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Good news is that Ott has now tied us in points, and with a game against us that is an easy two points we have a great shot at passing them in draft order. If Van can win a few down the stretch, last place in the North is within our grasp. Unfortunately a top 5 pick will be tough to reach.

To be fair, given that Poirier and Klimchuk were busts, it's really comes down to Monahan vs Barkov. I thought those other two had potential at the time, so in hindsight it's a no brainer but I'm not sure I would have been on board at the time.

Bennett was scratched tonight, is he fighting an injury? I know Fla is in a position to rest guys, but all their other top 6 guys were in.

Just a quick question, but who was Fla second line centre before Bennett got there?

Fair enough. Since you don’t like reading the same points getting regurgitated, I’ll summarize the other points for you as well. -Sam Bennett was hosed -Coaches we’re bad -Organization was focused on win now to the team’s detriment -Sam is awesome now and we will rue the day we traded him Thread done. 😏 FWIW, I am bitter about a lot this season, so I’ll step out since I don’t mean to bring everyone down. I was high on Sam even earlier this season, so I’m frustrated by the way things went down.

I still say it’s early. He’s currently playing in playoff mode, and may rack it up the rest of the season, but the real test is next season. Will he continue being a ppl player, or drop back to career norms? Playing with Huberdeau definitely helps. Duclaire has put up 9 points in the last 7 games too, is he also an elite talent or just on a hot streak?

I have to agree. that trading him would likely be a mistake. If he's part of a package bringing in a guy like Eichel I can get my head around that, but otherwise we are moving a guy who scored at a 70+ point pace two seasons in a row because he had an off season in a year where the team was bad as a whole with only a handful of players not having a bad season. He's only 23, and we (as fans) have gone from future captain to locker room poison and relative bust in four short months. The whole team needs a reset at the very least in the offseason, a clear their heads, get patched up if possible, and try to forget this miserable season. I'd look for Tkachuk to start fresh next season with more of his regular fire. As an aside, it's probably worth noting he is shooting 7.9% compared to his career average of 12.2. If he shot his average, he'd have 5 more goals and be on pace for 61 points and 26 goals over 82 games, a decent if unspectacular season by his standards.

My understanding is that they can still be selected, they just don't count toward our minimum exposure requirements, so Phillips could still be taken. Don't forget we have 4 defense (Gio, Anderson, Hanifin, Tanev) with one being exposed, and I would think there's a good chance whoever we do expose gets taken.

I wish I could share your optimism, but I don’t see this as that kind of trade. Sam isn’t Gilmore or St. Louis, he’s not going to just become a 30 goal 60 point forward like magic. He’s at best a 20 goal 35 point guy, who shows you flashes of what could be. He’s on a sugar high with a new team, he’ll be good in the playoffs, and then back to normal. I was shocked to get more than a 3rd rounder, so I really doubt this trade will be the catalyst you’re hoping for. That trade will occur next season at the tdl when we move Gaudreau for a late first (if we are lucky) after choosing to run the same core one more time and coming up short (or worse, keeping JG for another first round exit and getting nothing at all).

I think he scored 4 goals playing with Frolik and Backlund.

Glad to see Benny excel in a couple games, but we won't know if it was a solid trade until next season. Bennett was always a streaky player, and he struggles to maintain his emotion over long periods. That's why he's great in the playoffs, he can engage every night because it matters. But in the regular season, that's just not the case. So he's on an emotional high right now, don't be surprised if he puts up a point a game for 5 or 10 games before going cold to end the season. The playoffs will come, he'll be fantastic as always, be a ppg, and FLA will think they fleeced us. Then they'll give him a fat contract and scratch their heads next season when he only score 10-15 goals and 25-30 points. I think this trade will ultimately be seen as a win-win though, especially if Florida gets over the hump and wins (something the flames were not going to do with or without Bennett).

He’s got his first as a panther now. Making a good impression on his new team!

My gut tells me we lose an unprotected defender to Seattle. Gio isn’t what he was, but an expansion team can afford his cap hit for a year, and they need some name recognition and veteran presence. Plus he probably could be swapped for a decent return at the trade deadline on an expiring contract. That’s assuming Gio is exposed. Tanev, Anderson or Hanifin would be no brainers. Part of me wonders if we do decide to rebuild if we might expose Tanev to clear us of the risk that he falls off and free up some cap space.

