travel_dude

That's kinda the point isn't it. You don't get a top C in trade unless one wants out of his current situation. And you are talking Tkachuk level trade returns. I wouldn't have paid what FLA did to get a winger. We missed out on Eichel, but BUFF wanted what they wanted. And that was a risky trade.

Not that it makes a big difference, but I wouldn't put a one way C like Draisaitl in a tier above Lindholm. When your PPP make up almost half your goals and 1/3 of your points, and your even points are 68 while you are +17... Anyway, it really doesn't matter. We won't truly know until EL is away from JG and MT. Top C's that are the defensive conscience of a line rarely get recognized as elite.

Backlund was out best C in the playoffs, but not during the regular season. A better passing Backlund is a different player. Then again, you don't need two shutdown C's. So, give me another Lindholm. Almost equal in passing and scoring.

I would expect him to be fighting for a top 6 spot...This year. I was just saying that a two year deal would be fine if the cost was still low enough that you could send him to the AHL. Not should.

I don't even think it matters. I would love to have two Lindholms over just a top C. Our depth is not elite, which is a bigger issue than what Lindholm is in ranking.

Got no issue with Rodriguez. If the cost was right, I might even do 2 years, though it's a bit risky. As long as it's less than the amount you could send to AHL, fine. One year, I think he stays and does well. The 2nd year would be the risk. Not really sure how Kadri even fits into the decision making process. He's signing for too much for too long somewhere. I don't have much belief in him signing here.

Ok, so here's a thought, knowing that Vegas no longer is in cap hell. Nick Roy. Is he better than Dvorak or worse? Would that be closer to value or would we need them to add Patrick?

Not really arguing the matter, but Dvorak played only 56 games last season. He's cost controlled for 3 years. He played previously on a poor offensive team like the Yotes.

Dvorak for Hanifin has some sense to it. Dvorak isn't an awesome #2, but he is capable of becoming one. And he's still young enough that you can work with him. The money is somewhat close. The value of Hanifin should be equal. I don't think they need to deal with Drouin's cap right now, so going over on Hanifin by about $250k shouldn't be an issue. They have young guys on D that are on ELC's and 3 goalies included in their cap.

It's a go for it trade. I think it has big risks. You really have to re-sign or be ready to trade him at TDL. When he's not signed and it's the summer, he's going to FA. With Hanifin out and Weegar signed ($7M), we have I believe $15M in cap, but only 5D signed. We may end up having to bank on Valimaki or Meloche or Mackey. Not sure what the extra has to be. If he was open to a re-sign and the ask wasn't crazy, we could consider Zary as part of the trade.

I think I have been in the mind of Kyl over Hanifin, not just for future cap but for asset management. It only makes sense that Weegar is viewed as the #1 or #2 at worst. Hanifin getting bumped down means he will want to get paid in 2 years or leave. We can't be having that conversation. He's young and has value. Yes, it's not #1D value, but a top 3 D is still worth something out there. The number of teams willing to trade pics is next to none these days. Very few remaining. What you tend to see is money in money out. Hockey trades. It's one of the reasons Barrie is not dealt. EDM seems to think he is a luxury, but he is better than most of their D. Less defensive than Hanifin. I think you might find a place like NYI that wants a D and wants to ship out a winger. We aren't getting Beauvillier for Valimaki, but they be okay with a similar cap for a D like Hanifin. Doesn't help their cap. Probably a poor example, but the idea is teams that need D. Like Seattle (Wennberg for Hanifin) or MTL (Hanifin for Dvorak).

Jtec suggested Smith for Look (salary retained). He was suggesting it because both are pending UFA's. It makes sense from a asset view. Maybe the value is not there, but fans evaluate things different than GM's do. Why would we trade Neal for Lucic? That wasn't a dumb trade, just making the best of a bad thing. Erat for Forsbergdidn't provide immediate value, but WSH won the cup, not NAS. The thing I keep coming back to, not Lucic related, is that you have two D that are similar. One is a UFA that will cost close to $7M to retain. The other is closer to $4M. If we re-sign Weegar and we have Ras locked in for a bit, then $7M for Hanifin is a big deal. What would you do?

