conundrumed

Wallinder is LHS but can play both sides. I've already made that trade proposal. Detroit - Lindholm Calgary - 17th, Veleno, Wallinder Who doesn't love a smartass?lol Detroit desperately needed a LHD to top pair with Seider. Chiarot was a disaster. It's Jake Walman and he's stellar. Sundqvist, Walman, this year's 2nd for Leddy and Witkowski. All were happy to get Sundqvist and a 2nd. Nobody but nobody saw Walman as a top 4. So yet again we learn that we don't know much. The Maatta signing was met with, "What? Why? Whatever". He's been stalwart and a top 5 on any roster in the league. 2 lessons in mgmt being smarter than fandom's preconceived notions. My loving Musty and Simashev's potential at 16 doesn't = me hating everyone else. It's not like I'll be angry.lol Simashev and Reinbacher were pretty much neck-in-neck earlier in the season. I just refuse to believe handedness means anything. And I still suffer ptsd from Sutter-draft parameters of 1. Size 2. WHL, actual skills being about #5 & 6. So...we never did get any skilled guys with size.

Best it's me because I think your anti-LW rants are laughable. Getting hung up on handedness isn't my thing. Look around the league at wingers. Nobody's hung up on it. Just a few fans.

Musty's frame is broad. He can easily carry another 20lbs. Plus he has better hands and handles the puck well. Pro-rated over a full season is the top point-getter in the O for draftees. Not quite sure what they're missing. Simashev at 31 is fine if only Reinbacher is in the top 30. Zero chance Willander will be better, and I like Willander. But Musty at 47 is outrageous when he has the potential to be better than Leonard. Swapping roster spots would make it obvious. Could Perrault and Leonard have separately thrown up 100pts in the O? I have my doubts. It's a league full of drafted 18-20yos and you're not on an allstar team in comparison to your competition.

Write ups focus on U18 a ton. A ton of overrating based on that. Like what, “what dynamic skill vs U18 Slovakia”? ”Exemplary against lesser teams”? So are the captains of Atom teams… The play is so disjointed that it’s barely above pond hockey. At least half of the goals aren’t goals in actual leagues.

I've done it!! I've found the worst list that I've yet to see! Looks almost purely based on the U18 tourney... https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/scouts-analysis-final-ranking-of-the-top-80-prospects-for-the-2023-nhl-draft/

Again, you guys are fixated on right now rather than the future. Trade Mangiapane and Pelletier and where's all of your LWers? Huberdeau is the only LW we have that I consider longterm. We had Lucic playing 2nd LW. So tell me again about our fantastic LW depth, particularly about power forwards on either side. Ruzicka is supposed to be a Center. Like a majority of centers in this draft, he's ending up a winger. So don't assume Danielson or Heidt guarantees you a center. Not even Smith is a lock to be a center. If you focus on highest ceiling at 16, it may very well be Musty. Or do we need competition for Ronni, Zary and Kerins to develop into a 3C? Because it would appear that some people give our developing picks zero chance by hearsay. Ronni, for one, looks like a natural Backlund replacement. Led his team to the U20 championship. By led, I mean in points, icetime, faceoffs, playing every situation. He carried his team. But he played 3rd line at the WJC so he's no good I guess. It's the same as everyone under the sun changing their rankings based on the U18 tournament. Dvorsky, Wood and the USNTDP and Swede guys are now overrated due to a tournament below their typical weight class. Then they create the "fallers" to amount to guys that didn't play in that tourney or were playing through injuries and didn't dominate. It's flavour-of-the-month stuff. It's really not much above a midget tourney. Yet hyped through the roof. Did any team actually play well defensively? Of course not, but why focus on that when you can focus on O stats? Personally, I believe we're drafting Wood and I'm okay with that. Although I'd MUCH rather Musty or Simashev. I was championing Wood early on and he should be in our range. Simashev I've loved all along. I was streaming his KHL games. He's scary and really good with the puck. Or should I say his puck. Challenge him at your risk because he loves to hit and hit hard. I can see him being the most dominant Dman in this class. I believe that once he gets here and gets some experience under his belt, fwds will be paying attention when he's on the ice. He reminds me of Seider against puck-carriers, never looks down at the puck, just stares at that giant target on your chest. I can see him thriving on smaller ice. He'll make his own time and space. Dude's a beast.

