conundrumed

Yeah I don't think so bud. Gaudreau: JG NEVER made his intentions clear. How was BT supposed to know? Tkachuk: Same as above. He had every intention to re-sign both of them. Both were deceptive with their intentions. How is BT supposed to know that both aren't actually talking to him in good faith? Monahan: Philly wanted JG but weren't willing to give up a 1st to lose JVR. Philly is an incredibly bad, poorly managed team. Both Mony and Lucic were going to be cap dumps. If it was last year or 2 years ago, they were always going to be cap dumps. You pay a premium. A 2nd rd would have been great, but now you have Kadri wanting to join, it becomes a 1st if you want Kadri on your team. Why people thought Mony/Lucic would garner return is waaaay beyond me. It wasn't realistic, at all. So now, you're using hindsight to your benefit. But who has a crystal ball? No one does, but you think BT should. So what? Should have traded all 3, 3 years ago? You're not being fair. Should he have known? Sure he should have. But people not being forthcoming with him led to this. You can't blame him for for being deceived by his 2 star players. I'm just so happy that they're gone. Completely demolished trust. We're way better without them. Karma will be a BTC. You can't blame BT for getting Blockchained over at the negotiating table.

How good can Poirier be? Has anyone had a lot of hairy eyeballs on him? From what I've read, he was clearly the best player at rookie camp and has been working on cleaning up his D game without sacrificing his O game. Can we get the Penticton Tourney going already? And will it be televised? My only other thing I'm thinking right now is I am completely hopeful that Ruzicka and Pelletier force Sutter to keep them this year. We only have Dube <25 yrs old. I'm a fan of needing a bit of exuberant youth around

My dude!! Good story on the main page (News). Came for a little Calgary visit. Eager for Weegar.

First things first is getting Weegar signed. Hard to trade Hanifin only to find out Weegar wants to test UFA. Losing both would suck. But until Weegar is extended, I don't think we can have Hanifin on the block. Our D takes a hit removing Hanifin so it can't be a move that we regret. Unless of course Valimaki has a miraculous recovery or Kylington has really focused on his weaknesses and continues to elevate himself. So which RWer would be available for Hanifin? I'd have liked Zadina (not straight across) but he just signed 3 x $1.825. I do understand the want for a top 6 RW, but what names? A lot of, "Hanifin for a 1RW", but I'm not hearing any names. 7th dman is going to be a battle. Valimaki, Mackey and Meloche will be a battle. Looking beyond that, Poirier, Kuznetsov and Solovyov continuing to develop would be great timing in 2 years when so many contracts expire.

BT: We're winning a cup and we're doing it soon. Who wants their name on it? Balls of steel. I can only describe this offseason as absolutely ridiculous. Monumental shift. Honestly, I think we got a lot for JG. Cap space and respect for getting cold-dicked with no grease. Tkachuk follows but allowed us a return. A big part of that was Huberdeau getting cold-dicked with no grease. Kadri $7 x 7. Really? In a rumoured escalating-quickly cap world, no one needed a bonafide 2 C at current price? Seems suspect. Almost like the, "Calgary can't draw players" thing has done a 180. Seems okay. lol Can't wait to kick the excrement out of Florida and Columbus. "We brought friends". And the entire West of course.

In fairness, he's likely better than most, just a toss up with Weegar. I feel bad for him and Keller. Pretty exciting to realize your dream, pretty deflating to be on a perpetually tanking team that is virtually without hope, now playing to a smaller rink than your amateur rinks. They could literally do better as the Saskatchewan Coyotes fan-wise. The ask on Chychrun is too high though. The Weegar add really negates the need. His career is going to waste. I love to see that he's recognizing it. Sign of a competitor. They shouldn't be in the league and I feel sorry for the players there. But hey, it got them a gaming license... If I was any Cali team, St. Loo, NYR, I'd be sniffing around pretty hard for Chychrun. He's skilled and versatile and a great character guy stuck in a horrible market and ownership. In closing, lol, too many are waaaay to hard on Hanifin, Dube and Kylington. Be careful trading them. There is a lot of risk in that. It's too early imho. If you only focus on mistakes, no one will ever be good enough. They can grow out of those. They're all young enough. The 2D especially. D tend to age really well. I'll be the first to say Hanifin probably isn't proud of his playoff performance. It was one year, oh well. He's a good dman. I'm quite honestly jacked about Huberdeau. @cross16 is correct that he puts the puck everywhere rather than carry it up ice. Once it gets towards the O-zone, she's a whole new game. He turns dmen inside out with his passing. He doesn't really need an epic RWer he's never really had one.

