travel_dude

Iwo things for me in round 1. We ran into a hot goalie. Made Vasilevskiy look like a stringer. The 2nd thing was Tkachuk focused on one player and forgot about what made him good. I can almost guarantee that EDM would have lost to them. I don't think it showed EDM anything about our team. EDM series we decided to play without defensive structure, from the forwards to pinching D. Too many weak penalties from reaching when we lost position. NO matter what our game play is, defensive structure is a key part of it. We forgot that part.

So, Tkachuk was the one that steered the ship to keep his options open. Johnny signed to play hockey. Tkachuk signed to keep his leverage high. Different families. We really only have speculation on the offer last summer. JG was thinking about signing, but was he convinced? The chance to pick your team had to be in the back of his mind. As soon as he said he wasn't negotiating during the season, BT should have given up on him. To me that's the biggest fail. Sure we can say that he didn't do the right things to bring the cup, but not having a deal and letting it go to summer was the fail. By that I mean we have to trade him. TDL, 3 months before, whatever. We weren't in the best circumstances for the entire year. JG was still worth a lot in December January. Hindsight, but he read the signs the way he wanted them to look.

If he hasn't signed by the time the season starts, I would be more concerned. Make no mistake though, he will seriously consider a deal like what Tkachuk got or Gaudreau was offered. He's not likely to pull a Gaudreau and want to hide from the limelight. He's done with Florida. A long term offer would be hard to pass up for the unknown of free agency or the potential of being traded again to 23 different teams.

It's a tough call. Hanifin is worth the most in trade. And there are parts of his game that absolutely cause me to cringe. He's not the riverboat gambler that Kylington is but you see him doing things that make you ask WTF. Not once in a blue moon things. Consistent things. Paired with Ras, you see Ras making a decent read and covering his man, but then the other player comes out of nowhere and you wonder where Hanifin? We trade Hanifin we might regret it. We trade Kylington I am sure we will regret it. At least Hanifin brings back a certain return. Kylington's body of work is more a trade where the other GM thinks he's buying low. And the return will match that. It's entirely likely we have 8D on the roster, but I think that is not very likely. The farm team is in Calgary. Worse case scenario is the player called up for a long road trip. Don't need them for home games. If I had my guess, we are trading Valimaki to start. Set the bar. Then we are trading either Kyl or Hanifin. For a C.

We never seem to know what is happening in negotiations from the current group. Mangiapane had nothing to do with Gaudreau and nothing to do with Tkachuk. I don't care that you have to know what the numbers are; they mean nothing to the agent of Mange or the player themselves. We should be looking to lock the player up. 6 years is fine, but we fell for that already. That's something you do with a 29 year old, not a younger guy. In 6 years the cap and comp salaries will mean you have to fork out bigger money then. UNless you think he will be trending down, you want to lock it up. Show the guys on the team you value a player. If it's 8x$6M then get it done. Consider next year's cap but one thing at a time.

He was, for a time, a scoring 3rd/4th liner. And a decent guy for forechecking. His 2nd round exposed the holes that show it's time to move on. He may or may not want to retire. We might be able to find a team that's willing to pay him $1M to patrol the ice. If not, they Sutter needs to evaluate his use on the ice and see if he helps or hinders.

I am sure he would like to go to a place that has people that don't actually follow hockey. Puck bunnies may be okay for a distraction, but they would be expecting magic. Stick between the legs, the Michagan, etc. LOL. As far as competition in FLA, he faces a different type of BOA. Can't just look for a Kassian type of villian.

So, I have to ask. Do you think we did anything this past playoffs? Was losing in the 2nd round a failure?

You came to your senses obviously. I think it's difficult to compare because unless you watched every minute of every game back then, we don't have a fair comp. I was a Fleury and Big Al fan back then, and later Iggy. But I also didn't see a lot of coverage.

Much like most of your arguments using tired examples about a wide range of topics. All you ever need say is we should rebuild and leave it at that. You will only ever be happy when we pick your picks, sign the fringe players that didn't get drafted y 32 team or were let go, and draft one of the many generational players each year.

If you can figure out what ANA is doing, please let me know. I still think that Lucic takes the onus off their star players having to fight.

Different era for players. No way to really compare the two in the modern game. Even Iggy was mostly before the modern game. Back then 50 goals was meh. My opinion, but the important thing to do is compare what he can do in Gaudreau's spot. Can he turn Lindy into a 50 goal guy or perhaps Mangiapane into a 40 goal guy. Can he score more than 40 himself, since we seem to have had a lot of odd man rushes that were missed chances. Gaudreau was way better last year on breakaways, but still was about 1 for 5. I would expect more 2 on 1 rushes this year. Tkachuk was blindingly slow. No, I don't want to see 5 passes between 3 players, but we always seemed to have one guy with the puck right to the bitter end. Mangiapane may not be the right guy with him, nor may Toffoli be. It's important that we have enough options that we don't default to one guy just because there is nobody else in the lineup. To answer a question from elsewhere, we have taken two steps to become a contender. We probably need at least one more. The current version of Monahan and Lucic are not what a contender has.

You make some points that a few of us have brought up and added some others. Don't take this the wrong way, but spending time talking about a player the NHL teams will not even look at seems pointless. It's a PR nightmare waiting to happen. There is so much negative stuff about young players and treatment of women, whether it's factual or implied. No team is going to bring in that toxic history willingly. Not even in the same realm as Kane. At least Kane has hockey play to go with his numerous instances of poor judgement and questionable morals. And I would have a big problem with Kane on our team.

