travel_dude

NO need to repeat what Conumdrumed spelled out, which was what I had been saying about Rozie. Maybe I wasn't clear about it enough. Oh well. As far as line numbering, it only ever matters what number of minutes and how you are played. Backlund plays less at home and less if we have less penalties. Some nights he played the most minutes. Lots of defensive zone starts. Lewis played some nights 13 minutes. Some nights Dube played 9. And some times the minutes are doled out to whoever is playing the best. As far as Monahan, I am cheering for the guy, but I don't have a ton of belief that he can come back and be able to handle it. Too many injuries, too many surgeries. When I say broken, that is what I am talking about. The amount of arthritis that builds up on bones is btutal. Hips, wrists. He's tried to tough it out, and has had to take a back seat to many players. Worse than what Bennett faced. It would be awesome to see him be able to come back and score 20 and look like a new man. By rights, that should have happened last season. Pelletier is just a top prospect that plays a role that we don't have much of. He doesn't replace a Rooney, but we also have options for the Lewis line. What we don't have is someone to set up Toffoli if he's not playing with Hubie. I didn't see him have much success with Backlund.

We have the option of using one of the D on PP2 as well. I wasn't a big fan of Hanifin on it. Kylington was dynamic, but started overplaying everything but the carry in. I know things can change with one trade or one signing, but.... PP1 Mangiapane Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli Weegar PP2 Coleman ?-Backlund-Kylington Ras ? could be Dube or Rozie or Pelletier. Just like the idea of a great skater near the blueline. And Kyl has a decent shot, nicer to see it from the offwing. All this does is illustrate that we are down a RHS C/RW.

Slight correction... Once we went down 3-1 it was over.

Line numbering is really pointless. Sutter plays lines how performance and needs line up. If you manage to build a 2nd scoring line, they are playing at most 16 minutes. You still need a shutdown line to play that or more. When I said "If Mange...", I was referring to the fact that he is the 2nd higher scorer we have on the team. Once Gaudreau and Tkachuk left the answer was obvious. The only question is whether Hubie outscores him. So, back to "if". Saying Hubie makes Monahan better is a big reach. He may never score more than 10 again. You can suggest that Ruzicka didn't do enough to be kept on, but that is false. He was set to play the game after the trade deadline. BT could not keep him in the NHL because of roster limit and cap. There is no IF in that. Projecting Pelletier to the NHL isn't exactly a big stretch. Easily the most all-round talented prospect with pro experience that we have. And he's always been a playmaker. If we only have holes left for 4th line grinders, then no he doesn't fit the team. But right now, we have holes left by Monahan and by Tkachuk. Monahan could fill his own hole or create one. The biggest reasons to keep after last year's disaster are loyalty and keeping Johnny happy. Maybe they honestly Hash Rate that he will be able to get back to scoring 20+, but that's IF. I would like to get more out of a 3C than 5-8 goals.

We have a couple of wingers that need playmakers. Toffoli and Mangiapane both need them Lindholm is a playmaker/scorer/defensive player. Monahan used to be a finisher, but needed an elite playmaker. Mangiapane has shown that he can score with Backlund, but he isn't great passing. Or perhaps that is because his most frequent linemates weren't scoring much. If Mangiapane is your best scoring F (can play RW) not named Hubie or Lindholm, then you have a choice. Load up the top line or create a 2nd scoring line. Yes, you can always fall back to Mange on with Backlund and Coleman, but that's about it. Hoping for Monahan with Dube and Toffoli seems like a reach. Creating a 2nd scoring line relies on a decent C and a playmaker. Then you can use Mange there or Toffoli. 3rd line is Backlund Coleman. I don't think it's an impossible feat. Have assets to get a 2/3C in trade. Assuming we could move Monahan and Lucic, we have roster spots for kids that prove they belong. So, we might be smart to trade Valimaki + Dube for Necas. Might take a bit more than that, but gives them a LD they don't have excess of. Dube replaces Necas. Hubie-Lindholm-Mangiapane Pelletier-Necas-Toffoli Coleman-Backlund-Rodrigues (UFA) Rooney-Ruzicka-Lewis

Oilers PP is predictive. Get the puck to McD. Other option is the point shot. McD is creative and draws defenders, rightly so. But they fail in that they don't take him out of the play in the first place. JG was prone to being attacked. If we wasn't able to escape coverage, it was shut down. Way too much playing catch. The most successful plays was a guy sneaking into the slot. Hitting that from the half circle was not very high %. I think they need to revamp the coaching of the PP. Muller was the guy IIRC. Look around the league at what works. And evaluate what we have now to use.

Eating salary is a bit of a distraction. It's cap eating, isn't it? He has $1M remaining on his actual salary. So, if we take Smith, we add $4.3M of actual salary and send out $1M. Sure, a more productive player, but a high actual cost at doing it. I suppose no more expensive than Statsny for a one year deal.

Mackey and Meloche are easier for a GM to just grab, since it's low risk. Good insurance with a cheap premium. Mackey has a high upside and is fairly young. At worst, they can re-waive the player once they get their full roster back. But anyway, I won't go on and on about it. I don't have any idea of what BT's plans are. He signed Meloche and Zadorov before he got Weegar. He re-signed He signed Kylington at fair market value on a two year deal. He intends to sign Weegar. We are now thick at D and thin up front. I don't really expect Monahan to be bought out/traded and Lucic to be moved to BOS just for cap space. If those things are done, it's to improve the depth.

I was not a big fan of JG being the QB. You could almost predict the passing sequences two passes ahead. It was the same look every time once we had possession. We lose Tkachuk, who spent too much times in one spot. Too much back and forth around the boards. Would be nice to have a LHS C out there to spell off Lindholm, but also be 2 feet away from the net. That used to be Monahan's rental space.