Let me start at the top. Rodriguez is one of the few that can play with top players nd look good. He may not have scored a ton in the playoffs, but they were important ones. He's a RHS C. W could use that in the middle 6. Whether you have Toffoli on RW or Mange on LW, this could be a scoring line. Yes, I think ER pushes Pelts and Rozie to be better. One of them get LW. Rozie could learn from ER and take strong side draws. Or Pelts could dish to both ER and Toffoli. If you have Toffoli on top line, you could have Manhge at LW, Rozi at C and ER pn RW. I think the Lucic stuff is perhaps some wishful thinking on BOS fans. Nostalgia. They haven't been able tp do much since he left, which is quite some time ago. He doesn't get you going much, but he works up the crowds. You could almost hear the NESN announcer yell, "He urned him into chowda with a wicked good hit". I guess the point is we don't know what they plan on doing, the same way we don't know why the older guys came back. Krejci seemed to imply he decided before the coach was hired. I'm not going to blow smoke about it, just saying it's not a crazy idea. Smith might not be what they would be willing to do, though. I just don't seem them trading Barzal this season. They need to figure out what they need more than signing one guy and trading their top guy. Nelson or Lee might be more apt to be traded. Anyway, when we gain more cap next year (and have to spend some of it), we can figure out what to target. Barzal then might make sense. Or some other player shakes loose.

Not a great list. Statsny, Kadri, Rodrigues, Milaon, Dahlen, Galchenyuk are the top.

