travel_dude

Some of the events that have taken place since January are by pure luck and not Connie genius. Three players that they wanted to sign rejected the offers and wanted to go. A 4th decided he would poison the water and announce he wanted out. A 5th was kinda poisoned by leaked trade requests. The returns and deals have been very well played by Connie. We have a new crop of prospects, newly drafted players and a couple NHL ready players. Not bad at all. If you believe any noise out there, he is looking for a C. UFA's not the best time is a shallow pool. It's possible we won't like the target or maybe the deal. If it happens. But sometimes you need to pay to get the player you want. There are too many teams out there that overpaid and will need to reduce their team payroll. Others have big payrolls and are almost expected to start on a rebuild. I'm interested to see who is made available aside from the quote insiders. This may be a year that overspending teams will give up a player for less. Waiting a year may not work out. We have to be careful trading any picks this year. We have too many conditions on 1st round picks, so I don't want to even touch those.

When you get to the SCF, you stand the chance of regression the following year. FLA won it all, but I don't see them repeating or even getting to the finals. EDM had a breeze to the WCF and by then DAL seemed to be a bit done. Had it been COL, you wonder what the result would have been. I would suggest that the path to the SCF is going to be much harder this year. Not a slight to EDM, just reality.

These are players that become that and aren't at that level initially. SO the Point is to try to make smart trades recognizing the cap situation of teams and the future ability of younger players. EDM traded McLeod, and while I don't think he is anything that special, he was a casualty of a reckless GM wannabe. They chose age and went through stats to find guys that did something recently. Erat for Forsberg is one example of a restless GM. I suppose you could say WAS won a cup and NAS didn't, but that's a little rich. The moral of that story is GM make mistakes all the time and maybe we can stop being the guy having soup spilled on us and start being the guy that gets a free soup with sandwich. Poor analogy. I can't view the list, but I am assuming that there might be someone available like Zegras or better. No 1st going the other way. Maybe a prospect they are asking about. And a roster player that perhaps we can live without? I would be reluctant to trade any player named Pospisil or Zary, but others may be expendable.

Zegras reminds me of Milano. Never hit it here becauese we had Sutter and he never inpressed Sutter in the couple of games he played. Perhaps a bit too much with the puck and not enough without. Milano managed about 0.5 p/gp in 2 seasons with WAS. How many of those did we have last year? Maybe we have enough C's to ice an okay team. If not, perhaps we need to consider young players like Zegras, or someone else young enough to grow with this team.

I wonder though. If the site was due to be shuttered in weeks and no longer available to average Joe's, why would they introduce a "premium" service? Premium Capfriendly (not sure what the deal-e-o with it is) is ad free and would cost $9.99 per month, but didn't bother looking at the premium services. I did notice that ads seem to be more prevalent on Capfriendly, like the way Hockeybuzz is, but not nearly as bad. If it will cost $9.99 I am sure NHL teams might use it.

Having Gio here kinda ruined how we developed Andersson. Andersson picked up all of Gio's habits but not with Gio's vision. I would prefer Kyl over the old boys network member Gio. He was great while here and we lost him for nothing. You want to hire him instead? Like a Paul Coffee? Pass.

Do we actually have any noification that Capfriendly won't be available to the general public? They have added some new features which is "premium". They have added some that are available to the casual users. I have my belief that the engine is what WAS is interested in. They can easily have super user access and have their own internal views and tools. Of course I could be wrong, but I can see WAS not caring since their fans MIGHT use the free service.

There is some logic to having all your at bats the same year. Trade Ras for a 1st, assuming Utah or Buff really wanted to. Then you have a bunch of players you need to sign by date X. Date X depends on their status, so you have to consider Russians and Euros who delay coming here and college bound players that you have rights to until they leave. The problem with that idea is that you can only have so many contracts. You only have a couple years to sign from the CHL. Chances are you let go of a good one because you have to sign the higher % of likelys NHL ers. You can graduate all of the players at the same time, since you have a salary cap floor to deal with. You can't keep them all in the AHL because they lose their waiver status before you can get all of them in the NHL. There is logic in spacing out over several drafts. More time to get them in and less chance of not signing one because you are at your 50 limit.

