureGM 😳 🤣 Lol I was still mostly a lurker back then. Gahhd this is like one of those times I feel old.

The way he retired makes a lot of sense to me for the reasons you outlined and a couple others (new dad at the time, Iginla and Regehr gone, going into a full rebuild). Aside from Flower he is my favorite goalie of all time.

The truth to this made it an enjoyable read. I agree. I have been and likely always will be an optimistic fan. The sky is never falling in my eyes. The fans you refer to are what really get my spirits down. Its okay to be unhappy, but some of the things people say are embarrassing at best and shameful at worst.

It really feels like a once-in-a-lifetime deal sometimes for sure. And in the Leafs case once-in-two-lifetimes.

Finnish is a different story, but Swedish and German are so similarly structured compared to English I cant see much getting lost in translation. I have learned a fair bit of both and can clearly see why players like Backlund, Draisaitl, etc. speak damn near perfect English after a few years here.

This off season is a shot of reality for sure but I think you're overselling the urgency a bit. May be a tough season but the fact Lindholm isn't signed or traded yet isn't a sky-is-falling scenario. Knee-jerk reactions almost always make the team worse.