conundrumed

I said 3D at worst, from following FLA and watching them. I'm in EST and I've watched more Florida than Toronto. Not a twitter graphic. You and your playoff pts... Huberdeau had 10 in 6 games in an excellent, tight series vs TBay in the 1st rd in 2021 playoffs. Vasilevsky absolutely stoned them. If not for G, they won that series. Bobrovsky and Dreidger were so leaky that they had to go with Spencer Knight. Vasilevsky was a monster. Both Carolina and FLA both said after TBay beat them out that Vasilevsky had been the reason Tampa is even near them all year long.

I'm talking generally. Not specific teams.

I'm kind of amazed looking around the intranet at Flames D potential rosters of people having Weegar as a 3rd pairing with Zadorov. "Tell me you know nothing about Weegar without telling me that you know nothing about Weegar".lol He was 20-25mins/gm with FLA and he's very good defensively, particularly disrupting the O rush. At worst he's an excellent 3D behind Tanev and Andersson. At worst. For me, ideally, I'd have him with Hanifin. But Tanev and Andy aren't 3rd pairing either. The outlier is Kylington. It doesn't really matter what we think of him, it only matters what Sutter thinks of him. We've seen him progress better with one year of Daryl, does he believe that there's still more progress and that Kylington will attain it? Or are we trading him out for Weegar? My opinion is that I have no idea.

Are we? I've heard this one before. The scouting contingency that continually parlay whethe a draft is strong or weak are generally full of crap. You can trend every draft based on strong/weak rumour and then redo the draft 5 years later and see that the guessing doesn't trend well. Every draft has a strong potential, but that's really all that it is. I'm really interested to see if Slafkovsky is Andrei or Evgeny Svechnikov, for example.

All of the things coming to light now are about the toxic culture of junior players. By most accounts that I've read, Virtanen is right up there with Scottie Upshall and Shane O'Brien for scumbaginess. So let's keep him the hell out of our offseason thread. I get that everyone deserves a 2nd chance, but if you've ever tried to watch Upshall & O'Brien's total cringe vblog, you can sense the completely toxic jock idiocy. They still talk about notches, hits, whatever the pos's call it, like women are pieces of meat. Go watch some of their first episodes if you enjoy being disgusted. You'll see Bizdisaster, who has only progressed by not being like them (anymore). There are a lot of internet accountings of Virtanen being in that mold. Too many to all be lies. Now I can defend all of these guys with one thing. This is learned behaviour. Dan Carcillo's hazing happened right here in Sarnia. 19-20yr olds are teaching impressionable 15-16yos to act this way. I have a handful of ex-jr friends. I've heard some completely ridiculous hazing stories. Anyway, I have a lot to say, but not in this thread. There's a ton of blame to go around, and not just the kids.

Yeah, the only one’s saying 1 or both won’t stay here are fans with no knowledge in the matter, just opinions. It’s been an offseason of despair. It’s easy get down. This trade was awesome. Huberdeau will be fascinating to watch in Flames silks. Not sure the Flames have ever had a total beast of a player like him. some players help others point totals, few actually make them better players. He is the latter. Just to have him here as a teacher is epic. I’d honestly take him and Weegar longterm at $17mil per vs JG & Tkachuk at $20 mil. I think we got better in team dynamics.

Yup.

If you clearly believe the bottom guys won't clear waivers. I'm not sold on that concept. That's a tough time of year for any manager to go cherry-picking other team's prospects. In-season I understand can be a risk, but you can do that via trade then, too.

I wished we had the asset for Namestnikov at TDL. He's underrated. We saw in the Dallas series that he's got some bite to his game and plays an honest game wherever you slot him. He certainly endeared himself to the Wings faithful.

Why not just keep Hanifin? He's much better defensively and matched Klingberg's output last year.

When we signed Rooney, I kinda thought, "this is who we wanted last year over Carpenter". I think we scouted Meloche last year. You don't just sign warm bodies for no reason. He's been an Ahl guy for 4 years, NHL for one. Still just turned 25. I'm definitely interested to see what the org (Sutter) sees there. My guess is a solid stay-at-home that still can be taught and likely a guy that couldn't get many opportunities. It's always interesting nonetheless.

I like this look a lot better than throwing $20mil per at JG and Tkachuk longterm. They hit career highs last year that they won't hit again. JG is a great player, no question. Could you put him on a line with Bennett and Owen Tippett and expect no drop in production? Unlikely. Our only D move from a roster perspective is Weegar over Gudbranson. Big win. We likely have an addition in Pelletier. He is by no means a soft player and has yet to stall out in any of his plateaus yet. We still have Ruzicka coming in with a fresh chance to have a great summer regiment. There's a lot for Sutter to work with.

Remember last year when we were a "bubble" team or not a playoff team at all? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

This belongs in this thread. Let's fire up the turbines.lol https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/nhl-scouts-analysis-why-cole-schwindt-could-be-the-wild-card-in-flames-panthers-trade/

To maybe lend a bit of perspective, 1 of those 4 guys is still with Huberdeau, who was, without a doubt, FLA'a principal O-driver. Look at FLA's roster now. Not looking great for a fast north team. Huberdeau and Weegar were 2 of their best let's push north guys. As for our team, that's Richter Scale change of dynamics.