A large skilled winger. Do we have any of those? I'd say no. Plus, we aren't drafting for this year's needs. That would be a massive mistake. At our position, Simashev is likely available. Reinbacher, Sandin-Pellikka won't be, and Van looks like they have a chub on for Willander. BPA AND highest ceiling for me will likely be Musty and Simashev if either's still there, and I don't give a crap about position. Most C's will wind up wingers regardless,

I do love that he has my 2 biggest wants at our spot. Simashev at 15 and Musty at 16.lol I think he's a bit low on Musty's skating. He's got very good straight line speed. From one of his interviews he mentions that he wants to work on his first 3 steps over the summer, so he definitely "gets" the areas he needs to improve. I'm not overly concerned about his compete level. The lack of quality teammates affects that imho. It's why USNTDP guys always rate high in that category, particularly when you're on a dominant line that you've been on for 2 consecutive years. Just my thoughts.

Thanks Vinny, that's quite comprehensive. Can you explain the 2nd tab a bit in skills ratings, how the ratings were attained and how the adjusted rating works? Does each rating carry more weight? Say, looking at Yager vs Musty. Musty carries a higher overall score but falls a little behind in adjusted rating. Very well done though. I love that you've included Flo, I'm a big fan. Comprehensive work. Everyone should be having a look at your 2 tabs. I'm hardcore on Musty for the record. I can see high floor, high ceiling and the room for improvement and growth. I like Barlow also and my own opinion on why many are reticent is thinking he's already close to his ceiling. Cristall's skating is my biggest beef. It needs a lot of work in all aspects when time and space disappear and he doesn't have the size to be a very average skater/edgework. I'm also a Wings fan, so there is also the 9 & 17 bullets in the chamber. Their prospect pool is already a lot to unload. At LD alone with Edvinsson and Johansson ready to make the NHL with Wallinder coming up and still more beyond him is mind-bending. I think they're ready to focus on fwd in this draft but wouldn't be shocked to see a top RD. This draft is going to be fun, getting close!

Van was so desperate to lose Loui Eriksson that they completely lost their minds as well. The trade isn't even over yet. SJ has Van's 7th rder this year now. Should they happen to pick a defenceman, he will instantly be the best dman from that trade.

Nucks buy out Ekman-Larsson. Short term gain, longterm pain.

You do realize that BT would have needed clearance, potentially even instruction, with those contracts right? He didn't "give away" Gaudreau. The facts have been strewn across every thread. It's clearly pointless to repeat them. Hindsight is 20/20 and the dildo of consequences rarely arrives lubricated.

Zero complaints. @rocketdoctor, before I forget again, and any of you other fancy book readin'-types, read Jim Devallano's book. Dude breathes hockey. He's been the go-to guy in Detroit since I was in high school for god's sakes.lol You'll be amazed at the dots that connect through him, Arbour, Bowman, the Russian Five, on and on. We tense up about drafting Russians NOW, he was doing it in the Iron Curtain days because all he saw were great hockey players, not limitations. Fascinating book. Detroit epitomizes loyalty. Looking at their staff is like a walk down memory lane. It's a family to be certain. Reminds me of Ken Dryden saying the difference between the NHL vs NFL. In the NHL you retire and the game is still open for you if you want to stay in some capacity. In the NFL, you retire and the game washes it's hands of you if you weren't a superstar. That's a harrowing difference in what happens when the cameras go away. I have zero issues bringing Iggy or anyone else back for that matter if they are invested in the concept. Hell, Gary Roberts should have been our fitness coach. Backlund can scout Sweden, Tanev can scout D...on and on. Hell, keep Lewis on staff. Think of the positives. Who better to sell your city and working environment then the guys who have been through it. Would you rather Nieuwendyk talking straight up to a young players parents about the challenges or conundrumed telling them what they want to hear? It is clearly only sensible and guys like Iggy are no longer in the spotlight constantly so can offer a ton of support. I'd be all for it. Edmonton is all buddies is the difference. Detroit, sure with Yzerman and Lidstrom, but Cleary, Fischer, Campbell, Maltby and others are not 'name' power guys. Edmonton brings back Gretzky and Messier constantly. They miss the point. That's an old boys club mentality. With Conroy as GM, I am completely comfortable with him hiring any ex-teammate because he knows the person and he sees the fit. That's all Yzerman does, he doesn't hire outside of his circle. Even Lalonde coached their ECHL affiliate at one point. I'm all for it and I'd be fine with seeing more of it from Conroy. It doesn't matter how it looks, his comfort is all that matters.