True story. Almost $7.9 for 4 more years. They'll fill their roster with ELCs. Still without a goalie. What a mess. Gave away both Fleury and Pacioretty in humiliating fashion. I hate Vegas as a town, they made it incredibly easy to hate their franchise. Shallow af. What did we expect, it's Vegas. Why any player not in their twilight would wanna play there is beyond me. Pacioretty talking about lack of accountability.lol Dude, you're in the tackiest place on earth. It's hardly the place to go to looking for any semblance of character. What did you expect? If you're going to give the Americas an enema, that's where you'd stick the tube. He'll be great with Carolina, what a culture shock for him. Happy for him. Carolina has become one of the best additions to the league. Always quietly cheered for the Whalers. And they beat the Oilers out of a Cup, at which point the Oilers handed out bad contracts like candy. How can you not like the Canes?

What a dicey team I can't figure out wtf Francis is doing there. $11.4 tied up in sketchy goaltending, same money as us at forward but it's all just random scatterings. Who wants Eberle at $5.5? A can't stay healthy Schwartz? An overpaid Burakovsky is a 3rd liner on a good team. Donskoi at $3.9 for a 3rd RWer is decent value. Their entire roster is built around everything we don't really need. Gourde? I love the player, but is he a top 6 RW? Probably, but also less than ideal. Weird that he is their best player. Very strange setup going on there.

I'm pretty happy that we've turned things over. I love Johnny's skating. It is unmatched. But I prefer Huberdeau because he's really intimidating. His skill level is elite. That boy's got the shine. I'm not going to miss Tkachuk at all. He is nothing short of frustrating to watch. He's half & half. Half elite, half "should you even be in this league?" I feel like he's more rep than actual ability. Kadri at 2C I'd rather than Tkachuk. Weegar is bonus. He replaces....ummmm Gudbranson? lol We're a lot better than last year. It's kinda fun. We'll be awesome to watch. Damn, do we look good.

I've been to games in Calgary, Edmonton (Rexall & the new monstrosity), Detroit (the Joe & LCA), Toronto (MLG & Scotiabank) Montreal (The Forum & Molson Centre), the United Center in Chicago, MSG in NY and Xcel Energy Center in Minny. I have to be honest. The Joe & the Saddledome are Satoshi Nakamotoholes. The Joe at least had Cobo Hall next to it, Greektown and casinos right close, a maybe 4-6 block walk to anything you might want for entertainment. Calgary has 17th Ave, big deal. The Stampede grounds location is a dump. Not even great hotel locations. I'm calling it as I see it. That whole Stampede area is a dump. I was shocked when I first saw it, having moved to Calgary in '94. It's deflating. I've been away since 2015ish. Is it still a race between Forest Lawn, Marlborough and the Stampede area for crime? Detroit was bankrupt....not sure what to say. Bring on the hate, but I'm really just trying to be honest. Everything surrounding the Stampede grounds looks like 1976. Take some Blockchaining pride. JFC. Taking public transport from S.of MacLeod or downtown is not a good experience. Detroit's downtown core feels way safer. That is saying something.

I will say honestly and without seller's remorse that I hope he scores that many over the next 3 seasons. Maybe it's unlikely, but I'll be cheering for him. That dude bleeds character. I hate that he got so derailed with injuries, I hate that for any player. Not once did he use it as an excuse, when he easily could have. I hope he rips it up. I kinda wish the D took the risk on him. Many D fans liked the idea, prior to Stevie Y going crazy in UFA. Nobody expected that, from a fan perspective. I'm not a Habs fan in the whatsoever, but I'll be cheering Mony hard. One trade that I actually hope we lose. It was out of necessity, so not a big deal to us.

More asides. When the locals heard I was Cdn, they'd always ask, "say about" expecting to hear aboot, lol They were disappointed. Then I'd tell them Terrence & Philip is taking the piss, just like Fargo and the way you guys talk. To a person, they hate that movie. I didn't have the heart to tell them that it's pretty accurate. Excellent people. I have zero problem with the Wild. Minnesota is an awesome hockey state. At that time, they didn't get anything but US news until they'd go fishing at Lake of the Woods near Kenora. I was told several times that tuning to CBC radio was always a must. "You guys are so lucky, you get world news". That always blew me away. Prior to the internet really getting established, the US was very secular and kept world news away from the population. I think, to this day, it's why they are in such political turmoil. A path that we dearly need to NOT let influence Canada and Canadians. We were not brought up thinking Canada is the only country that matters. Their govt succeeded in keeping their minds closed. There are still 10's of millions of them that grew up pre-internet. Enough about that. They'll recover in the future. It's a lot of damage that will take as many generations to recover as it took to establish. On a positive note, Minnesota and Minnesotans are awesome. I'd love to talk about home boy Byfuglien but I've babbled on enough. Just that that dude was special. Hockey was extremely tertiary to fishing & hunting. I have a lot of facts about that. Let's just say Winnipeg was perfect for him, or he may have quit earlier. Fascinating story. He should write a book.