Maybe off topic, but Tkachuk sure trash talked TBay. I'm not going to miss that. Save it for the ice.TBay and Vas don't need motivational boosts. His line, "the other team in Florida has had a lot of success, I'm here to change that". Oh boy. I think his mouth's making promises that his talent level can't keep. Once he's finished dancing Kucherov/Stamkos/Point, I'm sure he'll dance Hedman/Sergachev/Cernak and then Vasilevsky. I'm not going to miss the arrogance. Jack the home fans up. Then don't deliver. Hope he can turn Bennett from a 10 goal scorer to a 28 goal scorer like that other guy did.

For the record, I have zero interest in Kadri. We have a great opportunity to negotiate our cap space and he would ruin that. We have 11mil opening up next year. $4 more for Huberdeau, 3-4 more for Weegar, so call it $4 maybe. Now you HAVE to move a contract out. Are you moving Hanifin's $5? That's a pretty good contract. Also, where is the $$ for Kadri this year? Mangia and Kyl are eating up most of our remaining balance. We all want all of the best players, but the suggestions need to address how you're doing your cap gymnastics. Everybody now despises Vegas for throwing players away. We all get that there is very little loyalty, but you still don't trample dignity like only Vegas does.

I am completely with you on this. I don't bring him up because I don't want nor do we need a flashier, more expensive version of Kylington. I have hopes that Meloche can be a Gudbranson replacement. I firmly believe that we targeted him. You don't sign guys just because. He's just turned 25, 6'3"/205lbs. He's had 57 NHL games and 59PIMS, 10 of which are from fighting, so he doesn't penalty much. Very much a stay-at-home D. He's the perfect age for a Dman to break out. We always say Dmen take longer to develop, but then we forget we said that and say a 24yo in his first pro action is, "just a tweener".lol Sutter turned Gudbranson into decent, I'm sure they put their sights on Meloche. Much cheaper, likely can match Gudbranson, still some upside there as he gets one of the best teachers in the game.

Yup. I'm all for it. If Calgary fans want to relive Iggy's tenacity, that's exactly what you get in Huberdeau. It's going to be mega-intense vs Edmonton and Colorado now. Huberdeau is waaaaay more take charge then both JG or Tkachuk. What an acquisition(s). This is going to be awesome. My opinion, Fla's going to take a massive hit in the standings. I think Zito just effed up big time. I expected him to match Barkov's $10 x 8 extension for Huberdeau. BT got insane return for Tkachuk. I'm still in total shock. This is our Gilmour for Leeman trade in reverse. BT even said other offers weren't close. Well no Satoshi Nakamoto.

I think the biggest losers in this will be half of Florida's roster. The biggest winners will be half of Calgary's roster. Were Bennett or Duclair 2nd line NHLers prior to Huberdeau? I question if Duclair was even an NHLer at all. I wish Lomberg had been a throw in.lol

I'm going to offer my services in defense of him.lol I agree with both of you. He's a bit of a thunderstorm all over the map. I bolded IQ from JTECH because I believe, with dmen, it's always something that can be developed. You develop good habits, recognize trends, recognize players' habits, game speed etc. He was yarded in and out of the lineup until now. Were there egregious mistakes? God yeah. Did he look totally lost at sea sometimes? God yeah. I give a ton of credit to Sutter for watching those mistakes and not lashing out with severe punishment. You can't teach anyone by making them fearful of making a mistake. It freezes them. Now they're so afraid of making a mistake that they're afraid of everything. cross is right imo, he plays faster than he can think it. He's his own worst enemy that way. I'd like to see him this year in Flames silks. I think he'll only get better with experience and confidence that he should be at this level. But the room is squeezed awfully tight now.

*Like*lol

Only what you're willing to max out offering him. Which is what? What would you do?

Not for me. Lindy has a lot of D to play. Huberdeau is " let's go North, quickly" all of the time. That's why I suggest Dube.

I agree. I love the suggestion, but I doubt I'd love the acquisition cost. Carolina's cheap af. I can't look at there roster or prospects and say, "here, we've got what you need. Gs pretty tight, D is very good, just added Patches and Kase to the fwd ranks. LD? Valimaki AND Kylington AND Dube? For Necas and a ___rd pick? I don't love that for us. I get the too many waiver eligible dmen argument, but we haven't Blockchained anybody over in the waiver field ever. That goes a loooooong way in this business. So come camps, players will get waived, "we should grab this guy or that guy"...no we shouldn't. We should make a trade. You don't steal players. Why do guys go on waivers for free and subsequently get a return? Business etiquette. Toronto's over-the-top angry that ARI grabbed Harri Blockchaining Sateri. I'm sure 30 other mgrs cringed. This isn't how they want to do business. If you don't respect your business partners, well, you end up playing for 427 people at some random 5,000 capacity arena on some college campus somewhere. Not mentioning names, of course..