See how much fun it would be to get St. Loo's 10th oa?lol

You've nailed it I believe! This is a good spot for my own long-winded thoughts. BT - I'll preface this by saying, after almost 20 yrs in Calgary, I'm back in my Ontario hometown bordering Michigan. The split here is about 65-35 TML vs Wings fans. I'm Wings. Moving to Calgary didn't make me a Flames fan, I already was one as I've always hated the Oilers style of play and like Calgary's blue collared approach which has always been similar to the Wings. I hold no ill will against Treliving at all and I hope he's successful. And nobody hates the Leafs more than I do. That fandom is an absolute cesspool and I'm constantly inundated by it. BT is a top GM in the league imho. He had some real stinkers with the Flames, but I think he was always under the duress and discretion of ownership and never, ever had free reign. I believe ownership ALWAYS had to approve his moves and likely instructed him to give Huberdeau bank due to the JG bad-pub fiasco. I feel like he's in a better environment now only having to work with Shanahan, an actual hockey guy. I think he'll flourish. When Sutter arrived, many of BT's moves looked very Sutter-driven. Sutter - Gudbranson stated that he signed in Calgary due to an early offseason call from Sutter that basically told him, "before you sign a deal, talk to us last". Same year that we got Zadorov. That tells me Sutter had clearance from ownership to override BT. If Sutter is exceptional at 1 thing, it's building up otherwise middle-of-the road or below average dmen. Z credits him, Gudbranson gets a way-overvalued contract. Waiving Valimaki was Sutter more than BT imho. Sutter then spent more time trying to "fix" Weegar's game rather than playing him to his strengths. Weegar was already a good dman. Sutter really seemed to spend too much time downplaying the acquired players in the Tkachuk deal. Because it wasn't "his" deal, I can only surmise. These all tie back to ownership. On one side of the coin, BT's doing what they're authorizing/instructing him to do. On the other side, they're giving Sutter authority to make GM decisions. Sutter's actions and words, too often, circumvented BT. It is zero surprise that the team didn't perform well as ownership created a tug-of-war on direction. Both Sutter and BT are great at what they do. Ownership created an oil and water relationship. The team resembled that. Conroy - I don't love it, but I'll play wait and see. This isn't shiny happy people holding hands. Managing is the opposite of that. I'm a little leery of the chatty "buddy" act. That isn't the reality so I hope that he's ready for that and that, "fresh, new approach" does little to change the dynamics. You have to lay waste to being emotional and concise about being all business. Wanting to bring Tanguay and Iginla into the fold is a huge red flag for me. We don't need a buddies reunion, we need a cutthroat manager. Huska - It's been a few short years since we wanted Huska in this role and now he's been behind the bench in a support role for a suitable amount of time to read the NHL game and other coaches. I like this hire and prefer it over Mitch Love. It shows Love that's not all for naught also. Maybe we lose Love now or he moves to Asst role. If we hired Love, I think we lose Huska with greater certainty. Huska is better equipped for the role. Guys we developed on the team now are guys that developed via Huska so the few connections we have are stronger ones. Even for, say, a Ruzicka. And if Phillips doesn't re-sign now, I think we pretty much have our answer on whether or not we consider him an NHLer. I think it's the right hire. Rookies - I think Coronato takes a 3rd line role next year at minimum. We'll collectively be underwhelmed and then wonder how he quietly puts up decent numbers for a rookie. He's a player that I think is good at everything, but not great at anything. He can put up 20g/30a almost unnoticeable. Should top out as a near-ppg guy and leave everyone wondering how he does it. Solid IQ player that Backlund can work with. I'm looking forward to following him. He'll be a great complimentary player in all situations. Overall - The roster has a bit of everything with gaps to fill. Conroy really needs to assess what he wants the bottom 6 and D setups to look like. This is very typical for us and we have to stop doing the same thing. Which, to me, is running a "good enough" bottom 6 and D pairings. It's not good enough. I want to see how that's addressed without Lewis and Lucic and the bottom 4 dmen. The bottom of the roster has been hot garbage like it doesn't matter. My #1 player to lose is stats darling Mangiapane. Sell a little high. Replace his "goals" with assists. No more guys that fall down consistently or try to play "gritty" on the dirty side. Between him and Dube, I much prefer Dube. Mangiapane is soft af and taking up a roster spot under Backlund's protection. We need some forechecking size and skill. Not Mangiapane floating in the high slot hoping something aggressive happens that doesn't involve him being aggressive. My opinion. And focus on Dmen that are actually good at protecting our net by tying up sticks and players and interrupt cycling with physical play. I'll trade anyone for that. The SCF was just a clinic. We're going to crash your net. Can you handle it? Vegas imposed their will and strength at both ends of the ice. You can match it or you can't. We desperately need size, and not just as a reaction, but as a rule.