I'm thinking Pelletier will change his mind.

Me too. On a side note, Bemidji is a great little town. Worked through that area in the late '90's.

Stastney to Carolina on a $1.5 contract. Perfect. Go there. Rodrigues too, Milano, Kessel etc, go elsewhere. We don't need any of that. Ruzicka and Pelletier are way better options in the now. Get them going. I don't know people, are we just gonna play in the mud? We have 8 roster players over 30. Greaaat, experience, sure. We need 2 of Pelletier, Rozie, Vali, Phillips to grab a spot. The effing kids (e.g. Anaheim) will run right over us with us being older players. We need some young players in the mix that have played with or against these young players. They're changing the game. Need some semblance of staying current. I want no one in UFA currently.

Hand in hand with we absolutely raped FLA for Tkachuk. We took 2 of their best 5 players, absolute max at 5, likely 4, got a great young prospect C and a future 1st. That, my friends, is a spanking. Fla is going to reel from this one, I have zero doubt. That's a massive mistake. But thanks.lol We're looking A LOT better than last year. What a monumental swing this offseason has been. I love it. This architecture looks better than last year. Way better. As @cross16 has said before, it will take time to gel, but I think we'll love the outcome.

Ummm, clearly, you haven't seen Weegar play enough. Weegar, Tanev, Andersson, Hanifin is a wicked top 4, still have Z, Kyl, Meloche, Vali, Mackey... So your "actual" dman comment makes no sense. A lot of other team's have at least a couple of our bottom 5 playing top 4. Our D is stacked, not sure what you're looking at.

Not that I want to give him $7per, but the market dictates. I doubt $6per gets it done. The comparables there are Pionk, Schmidt, Myers, Brodin, Pulock, Petry, Morrissey. He's above them. At $6.5 per that's around Krug, Faulk, Parayko, Lindholm, Provorov and that's closer. $7+ would be the beginning of contracts either not aging well or won't, outside of the truly elite dmen. I think Spurgeon is a good comparable, He signed for 6yrs x $7.575 in 2020. I'd sign him for 8 at $5.5-$6, I'd love it. I just don't think it's realistic in this market. Him and Dumba will be the hottest D commodities for UFA next year. And Klefbom if he returns to what he was, which is probably highly unlikely. Klingberg also, but I don't like his odds atm. Those 2, with solid seasons which I expect, will be in control of $8.5-$9. I hope we can sign Weegar now at $6.75-$7.25. I know those are big numbers, but I've watched a lot of FLA in the past 2 years. That number is going up a mil if he hits UFA. Really good dmen are only getting more expen$ive. Lock him in now. It'll be a bargain for the first few years at least, and I believe that it will age well as salaries escalate.

Kinda have to wait and have fun in the now imo. Tomorrow's a long time away. Just keep our picks. Huberdeau and Kadri are great players right now. We'll be dangerous. Markstrom was an equal team mvp last year. We'll be good.

Lol. Nice comeback. It's kind of fun to live in the moment occasionally. I'm maybe fortunate that my 2 teams are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Detroit has been rebuilding for 4-5 years and the Flames are competing hard. They're clearly in win now mode, looking 3-5 years down the road is an exercise in futility. We have no idea, even remotely, what the roster will look like in even 3 years. Could be none of Lindholm, Hanifin, Tanev, Backlund, Toffoli, etc, etc, etc. So it's extremely hard to speculate, even with buyouts. We have no idea what the roster will look like. You can call it thinking longterm, but it's pure speculation that is based on right now's roster that will be a lot different in a few years. It's fun to speculate I guess. The other thing is thinking about "draft capital" at TDL. Can someone show me the Cup teams that TDL completely help. FLA got the best available fwd and dman. Wasted imperative draft picks. For what? Blockchain TDL I say. Keep picks,

Mony signed mine, so not like I can just change the nameplate to Kerins.lol

2 days ago: getting Kadri would be awesome. Yesterday: acquire Kadri. Today: What will a Kadri buyout look like? Me:

Our circumstances have changed. I was good with Rodrigues, but not now. Last year was a complete outlier for so many players that I like to remove it from everyone. Now remove his year last year, as a 29 yr old. There is really nothing there but a "maybe" bottom 6. https://www.nhl.com/player/evan-rodrigues-8478542

Let's not touch Milano. He isn't very good. No one else has touched him. Rodriguez is still kinda meh. Journeymen look great with Crosby. We have that stuff in the system. I have little doubt Ruzicka can do what Rodriguez does.

Because he's a better LWer than Huberdeau or Mangiapane? I love the romanticism it would bring to the BoA, but nothing else. Don't need him, we have better.