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We were one key save away from a W, and could have had 4+ goals last night. We didn’t just generate shot quantity, but quality as well. If they can play like that all season, I won’t complain; at least it was entertaining!

We deserved better in regulation, but that’s sorta the flames mo I guess.

Both goals against could have been stopped unfortunately. Marks hasn’t been bad, but he isn’t winning the goalie duel.

Everyone’s playing pretty good. Only really noticed Zadorov on the bad side of things. Not a great game by Gawdin again, but not terrible.

1] No. 2) VGK, EDM, VAN, CGY, SEA, LAK, ANA, SJS 3) Gaudreau, Lindholm, Monahan 4) Walks for nothing

Looking forward to seeing Guddy, Zaddy, Stone all in the lineup for game1!

The longer training camp goes, the more baffling the Gudbranson signing becomes. Could we really not have brought him in on a pto just evaluate fit? I doubt there were many teams prepared to offer him a contract when we signed him, let alone a nearly 2 million dollar contract.

Why would Tkachuk hold out for an OS? They almost never happen, and he’s not worth more than 9 million AAV. No one is offering that. Chucky will sign his QO and be a UFA the following year. He’s worth more in a trade right now. Maybe the wild are a good target. They have a short window to win before the buyouts of Parise and Sutter begin to bite, so they may be open to making a splash right now. Tkachuk + 2nd for Marco Rossi + Victor Rask + 1st.

Tkachuk’s comments make me think he has every intention of signing his QO next year and walking right out the door as a UFA. Probably best To move him now if possible. He doesn’t sound like a team guy in this case.

Was pretty sick yesterday, no real reason, threw up a few times. Now I know why...

Random idea. Mtl takes the compensation, we flip Monahan to Mtl for those picks, we turn around and sign Peterson to a 6x8 contract. If Vancouver matches, they got some major moves to make in order to sign Hughs. Then we take those picks and trade for Dvorak. If they don’t take it, we just moved Monahan plus a 2nd to land a young top line center. I think Van matches that, but it puts the squeeze on them which would be fun.

I’ll be interested to see if Kinnvall can come in and grab a lineup spot. Had his last season truncated by injury, but looks to be a solid offensive producer from the back end.

I’m kind of surprised Nick Ritchie is still unsigned. Wouldn’t mind him here.

To me this is shaping up to be another dud of an offseason. I don’t see any big trades coming, so it looks like a run back of last season’s team. At least pitlick and Coleman are better adds than Leivo or Simon, but that contract is pretty rich.

If we sign gudbranson, I may puke. Just in the middle of my day, not knowing anything has happened, I may just vomit spontaneously as the ink is drying on the paper before the announcement is even made.

Ritchie could be interesting. I’d take a look at Ryan Donato as well.

So the salary structure seems odd to me, and I got curious about what a buyout might look like down the line (for the record, I’m not predicting a buyout, just curious how the structure would affect things). According to cap friendly, if Florida buys out the last 2 years on the contract, the cap hit is actually negative in year 3 (not by much, but still) and less than 1/3 of Sam’s cap hit in year 4. So having higher base salary in later years of a contract makes them easier to buyout. I know this isn’t new, but I thought it was interesting.

I'll admit I have my doubts he will live up to that contract, but FLA really couldn't give him a one year prove it deal. Bennett leveraged his RFA status and strong performance over a small sample size into a good deal for himself with solid pay and stability. Good for the player, and hopefully he rewards his team for having faith in him.

Agreed on Lucic. Your captain doesn't need to be the best player, but he shouldn't be a boat anchor either. I'm also not convinced he's as well liked and respected in the dressing room as we may think. He strikes me as a guy that half the team loves and the other half can't stand; making a guy like that captain could exacerbate problems rather than fix them. I don't currently see a captain on this team. Maybe Tanev, but that's reaching.

Hyman is not a bad pick-up for the oilers, whose achilles heal remains scoring depth. That said, if they blow all their cap on Hyman they won't have enough to fill out their defense. There's a real possibility that Keith is their second best defensman this year unless one of the young guys takes a step. Couple that with running out Smith as their starter, and they could actually fall below us in the standings. Small improvements to scoring depth don't matter if your defensive game falls off a cliff. Could still use a buyout and sign a guy like Hamilton, but if there's one location UFAs avoid more than CGY, its EDM. Would cost a very shiny penny to lure him back to Alberta.

Rumor currently is that Seattle made no side deals. Hard to believe with some of the players they left on the table. That said, they have real cap space to go after a guy like Hamilton or Landeskog now, maybe both. While I don't think the Kraken are as strong as the knights were, they may make the playoffs given the dreck that is the Pacific division. If they sign both Hamilton and Landeskog, and their goaltending holds up, they will contend for the division title. While it sucks to lose Gio, the team needs a culture shake up. Could be a blessing in disguise.

Hearing that Gio will be announced as the first captain of the Kraken.

Scorched Earth never really works, simply that if you are looking to trade say 10 players off our roster you will be giving some of them away. There simply isn’t a trade market big enough to absorb that many players from a single team. If you wanted to trade Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, and Lindholm in the same off season for picks, you aren’t getting 1st rounders back in more than 2 of those trades. Each player added to the trading block dilutes the market and returns diminish with each move.

Benny leads all forwards in ice time or Fla, not good enough for our top 6 though.

Gonna be tough with the cap dodging lightning in the way. Oh gee, Kucherov and Stamkos are gonna be healthy for game one of the playoffs? How lucky for them!