Available UFA's: PLAYER TEAM AGE POS HANDED GP G A P P/GP +/- Sh Sh% TOI W L SO GAA Sv% CLAUSE EXPIRY CAP HIT SALARY 1. Nazem Kadri - 31 C Left 71 28 59 87 1.23 13 247 0.11 19:14 - - - - - M-NTC UFA $4,500,000 $4,000,000 2. Phil Kessel - 34 RW Right 82 8 44 52 0.63 -24 175 0.05 16:40 - - - - - M-NTC, NMC UFA $8,000,000 $6,000,000 3. Paul Stastny - 36 LW, C Left 71 21 24 45 0.63 14 141 0.15 17:46 - - - - - UFA $3,750,000 $3,750,000 4. Evan Rodrigues - 28 RW, C Right 82 19 24 43 0.52 3 243 0.08 15:50 - - - - - UFA $1,000,000 $1,000,000 5. Sonny Milano - 26 LW, RW Left 66 14 20 34 0.52 -9 94 0.15 15:16 - - - - - UFANo QO $1,700,000 $1,800,000 6. Sam Gagner - 32 C, RW Right 81 13 18 31 0.38 -4 132 0.10 13:37 - - - - - UFA $850,000 $850,000 7. Tyler Ennis - 32 LW, RW Left 57 8 16 24 0.42 -6 89 0.09 12:32 - - - - - UFA $900,000 $900,000 8. Alex Chiasson - 31 RW Right 67 13 9 22 0.33 5 98 0.13 11:36 - - - - - UFA $750,000 $750,000 9. Jonathan Dahlén - 24 LW, RW Left 61 12 10 22 0.36 -25 105 0.11 13:47 - - - - - UFANo QO $750,000 $750,000 10. Brian Boyle - 37 LW, C Left 66 11 10 21 0.32 6 87 0.13 10:47 - - - - - UFA $750,000 $750,000 11. Victor Rask - 29 C Left 47 9 12 21 0.45 4 58 0.16 12:11 - - - - - UFA $4,000,000 $4,000,000 12. Alex Galchenyuk - 28 LW, C, RW Left 60 6 15 21 0.35 -11 89 0.07 13:09 - - - - - UFA $750,000 $750,000 13. Daniel Sprong - 25 RW, LW Right 63 14 6 20 0.32 0 153 0.09 12:58 - - - - - UFANo QO $725,000 $750,000 14. Sam Steel - 24 C, LW Left 68 6 14 20 0.29 -17 66 0.09 12:18 - - - - - UFANo QO $874,125 $874,125 15. Derick Brassard - 34 LW, C Left 46 8 11 19 0.41 4 62 0.13 12:54 - - - - - UFA $825,000 $825,000 16. Derek Stepan - 32 C Right 58 9 10 19 0.33 0 96 0.09 10:47 - - - - - UFA $1,350,000 $1,350,000 17. Loui Eriksson - 36 LW, RW Left 73 3 16 19 0.26 -18 81 0.04 12:55 - - - - - M-NTC UFA $6,000,000 $4,000,000 18. Evgeny Svechnikov - 25 LW, RW Left 72 7 12 19 0.26 -4 78 0.09 10:45 - - - - - UFANo QO $750,000 $750,000 19. Riley Sheahan - 30 LW, C Left 69 4 13 17 0.25 6 69 0.06 12:02 - - - - - UFA $850,000 $850,000 20. Jimmy Vesey - 29 LW, RW Left 68 8 7 15 0.22 -24 110 0.07 14:25 - - - - - UFA $800,000 $800,000 21. Tyler Motte - 27 LW, RW Left 58 7 8 15 0.26 2 101 0.07 14:00 - - - - - UFA $1,225,000 $1,450,000 22. Zach Aston-Reese - 27 LW, RW Left 69 5 10 15 0.22 9 78 0.06 13:01 - - - - - UFA $1,725,000 $1,725,000 23. Dominik Simon - 27 RW, LW Left 72 3 10 13 0.18 0 88 0.03 10:16 - - - - - UFA $750,000 $750,000 24. Tyler Bozak - 36 C, RW Right 50 3 9 12 0.24 -11 46 0.07 12:09 - - - - - NTC UFA $750,000 $750,000 25. Cody Eakin - 31 C Left 69 4 8 12 0.17 -15 74 0.05 13:35 - - - - - UFA $2,250,000 $2,500,000 26. Joe Thornton - 42 C, LW Left 34 5 5 10 0.29 -10 26 0.19 11:06 - - - - - UFA $750,000 $750,000 27. Mathieu Perreault - 34 LW, RW, C Left 25 4 5 9 0.36 2 27 0.15 11:15 - - - - - UFA $950,000 $950,000 28. Antoine Roussel - 32 LW Left 53 4 4 8 0.15 -16 59 0.07 12:08 - - - - - M-NTC UFA $3,000,000 $1,900,000 29. Brad Richardson - 37 C Left 44 4 4 8 0.18 -1 31 0.13 10:18 - - - - - UFA $800,000 $800,000 30. Carter Rowney - 33 C, RW Right 26 4 2 6 0.23 -4 15 0.27 10:40 - - - - - UFA $825,000 $825,000

I would think that using him as a playmaking winger would not give us that much more than we have today. Still no 2nd scoring line, since we don't have the 2C to go with him. Not unless Monahan is 200% of last year, closer to his career years with Gaudreau; doubt that happens. If you are going for Barzal, and I still can't see a path that works, you use him as 2C. Toffoli or Mangiapane are your scoring wingers that go with him. You have a fairly decent winger on the other side, can't just be a struggling 3 LW or RW. Since the cost to buy is too high, lets focus on the need. 2C and 2nd scoring line. If Pelletier was up for it, then use him with Toffoli, save Mange for top line. 3rd line is Backlund, Ruzicka, Dube and Coleman. 4th line is Lucic, Monahan, Rooney and Lewis. The bottom 6 is whoever plays best with Backlund and Coleman. And whoever we have left that pushes the play in the right direction. Just shows that we have too many 4th line players. Dube isn't shown he is a playmaker, so he is Backlund line or bust. Rozie could be 3rd or 4th line assuming we have a 2C.

