cross16

The axe to grind for some on BT is pretty weird and disappointing. Really don't understand at all why he has to come up so much. Feels awfully petty to me. I don't think Marner is the problem and I think he played better than most, just thought he was a bit snake bitten. I get the cap argument but IMO the biggest trap you can fall into is thinking that cap space is more valuable then talent. It's not a good FA crop this year so if you are going to move Marner you better get the right return. Moving him for cap is a big mistake IMO. I'd actually be more concerned about the Rielly deal than I would be about the Marner one if you want to talk cap space. Year 2 of an 8 year deal at 7.5 for a high end puck moving dman and PP QB and your PP was a huge factor in costing you the series and you had to amend your style of game in order to defend better. Yikes. I don't think the Leafs have the core (in particular the blueline) to win a cup and I don't see a great path to it. I do think if Matthews had of been healthy they likely win that series so I don't think it's as grim as it seems but the path to winning a cup is blurry because I don't see how they are going to build a championship caliber blueline with the assets available to them.

Agreed it's not part of his game but that's the thing but unfortunately agility is one of those things you can't really afford to be bad at in the NHL if you want to be a top end dman. comes down to his ceiling IMO and I don't agree his ceiling is that high. I think having issues with 1 on 1 defending lowers your ceiling.

Tough break for the Wranglers tonight. Thought they were the better team and a bad bounce tied the game late and then a pretty questionable sequence of events from the officials led to a CV goal in OT. Wranglers were hit about it and I don’t blame them. It was off side IMO, or at least too many men, and I don’t know why they let the CV jam away at it like they did. I was impressed with how they player 5 on 5. PP really hurt them as they were given plenty of opportunities. I thought Porier was their best player tonight

Big difference there is Gaudreau was a cheat code in transition and not nearly as one dimensional so not a good comparison there. Until he gets into the zone Kuzmenko is pretty useless out there. He's got strengths to offer sure but for me I wouldn't pay players for limited skill sets like that. I don't think good teams have players that they have to manage like Kuzmenko but that's me. Can he improve at 30 years old, i suppose but call me pretty skeptical. I personally don't think it's a coincidence that Vancouver got better when he didn't play and that despite the positive offensive impact he made, it made very little impact on the Flames record. That tends to be the case with players like Kuzmenko.

Agility problems like his don't tend to go away in my experience, not to mention the specific problem I have with his skating will get exposed as he moves up. That's not always the case for all weaknesses.

At his current level no but as he moves up I don't think I'd agree with this. That's my concern with Yakemchuk. As he moves up and the game gets faster I think that's where he has the potential to struggle. Can he 1 on 1 defend in zone when the puck moves faster? Can he handle outside speed without having to give up a larger gap? At least for me it doesn't make him a bad prospect or a bust but IMO his ceiling is not as high as the other dman being talked about in the top half of the draft. I'm personally not a fan of the Flames taking him. it wouldn't be a "WFT are you doing" type of reaction but I think there are better options for them.

And the Flames record was..... Not his fault but that's the nature of one dimensional players. They help in your some areas but overall they aren't moving the needle. I'm personally not paying a 30 plus year old player with a limited skill set like that.

I'm fine with the Flames re signing Sharangovich I just think they need to be smart about it but he's a good player to have around. For me it would be a mistake to extend Kuzmenko and the Flames should still be looking to deal him this off season or next TDL. I don't see any contract value being good for such a one dimensional player.

I think they will target players are shorter deals that can give them some depth and insulate the young players. It really isn't a good FA crop this year and with teams having money to spend the smart teams will be cautious with FA this year.

I think this is a far too simplistic view of things but should also be pointed out that Colorado and the New York Islanders did the same model too. When that model goes well you get Colorado and when it doesn't you get New York Islanders. I'm not optimistic either but with so many unknown variables I don't' understand the value of assuming failure.

Shea Weber is also a case of how circumstances come together at different times for different players. He was a late bloomer, big growth spurt as a teen, and didn't become a full time dman until bantam age. When he first played for the Rockets they were also a very good and deep team, particularly on defense. Josh Gorges, who was a fantastic junior dman and pretty decent NHler too, was there as was a certain hall of fame dman named Duncan Keith. Kelowna was gearing up for the Memorial Cup in 04 so they had brought in a lot of good players and Weber got pushed down the depth chart as a rookie and needed to carve our more of a physical almost enforcer type role early on. The fact he was a 2nd rounder, in one of the deepest drafts in history too BTW, given he was a 3rd pairing dman, speaks to the potential that was there. Think if your looking for a lesson there it's that circumstances matter and how do you balance talent, production and circumstances. Why this is as much an art as it it science.

I’d be really shocked to see the flames go hunting for a big name. They know they arnt close enough and I think they are very contentious about their draft pick status next year.

