travel_dude

I would be happier with a top 6C. At worst, we should be able to get a solid 3C, one stuck in the depth due to others playing above them. Necas appears to be close to signing in CAR, but what a waste; 4th line RW. If that's all they are gonna do, we could send Valimaki and Dube for him. Or we do Valimaki for Roy. And save Hanifin for another deal.

I think, if anything, he will be more excited. An elite playmaker is one thing. An elite playmaker that could be a captain and you get to play with him? Besides, he is his own man. Will be in Alberta for the World Juniors, so he will get visited by team staff.

Okay, so we signed the guy we like. We lost a couple of guys that wanted to move on. Time to move on. We have a window, so let's use it. We escaped $20M in contracts that would kill us. They are costing less than $10M this season for both. That's a win by itself. Next year we gain space, so as long as we manage the cap for signings, we can add. Adding to improve.

He falls into the same boat as Johnny, except that we would get a compensatory pick if he waited to be a FA and signed elsewhere. That's due to him being a 1st rounder. I believe it's 4 years, since that's the duration of a degree. He's not the only guy going to college but the only 1st rounder.

I am a little worried that Monahan will not be at all effective. He struggled under Sutter. Blame it on conditioning or style or role, but he wasn't great. We kinda owe it to him to give him a new chance. If he can do it, then he gets a new deal. If he can't, then we know he was broken beyond repair. Again, we don't have to do anything. We should to improve, but not just to get cap space. If we had $2.5M on day 1 and built that up to close to $6M by TDL, then fine. Don't need to move Monahan or Lucic to do that.

Same here. I just found it funny. There were some that suggested he's untradeable, meaning we can't afford top lose him. I'm in the balance out the team when you have assets that can help mode. And yes the UFA part is concerning. Especially if you lock up Weegar, you have some expectations. Don't mind Ras costing more, if he earns it. RD are worth a lot.

Yup, pure sarcasm. We get you instead of the guy that got me my last deal? Who you going to set up?

That last part sounds funny coming from a guy that supported Hanifin over Kylington. But I get the logic in it. I think we have seen Hanifin's peak. We may see improvement or digression from Kylington. I don't think the value of Hanifin over Kylington justifies spending that much on 6D. If he's a trade chip, use him to get something top 6. It's not a cap dump. Hanifin offers value for his salary, and like Chychrun should be worth something on the market. Lower cost, high offense.

So, Weegar spent his best times playing LD. By accounts, better than Hanifin. In other words, closer to a 1D.

You can look at it in a slightly different light. Joe Pavelsky was heavily sought after. He signed for 3 years in DAL, technically not a +35 contract then but he turned 35 days later. So, you sign Hubie to 6 years and may have to add to the dollars, so maybe 11.0M. Prorate Joe Pav's $7M into future value. You are easily at 10 then. So, risky? Yes. But maybe he doesn't sign for less than 8 years.

It makes it hard to even understand what was going through his head. His agent was either incompetent or could not talk any sense into him. Either way, he will be the highly paid guy that has to turn around a team. Nash and Panarin didn't manage to do it. Laine barely made a dent.

Quick answer is the annual matches the AAV exactly. But it's the bonus structure that makes it interesting. We don't have final reporting on it, but $61.5M in SB and $22.5M in salary. Final year is $5M in SB and $5.5M in salary. Year 7 is far more interesting; $9.5M in SB and $1M in salary.

It ruins the plans to rebuild in 3 years no doubt. What is the point in making a trade if you are just stepping stone trading them again? The two pieces offered were a good return for a player that wanted out and for a RFA that would cost a ton. Let's face it, we needed a retool. Gaudreau leaving made staying with Tkachuk impossible. As much as Tkachuk drives the play, he rides on coat tails as well. Had we re-signed both 13 and 19, we are worse off than last year. No improvement to the D and we have to find some way to trade our worst contracts. If you are over the cap, GM's will hand you an anchor over a lifeboat. A pair of 2nds to move Monahan. A prospect to move Lucic or same as Lucic. Or we move Backlund because we can't afford him now. Or we trade Mangiapane for picks.

For a guy that had as many shutouts, you would think he would have run away with the Vezina. I think the key is to find the sweet spot for starts and stick to it. You want a long playoff run, don't burn him out on the lesser games. Many bad things happened in the Oilers series. Not the least of them was scoring drying up and the defensive game going out the window. Otter got into our heads and we decide that river hockey is a good thing for round 2.