That's a fair assessment. I agree in that we have 3(4) similar players on D and would gladly trade one for a younger Tanev. Hanifin-Andersson has always been a bad set up imho. I likely prefer Hanifin to be the rusher in that setup but he plays the more cautious role. As much as his "safety-first" backing off of plays makes me want to pull my hair out at times, I get it. Now the Kylington hype-train is apparently coming back and yet another Dman that needs an anchor Dman. The only thing wrong with any of our Dmen is that we only have 1 Tanev. It's also what made Gudbranson so valuable. Even Zadorov needs an anchor partner. It's really why I wanted to acquire Maatta before Detroit smartly extended him. I don't want the sexy names on D, we have those. I want Dmen (3) that can do the yeoman's work. Not Stecher, Stone etc, forget those guys already. I was excited about Meloche hoping he could be that mold, but nope. Solid D-first Dmen are becoming a lost art and undervalued. Hronek wasn't worth a bag of pucks prior to last season. Pair him with Maatta, trade him for a 1st & 2nd. It's almost laughable how underrated having stay-at-home Dmen are. I really hope we don't draft Dmen based on O stats for awhile. We have those guys already and they can flourish with actual Dmen as partners. So I agree with you. We need a reset on our approach at D.

I love Leafs fans are now wild that the Matthews rumour is 2 x 14.5-15mil per. I know where that started. Brian Hayes went on a rant on Overdrive. I watched it...2 days later Leafs fans are bitter like it's true.lol Like we ever heard a whisper out of Treliving regarding negotiations. Leafs fans are special.

Now comes the part where we talk about 8 year deals. If you were to offer 8 x $7, offer 6 x $8. I don't mind an extra mil to lessen the term. Won't do 6 @ an extra mil. Okay, we're not doing a sign and trade, go try to get a better deal, we're trading you to the highest bidder. What I'm getting at, is end the 8yr deals for players 26+. Stop doing them. We'll already have anchors in in 5 years. Why keep up that model? Do a cutoff at 34yo. If the player won't do it, let another team play that game because you're going to be Blockchained in the long run. Draw a line in the sand or get bent over. New GM, new rules. Young players are coming up readier and readier steadily. Don't run a retirement home, everyone is replaceable. Dumping contracts is going to get harder and harder as young talent files in year after year. Stop giving 8 yr deals, or backload them with bonus incentives if that's allowed. Figure out a way, one way or the other. Or you'll end up with 34yo 4th liners lapping the gravy out of your cap.

Well, fans seem to go full attack-mode on Hanifin's defense, but completely give a pass to his partner that is likely worse defensively and riskier offensively. He just has better memes I guess.

I don't understand what there would be to look at. Do you have to stay in the box and serve the full penalty when the game is over? There was a bit of a delay before the Panthers started acting like they can beat anyone up. If anything, Tkachuk deserves a suspension. That was surreal stupidity. What was his intent there? I would say, 100% to injure. But he scores big goals, and in hockey culture, we can overlook the trash. Tkachuk, Domi, Lemieux,,,the commonality is startling. Of course headlines are laughable and completely say nothing about what Tkachuk's doing: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/will-nhl-punish-knights-pietrangelo-for-leaving-penalty-box-for-game-ending-scrum/

Then the problem with UFA is that there isn't really anything there at Hanifin's price that is close to him. Kylington seems like a big gamble imho. If Hanifin wants out that's one thing, but moving him creates another hole where we may need to move someone else to cover. After big changes last year, all of a sudden I think we'd be chasing our tail again.

You mean wrapping his stick around Pietrangelo's neck from behind like he's trying to pull his head off is fighting? Then he's still slashing at him as he hides behind the ref. The game was over so Pietrangelo's out of the box to celebrate. But Florida is being Florida Man. Tkachuk is Florida Man and I'm really happy his act is gone. He's always been a daddy's privilege boy piece of trash.

I don't really mind at all. Will Love join as an assistant is the question. Kinda have to wait to see the rest of the staff I think. Huska seems good at weeding out bad habits from individuals and keeping the 'attaboys' and 'wtf-was-that's balanced. As cross said re PP coach, let's see how it balances out. Then what kind of identity will we partake in this year?

Why do the refs always grab Tkachuk before he has to fight someone? And what the hell was he trying to do to Pietrangelo at the the end? These guys don't have sticks...

That's a blown attempt!! Mitch Love joining TML Staff. Now that would have really made us hate you.lol