LA is going the wrong direction. Going to be a really interesting off season for them. Heat is starting to pick up on Blake and I think for good reason. I'm not surprised Edm made quick work of them. I hate to say this but with all the goalie injuries Van is facing this is setting up to maybe be the Oilers year. Van impressed me more than I thought so far against the Preds but the Preds offence stinks, Edm's doesn't. I think they have a pretty good path to the WCF. Can they beat a Dallas, Vegas or Colorado? I'm skeptical but you never know what happens the deeper we get.

I get the angle of Huberdeau for anyone but I think it needs to be pointed out that Huberdeau is still a good player. He's overpaid sure but he contributes and as we saw in the 2nd half is still a borderline top line player. Couturier has barely played due to injuries and IMO it's zapped his career. I understand the rationale of dump his contract at any cost but IMO you'd be picking up a bigger problem in Couturier. i would not be interested at any cost.

Yes you'd have to go to his site for that information. It's not high tech, it just takes into account their production (stats) in a certain league based on their age and proximity to draft year. His site breaks it down better but I don't want to give away everything as it is a behind a paywall. Pretty affordable though.

No, would you. Personally before I look to see if a team would do it I would ask myself would I. If the answer is pretty obvious to you why isn't it to the team. I don't see a scenario where he is dealt personally. I don't think Florida can afford him and I don't think they wanted to pay him, which is why they moved him in the first place.

Would you acquire that contract?

It's an analytics take on it. I think what the stars have done a nice job of doing is focussing on players with skill, talent and production and ignoring some of the traps of size and "potential". They take players who if they hit on will be stars, and if they miss can still carve out a depth role. Contrast that to the Flames and in particular the picks of Boltman, Kuznetsov and Stromgren. I think in all 3 of these cases they Flames took players for the wrong reasons. Botlman was always a hard one to see but Kuzentsov they took him for size and Stromgren size and straight line speed. The problem with both is neither had any history of production so your basically trying to develop skills that arn't really there and that lowers the ceiling. Even if the Flames were right on Stromgren/Kuzentsov I think you are looking at a bottom pairing dman and a bottom 6 forward. They took a gamble and in an area with a low probability of it paying off. That's essentially what he is saying. That is a very large hyperbole considering how good Heskinen also is. I love Makar too but that's not as egregious as you make it sound.

This is an interesting thread related to the "Dallas Model" idea and what the Stars did to have some success. Talks about some trends that the Stars used. Long story short, you arn't going to get there by taking long shots and flyers, you need to take players who had a good chance to hit. The good news story is the Flames are pretty good in this area. Sure they have some misses (Kuznetsov, Boltmann, Stormgren are the primary outliers here) but what is really key to point out about the Stars is they made their headway in the first 2 rounds. That's where you can avoid the flyers and bet on talent so if the Flames can keep acquiring more picks in this area they've got a shot.

I have some complaints about ownership but IMO this one is totally unfair. If they were just about making money then I think they would do things very differently. They don't agree with you on the method of building a winner but I think it's unfair to suggest that means they value money over winning. I don't think for a second that is the case.

70/30. I think there are adjustments Huberdeau can make in his game I do think the way he played Jan 1 on is about as good as your going to get within the Flames system. At 5 on5 he was a top 50 players in things like assists, first assist and individual point production (in the league). His chance creation numbers were very good as well, not elite but good. I think if you want more the Flames are going to need to change he way they play. Someone with chemistry would help but I think style of play if the bigger issue for me. Your not going to have too many forwards put up career years here within the Flames system.

Good on the Wranglers. I'll look forard to checking out a game or two. William Strongren really starting to heat up and show what the Flames liked about him.

I dont disagree and the 5th rounder is probably not accurate, it was to prove a point. I do think you get more. I just think the value to the Flames is the ice time and development spot alongside Backlund. I think there is value in that that offsets some of the loss of value by perhaps dealing him now and not at the TDL.

I agree with the conclusion and honestly i'm not even sure if the Flames do this they can wind up as good as LA because Kopitar/Doughty are quite a bit better than anything the Flames have. could make a case Weegar is closer to Doughty sure but Kopitar is head and shoulders above the Flames best center IMO. But agree if the Flames stick to this path, baring getting really lucky in the lottery, I think their going to wind up looking like the New York Islanders. While possible to build in the Dallas model, the challenge with that one is your margin for error is razor thin. Look at Dallas right now. They don't have those 1-2 game breaking type players so Vegas plays a good game against them and they are searching for answers. That's your challenge with building a team based on depth as opposed to high end skill. The success of that model rests on your ability to draft a superstar late in the draft. Possible yes, likely? guess we'll see. This shouldn't come as a surprise. As i've been saying for years now, it's never been this organization's intention to rebuild for multiple seasons. They don't believe in it.

Very surprised by Dallas. Not just the 2-0 but the fact they’ve looked slow and terrible good on Vegas and give them credit but for a team that looked well built going in has sure disappointed