Weeger definitely improved out top 6D. Sutter can figure out how best to deploy them. Meloche would be a good steady gut to have on the 3rd pair, but with Zadorov? Not sure that's a steady pair. Weeger should probably get the toughest assignment, but that implies Tanev or Ras pairing. Hanifin was good a year ago with Tanev and good with Ras the rest of the time. Kylington was really good with Tanev for half the year, the tailed off a bit. Wear and tear, post-injury issues, or started to think too far ahead. Then we have Valimaki and Mackey. 9 guys that could be in the lineup. I'm thinking they are dealing Valimaki since his play hasn't changed. I could be comfortable with 8D on the roster, but does that benefit anyone? Are we really paying Zaddy $3.75M to just be a 3rd pairing guy? I have no doubt that Kylington will again show up ripped and show he is a top 4D on this team. Tough decisions for Sutter. With that in mind, I think we have to move Valimaki. His value is low based on use, but he has pedigree. Wonder how much he is actually worth to a team missing a 5/6 D guy. He will eventually take a big step, but we lost his development years to his injuries. Can possibly sneak Mackey or Meloche to the AHL through waivers, but is that a good plan?

Kane is not as interested in moving on as Toews. That's a swing for the fences deal, but clearly not even close to enough. I also think you have to be strategic in what you look for. A top RW gives us one line scoring again. After that the dropoff is steep. I would be more inclined to make a couple of smaller moves with no drama next summer. Necas in a trade, see what it costs. He's going to be good for a long time and could take a big step this year. Perfect 3C that gives us a better 2nd scoring line. Sign a FA bottom 6 guy. Johan Larsson and Milano come to mind. Rodriguez could be a fit too on the wing. Necas might cost Valimaki + Dube + a prospect, but gives us years to compete with.

Reasonable doubt benefits the accused more than the victim. Lots of criminals walking the streets due to a tecnicality or because the jury was inclined to believe one side over another. Poor example but was OJ guilty or innocent? Anyway, I won't harp on the player's character. He's not enough of a player to be worth signing. Would make just as much sense to have Janko. The thing about this that is a PR nightmanre is that Hockey Canada and Sport Canada are in the middle of justifying why they felt they did the right thing. Vancouver terminated his contract over the alleged incident. Us signing him would have major major repercussions.

I do very much hate the assumption that a person is guilty until proven so. What I was saying is that he was charged and went to court. It wasn't dismissed by the crown. The legal standard for conviction is no reasonable doubt. The judge clearly laid that out in his instructions. In a he said, she said situation, there is no proof unless there is a witness. I for one would not want to make a decision deciding someones future or a victim's fate. From what I read, the defense suggested that she was not being truthful because he said there were gaps in her story. He also implied that since she didn't go to the police right away, that it was consented. I encourage you to read the facts of the case, from both sides. There is a presentation of her testimony and his side of it in news articles. I'm not saying he is guilty, but the outcome doesn't prove anything other than reasonable doubt.

Some interesting tidbits from Allan Walsh, Hubie's agent: Walsh also revealed that Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving had no conversations with him before the surprise trade was completed. Treliving made the move knowing there was a chance he could be renting Huberdeau and top defenceman MacKenzie Weegar. They both could test unrestricted free agency next summer. “Calgary accepted the fact there was no conversations with me or Jonathan before making the trade and had no idea whether he would be open to staying in Calgary or not,” Walsh told Wylde. “(Huberdeau) said very publicly, very honestly, with no agenda, transparently — I am open in spending the next many years in Calgary. “He spoke it. I work for him. My job is to accomplish his goals. It’s (about) what he wants. And he is open to staying in Calgary. We’ll see what happens from here.”

Unknowns for total salary, yes. Final roster, obviously not.

Long long time ago in a galaxy far away. I tend to think that we look at the locker room as a place where we can't afford to let in any bad apples or country club part time members. I don't know how serious (if at all) we were about signing Kane. Would he have helped us score more goals? Probably. Would he have PO's some players? Possibly. Do we need that kind of distraction? Probably not. He kept his nose clean long enough to get a new deal. If he wasn't scoring a bunch of tap in goals, would he have gotten along or would he be like Puljujarvi? DeAngelo was backed up by Torts, so there is sometimes things that happen with players that may be unfounded. Or they have proven they are no longer the Richard people saw before.

The thing about this time of year is that we only hear reported signings and trades when they actually happen. So called insiders have all gone on vacation. Nothing on any of the remaining names out there or the teams that are well over the cap. I get that they need not solved anything in July, but the summer ends pretty quick. We do know that BT tends to make his biggest moves in the summer, though. That's the only real scary part. There isn't a good reason to trade a top 4 D or a top 6 F, but we also never saw the Dougie trade coming.

Who fired their agent? Klingberg?

The issue is that there is always an injury in camps and pre-season. Many, many guys pass through, but I would say they are mostly low value or high dollar ones. I would say that few trades happen the day before the season starts. Anyway, this wasn't necessarily a good strategy, just asking for opinion. There are probably stats that show Klingberg to be more of a liability. Or ones that show he benefitted from a strong partner. Dallas seems to be holding off for a reason.

You me both.