Not great coverage that I saw (clip was in French?), but I am guessing it was batted in above the crossbar. If that was the one they initially called a goal, fine, it was no goal. Seen worse

We are going to have to push guys in the AHL to higher levels. I'm assuming that we can sign him to a contract and then send him down. Or does it make more sense to sign him to an AHL contract if he is just okay?

No team is looking at Lucic as being the old Looch. If they are interested it's because they feared him whenever they played against him. That's his value. Would BOS trade Smith for Lucic at 50%? Who really knows. Cap neutral deal.

I would have to hold my nose. I have watched him play and see a player that nobody wants to bother passing to. He's got a heavy shot, goes to the net and can check. If he plays with McD, he's not supposed to shoot, just be in the right spot to clean it up. On the other side, he seems to lack IQ. If there was another example of a player that a team can't afford and lack depth at D, a Valimaki trade makes sense. The player coming makes more than Valimaki. It offsets the lack of player they are getting back. Makes more sense than waiving him, even if we don't lose him. He will get passed by high end prospects down there too. Or he will just not report when nobody picks him off waivers.

It's easy to pencil guys in and look at the lineup without adding in guys like Pelletier. I would consider at this point Rozie is a roster player. So, for sake of argument, look at the following: Hubie-Lindholm-Toffoli Mange-Backlund-Coleman Rooney-Rozie-Dube Lucic-Monahan-Lewis Flip Monahan with Rooney or Rozie if you like. Doesn't scream bottom 6 scoring. Even Bread is relying on scoring while defending against the best in the league. Transition scoring yes. I mean I see holes but we have players in the holes. Would prefer to have 2 scoring lines and a shutdown line. Would prefer a playmaker on each of the bottom 2 lines.

I don't think BT is finished this summer at all. We saw how quickly he took care of business with the "easy" stuff like re-signing all the RFA's with arbitration rights once Hubie was signed. The next moves could be hung up on Weegar, figuring out the cap for next year. You can go ahead and makes trades that re-shape the cap, but you have to be sure you have enough for the core. In that way, I think he is holding off a bit. Some of the higher profile guys remaining (not top ones obviously) have little discussion going on about them right now. And some team are still trying to balance out their teams. We lost 2 top 6 players, a middle 6 C, and a 3rd pairing D. You can't replace al of that in one deal.

I think Valimaki is similar to "future considerations" at this point. He's what you send a team like Vegas to take back $5M they are trying to shed. I would consider trading him to EDM for Puljujarvi. He would instantly be in their top 6. Not sure I want to help them out, because given a chance in a new environment, he might flourish. Even so, their D is still the worst part of the team. From what I hear, they aren't even being offered a 2nd anymore. It's a shame, since he should be able to do something. EDM is just the wrong team for him. You ain't one of McD's faves, you get bottom 6 at best. The one year deal was just a feeble attempt to save the asset. I think Sutter could fix him. And yes, I would consider the trade you mentioned as well.

Other than Necas, I never heard a single other piece mentioned. Unfortunately, there was a countdown to when the player would be a one year deal and a pending untradeable UFA. Make the best of it. You can only ever sign the player to what they want to sign. Tkachuk set it up that way. I'm not sure there was any way to solve that issue. Gaudreau was a problem when it was signed, but we can blame that on the player and the GM not having cap to do more.

It seems like you did your homework and the dog didn't eat it. I'm not really sure what is the reason for the decline. Two years ago was the stupid North nd Wesr divisions. Last year was the everyone injured in Vegas season. Any chance of him playing on the top line went out the wndow with Eichel. But, every time I had seen him play before then, he was always a big threat to score. As a trade for Valimaki, it would be a win; something for a player we might waive. A a long term Flames asset, maybe not a great idea. It's not that bad a salary. It's just that we don't know if he is playing where he hates it and the team or something else. Vegas looks like a team prime to be plucked, but very little there I want. That they are willing to move that is.