He was a big boy about it and does deserve respect for it. That doesn't change the fact that he rejected the team 3 years ago. But, I'm not going to hold that against him. In the last 3 years, the Flames have done nothing to generate success. Bad coaching for all but one year. 2 of 3 seasons were "special". 2 of 2 playoffs saw Tkachuk injured.

It was due to scoring and not being scored on. Plus/minus through the roof. We also had a great result in 2018. About as useless a stat then as this one meant in the playoffs. So the question really becomes, can we build a better team that does better in the playoffs. These two are solid steps. Considering what we have experienced with the two players that left, really solid. Harder to play against is rarely a bad thing. Adding a 200 foot player and losing one that didn't do anything in the D zone is a win. We will miss the super-douche and the elite edges guy. We won't miss the games they chose to be distracted by a squirrel.

Oh well, so much for the agreeing part.

Every team need to take a shot at Vegas. They are the pariahs of the NHL.

BT has gone from zero to hero in the space of a week. Signing both RFA's to deals at or below what they get in arbitration for one year. We own their rights and manage risk over the course of the next 3 years. We get a better financial picture of what next year is looking like. Eliminate the distraction of a pending UFA. All of this accomplished while remaining under the cap for 13F, 7D and 2G. That is huge. He has some decisions about the team to make. He's improved most of the team while losing two top players. Some excess D that can be used to improve the F. Decisions on whether it's time to move Monahan. Whether we need Lucic this season. Honestly, even though I get miffed with some of Lucic's play, I still am glad we have him. Toughest SOB in the league and only Reaves comes close. Would prefer if he decided to retire as opposed to trading him. But, if he wanted to finish his career in BOS, I wouldn't hold it against him. Monahan is another difficult decision. If he came back to life this year, you almost need to re-sign him. But, that may be too much wishful thinking.

The rumors of an OS were overblown I thought. It's predatory and backfires most of the time. STL had zero ability to manage the OS. Only offer they could make was over $10.5M AAV over 5 years. And all it does is guarantee we get Tkachuk for 5 years at a max. But, Johnny did Johnny. That's his choice. We get the guy that wants to be here and isn't going to be pushed around. Complete player vs two trick pony. Horse vs pony.

Yost (from TSN) does a fair job, but he adds his bias and likes/dislikes to shape his opinion. He did depth pieces about 32 teams on the different wings. Some of his conclusions are funny. He basd it on personal stats. Another ex-Hockey Buzz guy laughed off that site. Which is bad. The Calgary Athletic contingent has some notables that I have read elsewhere. Haynes - who I thought had some good perspective Salvian - she's okay but gets a little too distracted. Honestly, most publications are getting paid for clicks. So much of it is based on pure stats to prove their conclusion. Bit, you really have to be careful when doing comps. Using a $$ figure to compare players is useless. There are so few players you can compare one for one, let alone a group. Elites never really even look the same overall.

Saw where he was interviewed about it. He was coy about it, but a twitter storm erupted. Said he was on vacay. Elliott chasing the story down with Servali on the hunt too. Leslie usually doesn't break stories, just gets inside details about them from team/player. Twitter is a hoot. Haters already calling it a waste. One guy called him "McD's new biatch". You know they either know nothing about the player (most have no clue) or are jealous.

I'm not at the point of trashing Johnny. He had said before he wanted to play some day back home. Home didn't have the space to call him. If COVID has never happened, I think we have a different result. No concerns about hopping on a plane for a family reunion. Family comes first in a lot of people's lives. Married or not, he put his entire career in the hands of good and bad coaches. Anyway, I am on to the new Jonny. The guy that is happy to sign here. The leader on the ice player.

It's no different than chasing a top free agent. You pay even though he's never played there. The difference is you never get two top 3 points leaders going to FA. Never. Yeah, we bought the first year on the cheap, but essentially singing a FA blind. I have zero problems, in fact I was expecting 10.5. Get the Weegs done and we crushed the trade, more than we already crushed it.

What, we have a new Monahan? So, pretty good year for Rozie, 5g and 5a in 28 games. 15% shooting, but 33% on the dot. If we would pick up a 2/3C then he can play LW to Backlund and learn from the best. If Monahan was okay and still here, I would play him in that spot and shift Rozie to 4LW.