Glad to see Benny have a good start, but we’ve seen this before. He’ll get hot for a few games, but once he’s comfortable he will trend back to norm. He’ll then bring it post season. If he plays his cards right, he will land a nice payday based on his end of season and post season, maybe something like 4x3.5. He’ll never live up to it, but will be a serviceable player for Fla. I hope I’m wrong for his sake, but I think his rookie season is his ceiling at this point.

I always liked Sam, but I wouldn’t put money on him playing top line minutes with Barkov. Maybe with better development he could’ve been something more than a bottom 6, but some of that is on the player too. He still takes bad penalties, he still tries to stick handle through multiple guys to get to the net, and he still doesn’t use his line mates enough. He’s effective when crashing the net and picking up garbage and plays with tons of heart when it matters most, but we just don’t see that enough unfortunately. Also he’s a better C than winger, so I hope he can slot in to 3C in Florida for his sake.

Worth a shot if he shoots right.

Is dominating at a lower level worse for development than getting steamrolled at a higher one? I'd argue it's better; you can focus on certain areas more without severe consequences. Let's say coaches want you to work on your breakout passes; at the AHL level you can do that because you have more time to make decisions and practice that play, while at the nhl level things are much faster and you may have to operate more on instinct and habit. Additionally, when you make mistakes at the AHL level you are more able to recover rather than getting your teeth kicked in, so your mistakes are not as costly and your confidence doesn't crater (so long as coaches point those mistakes out and they don't become bad habits).

Goalies are voodoo, so imo I don't like drafting them in the 1st round. Maybe the ghost of Trevor Kidd haunts me, I dunno. I agree that at best a great goalie prospect is 4 year away from making the club, so they are a long term investment (and quite frankly, we have a really awful record of bringing these guys through our system. So many missed opportunities). I'm almost always in the BPA mood, but if the skill gap is small between two prospects I would like to see us draft on the blue line.

I think he's too expensive. At least he's a RW. Same cap as Ghost, almost wonder if those two teams might be interested in swapping waived players.

I think the Wideman curse was a real thing. The year the incident happened we went from one of the least penalized teams to one of the most almost instantly. I think the curse lingered a bit into the next season or two as well. That being said, it faded years ago and I don't believe it is an issue anymore. I actually feel bad for the fired official. Everyone knows make-up calls are a thing. Refs also talk to the benches like that all the time, I don't think this was an anomaly. The only reason he was let go was the mic. I'm interested to see how the officials decide to handle the situation. It was mentioned a bit in jest on yesterdays broadcast, but if they called the exact letter of the law you could have 20 penalties on a single team in a game. I almost expect to see that happen in a game; refs are notoriously tight knit as a group, so if they feel pressure on this (or decide to stick up for Peel), look to see a few games with penalty numbers we've never seen before.

I'd try Mangipane with Johnny and Mony. He's fast on the rush and can dig in the corners. Something needs to be done to get those two going, and hopefully the Ritchie experiment is over.

I think we may already be seeing the decline in Gaudreau to be honest. Either that, or the league has him pegged. He might be a 60 point player still, but he's on a 50 point pace for an 82 game season. If he sticks around next season, he's unlikely to cash in for more than his current contract. Hopefully we have the good sense to trade him before he has a third season of declining numbers. We just have to hope he isn't seen the same way Skinner was when Carolina traded him (A prospect that busted without ever playing a game, a 2nd, 3rd and 6th round draft pick).

I'd be interested in Dahlin. Buffalo's a mess and he's regressing, but it's probably got more to do with the situation than anything else. Not sure how much of a fire sale Buffalo will have this offseason (or how much of a fire sale we will have for that matter), but if they are desperate maybe we can snag Dahlin and a draft pick for Monahan or Gaudreau.

I hope they send Monahan to a sports psychologist. He used to be excellent at getting open, now he's a non-factor most nights. His shooting percentage this season is 10.4, which is the lowest in his career by a large margin (next worst was last season at 13.3%). He's barely on pace for 20 goals over 82 games (although his assists are on par for his career). He just seems like he has no confidence.

From a pure statistical standpoint, coaches should be around 50% in each round. So he’s statistically average in the first round and third round, but very good in second rounds and slightly above in the finals.