He was called up and didn't get a lot of looks. I think the issue may have had more to do with being jealous. That was the pick that wasn't Stankoven. But he did have a slow start to the AHL. I think a lot of Swedes tend to be too much 2-way and they don't start out as good scorers. Backlund was a scorer first and became two-way. From what I understood Grush just wasn't scoring. If all he becomes is a Tanev that defends well, then that's not bad either.

That's a pretty tough contract to swallow. He kind of scores like Kadri if he is healthy. I would think he is a Monahan dumping. Worth more than Monahan was at the time, but it's long term and not cheap. Give us a 1st and we will think about it. Future considerations. Ok, we send Hunt.

I wasn't picking on that fact. I had to look anyway. We have a difficult situation with so many vets on a so-called re-tooling team. We need to be using this year to develop the prospects as much as possible. If Hunt is not a long term treasure, why are we using him? He's a good soldier and we always do that. It hasn't worked. We are the nice guys. Where I agree with being nice guys is not bringing in the douchebags of the NHL. Stay away from trouble. Keep your Kane's and Perry's and DeAngelo's etc.

Kane is gone the same way VGK gets rid of loyal players. It's a question of when and the cost. An OS would need to be such that they haven't already given away that pick. Anyway, I don't see the value of a turf war over a semi-useless player. Is he any good? You can't tell. Is he good for the Oilers, well the bar is kinda low. I think the better scenario that takes retribution off the table is to offer them something with the idea that you may OS the player. It's blackmail, but gives them options. You trade them something at less value and they save face. I guess that defeats the purpose of an OS, which is nothing given up and all it costs is money, and the future cold.

What's your issue with this particular Russian goalie? Someone said he looked bushed. Did he fly over to NA via Westjet? Was he here for some time? He's still what 18 turning 18?

Flyers seem to be spent to the cap. There was some talk of moving Frost. Frost + RJ might be very cheap. Clears $6.1M

Holloway The 4.5M part is to cause EDM cap trouble. Make it so it's not automatic that they match. BY matching, they have to move more than one player. Kane or Ceci alone won't solve it. It's predatory at best. For us, the value of a 2nd is compared to a NHL player that has developed slowly. He would be a bottom 6 player here likely. The 4.5M is same as w cap dump ast worst. It would need to be 2 years for the cap to hurt. One is enough, but 2 makes it worse. Broburg Probably worth a 2nd. Not sure how I would feel paying 4.5M.

There is no shame in going to FA to gauge the market. Bad for him that we signed Bean, who is not remotely close to him. There is still a spot for him out of camp, but he at least needs a one year prove it deal. He has to up his stock somewhere to get paid or get term. We know his strength, but he might get better minutes elsewhere. I just don't know where. Skating seems to be a weakness now on our back end. Maybe that's just me thinking that, but I'm not seeing it. Last year I don't think anyone really looked good away from Weegar or Tanev. Hanifina bd Ras have offence but struggle in our zone. But we shouldn't be shunning a skating D just because we felt his ask too high. Circle back and work out a deal.

I find it odd that the story is out there. What is the point of trading Trouba? They don't need it to finish signing anyone. They might be thin on D with only $8M or so left with Lingren and Schneider unsigned, but so what. They trade him, they have another big hole. One can never predict where a pleyr like that lists on his NTC. Non-playoff teams from last season? Rebuilding teams? Teams in Canada? Maybe it's like Kadri; list the teams that would be able to make a trade. Haha. If I was him I would stay away.