He has one of the best shots. It went away. I saw one or two examples of it last season, but it's like most of his leverage was gone. When you take that away and he is left with skating and trying to be meaner, it's not a good look. It seems like he will have more time to recover this year, but it's almost like they need to focus more on the fine tuning of the skills and not just range of motion. It's like they stopped when he could skate and he was still needing strength and power skating to get back. No, I wouldn't put him with Hubie and Lindholm at all. If we end up keeping him, he has to be a 3C that plays with playmakers or a 4C that plays with something other than gritty guys.

I think Richardson was a PTO last year, but could be wrong. Filler spots or role players are fine. But, I was getting at guys that have a legit shot at making the team getting pushed down to the prospect filler lines. Rozie and Pelletier did themselves no favors last year, but it's also hard to do anything meaningful when your wingers or C's don't help. Staal is signed as a PTO with CAR. That's a good use of one. Don't mind the ones like a Gawdin coming in and getting a shot at a AHL only deal either.

I disagree in the grand scheme of things. Waivers to send the guy down once are one thing, but if you bring them back up for a stint, they may have to clear them again. Sure, guys making $4M or crappy players make less than 2 don't get claimed often, but it's not because the old boys club frowns on it. Many teams, not all. Many players get claimed trying to sneak them down at other points in the year. Backup goalies, prospects, cheap guys. There are still pirate teams out there. Maybe at the last day before the season starts there is a multitude of players on waivers and most team have already picked their guys, you don't see many claims. But a higher value prospect that hasn't made a dent yet like Valimaki might.

Oh, and as a comp, Bratt signed one year for $5.45M. He comes out of it a RFA, but likely in a better position to get paid.

In some ways, it's up to BT and the pro scouts to define the players that Sutter has available. You know he like to roll a gritty 4th line, but that was due to available players. Monahan couldn't get going, so he was shuffled between 3rd and 4th line. We at times used Ricthie in the top 6 because we had few options on RW. We brought in Carpenter and lost Ruzie as a result of roster limits. We knew Toffoli was a shooter, but never found him a spot that consistently hit him on the fly or in good shooting positions. We settled having one scoring line and one shutdown line. So, BT has to go out and make deals to maintain or improve. And he has to position the roster numbers to not have too many PTO's to evaluate. Make most of your trades and signings in the summer to have the most time to set up lines.

Like too many things that happen in the USA, we seem to have to model ourselves on the opposite side of every topic. Trump and Trumpism had very little to do with us, but now everything seems to be "oh, we've been infected with these Conservative ideas". "Look what's happening in Minny, it's here". Give me a break. Watch too much US TV and people draw too much into things here. Stop turning things into 2 sides only. It's not that simple. Anyway, still have some work to do to complete the roster. No PTO's unless they are guys like Milano or Rodriguez. We don't need to see semi-useless players getting long looks while your Pelletier's and Ruzicka's, etc., get shuffled down to all prospect lines. I don't know when the best time to trade excess D is, but the day before opening day seems to me to be the worst.

DAL. more specifically Otter, took us to the brink as well as Tkachuk and Ras decided we needed to be toughies. Raffl shut up Tkachuk pretty quick. The idea is that playing the Preds doesn't burn out our goalie and result in 2 defense having significant injuries, not to mention the un-reported ones (Tkachuk and Kylington). We were the better team between us and the Oils. Not the same team that showed up broken. Even so, we still outplayed them in 3 of 5 games. Some putrid PP's and lack of details derailed us. Once you go down 3-1, it's game over.

Interesting looks. Is Meloche much of a PK'er? Would need to be 3rd PK perhaps, since we have 3 RHS in the top 2 PK's. I do like the idea of Mang/Backs together. One can take the puck end to end and cut in, while the other can beat you to the outside and get a shot away, I am really interested in the PP deployments. Need at least two scoring threats out there besides Jonny. Lindholm is one. Is the other Mange or Toffoli? Who can get in the eyes of the goalie and be there for tips and garbage detail. Coleman comes to mind, but not usually PP1.

So, flip around the standing coming into the playoffs. NAS gets the higher seed by the skin of their teeth. Instead of burning up the team against DAL, we get the broken Preds. The Central is still a dogfight and one of COL or STL coming out of it. The Pacific has a rested CGY against EDM. Shoulda woulda coulda, but I don't see a blowout and a loss in the BOA first two. If we won that, I don't think it's a sweep by COL or STL. We've had bad luck in the playoff resulting from seeding for as long as I can remember. Not that we had cup winners, but sure got the worst teams for us to face.

The dream police, they live inside of my head The dream police, they come to me in my bed

For an unfinished roster, we have two solid lines. The elephants in the room are Lucic/Monahan and Valimaki/Mackey/Meloche/Kylington/Hanifin. Monahan is expected to be healthy again, but was a big letdown last year. We need a stronger 3C or a better 2C that bumps Backluind and Coleman down to have a 2nd scoring line. Lucic is a fan fave, but was really only needed to protect Johnny. BOS could really have interest in him, without costing us to unload him. They might like to have him for one last hurrah. The D is not as clearcut as you suggest. You don't bring in Meloche to be sent down or be the 7th guy. For every wart that Kylington showed, there were as many that Hanifin had. Hanifin is the safer option, but can he be as solid with Tanev as Kylington was? Can't keep Valimaki and Mackey even if you trade of of Kyl/Hani.

Oh? Did you say he would never make it in the NHL?

Did I wake up in the wrong thread again?

Fixed it for you. 3 years takes them into a higer cap era. So we pay more then.

If it was true, then we blew up the team because of it. Let me guess, was it Eric Francis that suggested it?

Can't buy him out without his permission. It's one year and he can choose to play or not play. He can go and sign a deal with CBJ and play with his buddy.