cross16

Friendman speculating he thinks Sutter may get an extension. At this point I'm betting the Flame just go year by year with him. If you want to coach, here is your deal. I think they'll take him as long as he wants to coach.

Friedman speculating that Weegar's preference (as it most players) is to not negotiate during the season. My understanding is Weegar's agent is a family member and Weegar is his only client. Be curious to see how that negotiation is going.

If he could stay healthy I think he'll play games in the NHL. That's really the knock right now, from what i've seen/heard, he has the style of game to make him a really good bottom 6 player. He's just had some really bad injury luck.

If he does he won't get it, but from what I understand it's pretty common that players on PTOs who actually have a shot at making the team they have those discussions in advance so they know the salary range. Wouldn't surprise me if they already have an agreed upon salary if Milano makes the team.

The one thing I will point out with Milano is his qualifying offer was going to be 1.8million. Even with his season last year that is a tough one so I don't blame the Ducks at all not qualifying him it was a smart play. Ducks also really sheltered him last year and gave him a ton of ozone starts. I think the profile of him looks to be a tweeners. Too skilled for a 4th line role but not well rounded enough for a top 9 role. Curious to see what holds up and if the Flames can find a line that works for him.

This is not true. He spoke out multiple times before they signed Gaudreau/Tkachuk. He made public comments before they re signed Backlund as well. It's a sample size issue. GMs don't get asked about players that are "easy" to sign they get asked about players that are hard. But for me the fact that Treliving publicly commented on healthy dialoguing and hoping to get it done is rare for him.

The Milano comment isn't surprising (it's actually fairly obvious) but thought it was noteworthy

First looks at lines/pairings according to Ryan Leslie. Nothing terribly surprising here IMO as we should keep in mind Eakin and Meloche are very likely placeholders for Mangiapane and Kylington who are not skating. Looks like Milano is going to get a real shot though.

Possibly, but it's just not how he has operated as a GM is all i'm saying. He doesn't prep fans when it comes to contracts.

I'd argue the opposite. Treliving almost never comments on negotiations in the public. If he is willing to even comment on it I would take that as he has confidence a deal is going to get done.

It is a minimum deal so pretty easy to send to the AHL and with the team being located in Calgary i'm thinking they may plan to use that as a bit of taxi squad. I'm not really a fan of Ritchie but he was a Sutter favorite and sometimes you just have to give your coach want he wants but given the new set up with their farm team I think the Flames also have options to turnover their depth more frequently than in the past.

According to Treliving, they are pausing on looking to upgrade at forward. Says they want to see how camp shakes out. So likely no deal imminent.

According to Puckpedia Ritchie deal is done. Flames have not confirmed and all Treliving said was he expected an announcement "soon"

Kylington and Mangiapane are both going to miss the start of camp

My 2 biggest takeaways from this discussion. 1- I don't think many have a good read on who Weegar is as a dman. 2 - a real lack of understanding about why the Flames actually lost to the Oilers last year. The Flames are not perfect on paper by any means but expectations about what they should have are pretty unrealistic on here IMO.

so I am in favor of acquiring Puljujarvi myself as i'm with People on this one. I think he is already a very good 3rd line player who could break out in the right situation. There are parallels to him and Nichuskin for sure and I don't really get all the negativity thrown his way. It's not his fault he got drafted by Edmonton who can't develop anyone. Whether or not you'd deal Kylington for him though is pretty irrelevant to me as the deal doesn't make sense. Oilers depth chart is: Nurse - Barrie Kulak - Bouchard Broberg/Koekkoek - Ceci I'm certainly not going to proclaim that a good D core as it isn't but at best Kylington is in a battle for their 2nd pairing. They just paid Kulak and they took Broberg in the top 10 so I'm not seeing how they are going to have value in Kylington. Not to mention they are save 500k off their cap. Same situation with Dube, they only save 700k and don't upgrade so what is the point? I think the only hope the Flames have of acquiring Puljujarvi is if the Oilers are high on Valimaki. It's the only trade that makes sense for their cap, but again they already have a high pick project in Broberg so why acquire another one? Fit really isn't there unless the Flames can move out money and acquire him for a pick but at the same time if that was on the table i'm not sure why they'd be brining in these PTOs or looking at Ritchie.

Jason Gregor in Edmonton has apparently said he expected the return to be a mid to late 2nd and I think also said they were offered a 3rd but declined. It was apparently a radio hit so it's not searchable. Spector think the Oilers want a player back for Puljujarvi and are not yet ready to settle for just a pick. Don't see the Flames as an option here though. I don't see the Oilers having a strong desire in Kylington and the Flames don't have the cap space to acquire him for a pick.

Virtanen made no sense because he isn't very good and IMO has no chance of making this roster. The only reason to even mention the allegations against him was not only are you brining in someone who won't make your team your are adding a distraction to boot. He never made sense at any level. I mean the guy had had 9 goals and 17 points in 36 games in the KHL last year. Should be pointed out he was not found innocent, he was found not guilty. There is a big difference there.

I'd be open to that for sure. Only hesitation would be what type of competition is he going up against and can he thrive? He was pretty sheltered last year and I don't think Sutter would want to, nor should he, shelter Lindholm/Mang.

It will be interesting to see how it goes. The perception of him is he is bad in his own zone but that didn't show up on his analytical profile last year. Mind you i'm pretty sure he was deployed in a pure offensive role that will alter those numbers. Could be something pairing with Backlund though.

If you are going to do a PTO this is the type of player you should be targeting. I'll be surprised if he makes it but there is some sneaky upside here if he can. Would certainly round out their top 9.

Depends on who you believe at this point. Some said they offered Kyrou, but accoridng to Rutherford (who is one of the top Blues beat writers) the offer was Tarasenko, Scandella and a pick. I did read somewhere that some sources indicated the Blues were a hard no on trading Kyrou. The Canes offer was reported to be being built around Martin Necas. As cool as Shane Wright could be it does not sound like that was ever on the table.

In his offseason piece Lebrun mentioned that from what he has gathered the list of teams Tkachuk would agree to a trade to were Colorado, Tampa, Florida, Carolina, Vegas and St Louis. He thinks the Devils wanted him but ultimately Tkachuk wasn't going to go there on a long term deal. He says they also made offers to Gaudreau. Doesn't think the offer was past Columbus but what was interesting is the Devils felt they were sill negotiating when they were told Gaudreau was going to Columbus.

In the cap system no one does. Not even the Avs last year spread their talent, they loaded up their 1st unit and that is probably the deepest team we've seen in some time at the forward position. I'm with conundrumed. I don't see the logic in trying to spread talent around your PP, load it up.