I think Rooney was a good man for a team needing some late season help after turmoil if trades. I don't think it makes a lot of sense to have him competing with kids for a roster spot. It's no different than with Hunt, who is really more like a fixer that we need now. The difficulty with putting a lineup together after a major re-tool is the coach seems to still have different ideas. He wants to win. He may believe that both Hunt and Rooney give him the better chance to win a game. I think the coach and GM need to sit down and work out what the goals are for this team and what they can do to work together. While Pelletier is not waiver exempt, he can be parked in the NHL with little impact. He's not going to clear waivers, so no choice. Play him or don't. Keep him or trade him. Coronato, while maybe the better of the two currently, can be parked. I doubt they choose Hunt or Rooney over him for the season start, unless it's a pure numbers game and we can't have the 15th F be from an exempt player. Klapka is still exempt.

I think the issue with him is the one he has had his entire time here. They see him as a 5/6 and he feels he is a 3/4. Sutter had used him as a 3/4. But he got closer to 5/6 level minutes. Huska only had him late season, so the die was cast. He still only got 5/6 after Tanev and Hanifin trades. UNfortunately, the only place he has a chance of proving he is a 3/4 is Calgary. Teams where he would help already have top 4's. Utah is trying to get in the playoffs so they tend to be going with a good top 4. Whatever the offer is from CGY, he may be better off here. I doubt the likes of Bean, Hanley, Pachal, etc play better than him. When we lost Hanifin's skating, he should have been a shoo0in for top minutes. Huska seems to have believed that Kylington was only good because of Tanev. Which is funny because that's really the only place that Hanifin made his bones.

We tend to stay away from players that have a history, where EDM welcomes them. In most cases I can think of, Flames set players straight. Neal is the one caviat to that. But it becomes a team thing here. Then again we have only a couple of players from the last time Gaudreau and Tkachuk played here. My interest in Roslovic dated back to when he was rising in WPG. Then the stories started. My interest now is that he's a bit of a project but may have top 6 potential at C. If we weren't so thin there I wouldn't bother. I didn't see many UFA's at that age or younger that had decent stats as a C. But maybe that's the best place to look; a young C who was moved to depth winger or doesn't fit the system they played. FA is sprinkled with a lot of 30's players. There is almost no C's available. Perhaps the best course is a trade. Coleman is nearing the part of his career where he has just a few good seasons left. Like a Tanev where you love the guy but need him to help you in the playoffs. More likely a TDL move.

Dude, can you explain what DET is doing this year? Tarasenko Kane Dries Snively (School of Rock? That's Schnee-blee). Campbell Talbot (2 goalsies run out of EDM) Motte (not the Clamato) Somebody is suggesting Tyson Barrie, and considering the source I laughed. But..... There's nothing wrong with these players, just surprising they went there.

So the Flames have the most cap avaiable with 21/23 players. You can see it as a tank team or a team done with spending to the cap for nothing. It may be nice to take on some bad contract right now, but I would suggest keeping about 14M of it. Teams can get desperate when they need someone to take cap at TDL in the middle of a deal. It doesn't always turn into something major, but if you only hold a contract for a few months, it's just money. Not that much of it when you compare to Lucic. Right now there may be some sleepr players avaiable in FA. They aren't going to get the 7 year deal for $1 B. Kylington may have to lower what he wants. That's not even the best player to consider. There are some guys available that may be good on short term deal. Or we add them to maximize their value to us ling term (24 or less). Roslovic Boqvist Kubalik Sprong Zadina It's a mixed bag there. I don't pretend to know the issue with Roslovic. Not old by any stretch. Just ideas.

So, Jacob Trouba trade. Discuss. 2 years at $8M. What would they offer in that trade? It's weird because you don't generallly trade the captain. Maybe they are expecting to land a ton of assets in the trade. Positives? Not on the wong side of a Trouba hit at least 2 games per year. Provides cover for the D, since the F are looking up when they have the puck. Negatives? 2 years at $8M for another RD. Not the nicest person in the world. I don't know, it's an odd player to make available.

I was merely asking the question because it's one of those things you wonder about for a 18 year old. If he was ready next year would he be able to play in the AHL. The guys we have oterwise in the CHL don't have the option.

Language? English not his first language? Yeah, that's why he went to a team in Quebec.