travel_dude

At this point, what does it really matter. Most have moved on. I accept the fact that he may have wanted to move for personal reasons. There's nothing he can say that really changes how the negotiations played out.

Was thinking the Flames would offer him something like that. Guess we are still figuring out what to do with the rest of the team first.

I hate forcing a decision, but the spidey senses should have been tingling when JH didn't sign an extension. I don't know exactly when he was eligible, but if it was before the NTC kicked in, BT should have had that difficult conversation. Poor season or not, the signals were there. I get most of us would have been upset, but the reality is we would probably have our 1st this year and may had made other moves to fix the team. Kay Cera (related to Michael Cera?). Not the end of the world.

Well, the ideal thing is to trade him before he signs anything. Assuming we are going there. BT might be looking at Kadri, but he is obviously trying to get Tkachuk signed now.

Him leaving was 50% no matter what we were saying or hoping for. Fans were nervous as soon as the offer was given. As each day passed, it was more obvious this was someting more than negotiating. Similar to Iggy's days, we spent a lot of years trying to find the right fit. Brouwer, Neal, Ferland, Monahan, Lindholm, Ritchie, etc. We went through how many coaches trying to find the magic. Every year it was on the top line as to why we didn't win or get in the playoffs.

As it stands, we don't have a full roster. We obviously need to replace some players. One thing to note is we didn't have a lot of scoring from the D. You need that to change anyway. JG off the PP makes that more likely.

I am happy they think they are building a contender. Kane, Kulak, Campbell. Not exactly an upgrade from the team that bested us when we played like crap. Campbell has never played as a true starter. 49 games was the best he could do and his game tailed off. If they can only get that many games from him, they have Skinner and Pickard. Not exactly an insurance plan. If Smith comes back they can't really afford him to play. He's the only guy that could play up to 40 games besides Campbell.

If we did something like Dube (2.3) + Kylington (2) for Newhook (.9) + Girard (5), that would save them a bit. Kylington would probably be more inclined to sign for less to stay there. Maybe a pipe dream, but it's decent value on Dube. The other option would be Dube for Girard. The Kylington for Necas from COL. Yep, in my dreams.

I thought this was a funny t-shirt. The fact that sopmebody posted it is quite funny....

Yeah, I get it. Replace humans with character player and it comes off less acerbic. I was more talking about the way he approached the situation. Richard move, but I can't say I blame him for wanting the best for his family. Anything he says is going to be disected by media and fans. I tend to fall into the same trap as a lot of fans for the hockey side of it, where a decision like this has far reaching hockey impacts. It almost makes sense that he wants to disappear into the woodwork, without having to put up a public face. CGY is a hockey mad city at times. The expectations put on him (and moreso with a big 8 year deal) would have been too much. I myself am a little far away from the situation. EDM is just as hard on players with expectations as CGY. Hall, Eberly, Strome, Puljujarvi, Schultz, Bear, etc. You don't win the cup every year and somehow this comes down to one whipping boy.

You are wrong 100% of the time you say nothing.

I just love when EF sticks his nose in things. He has no clue what BT is talking.

Another "science based" evaluation.

Well, Iggy was being traded and only would allow one deal. Kipper was going to be traded and retired. But both were better humans.

You still see Iggy and Kipper jerseys out there, right? Be proud of the crest on the front.

I would be okay with Dvorak, but not at the price they were asking last season. We have extra D now, so it would make sense for a trade with one of the extras. Valimaki has more value, since he has a current contract. Kylington is likely headed to arbitration if he is offered less than $2M. His agent would probably tell him he stands to get an award higher than that. Maybe Kylington moves the needle more in a trade offer, but the cap is not certain with him. At the very least, we would have another C. At best, we could have Dvorak on the top line with Tkachuk.

The issue is whether Tkachuk sees a future here. If not, then we have to trade for the type of player he represented. Yes, we have the identity, we just need to build in that direction again.

I'm all for moving on. We have to get that player that is a playmaker. Maybe a couple of them. I have no doubt that Pelletier could be that to the third line, since we have shooters. Lindy just can't be everything to Tkachuk. Lindy was our best overall player last year, and much of his time was used to make up for the relative slowness of Tkachuk and the general lack of defensive play from JH. By that I mean a lot of east west stuff that ended in turnovers and not being willing to sacrifice in the D zone. He was about as defensive as Draisaitl. I'm not sure we can find the right player in FA, so we may have to sacrifice a D or other to get one.

I think so many had inner demons that didn't see us making it to the finals, or beating Tampa. Many had reservations that he was going to be able to put it together for the playoffs. The other thing is a trade singals that he wasn't re-signing, so it would have been a collective GTFO from fans.

He could paint a lightning bolt on it and use it for the TBL.

I had zero problem with getting a jersey. Got the Alibabba version, so it was $30.00, so not a big outlay of cash. He may have signed for 8 years last time if we had the deal to put together. We wouldn't be having this thread talk about him leaving this summer. We got 6 out of him after his ELC. Something set him off. Politics. Being stuck in Canada. Being stuck alone for months at a time here. Family marooned outside of Canada for two years. Getting married and wifey didn't want to possibly get stuck in Canada again. Who knows.

I think they figure there was no way to keep Sandin. Don't think they were too impressed with him in the playoffs as it is. Really, Sandin doesn't help us, gives us 6 LHS D.

Just because a feed that retweets rumors says it's that, doesn't make it that. The same source said that Gaudreau was offered 12M

The number is one thing. ou have to pay to get a C and you have to pay to get one that can score. The term is the thing you use to bring the AAV down a little for an older player. You build in the cost of the buyout, if it comes to that. Not saying I like it, but I would put up with an extra year for $1M less AAV. Neal was signed with that in mind. Even though he turned into a toxic asset, it was still better structured than Lucic's.

It's a tough call. We got that return for a player at the end of his career, and the trade was made by a bozo, no offfense to clowns. There was literally one team that he would accept a trade to. I suspect Gaudreau would have greenlighted a trade anywhere in the USA. Most of the teams that loaded up were in the USA. We could have retained salary and taken better than what Giroux brought back. Probably better than what Hagel brought back. It's a tough thing to do when you are winning, but knowing we were losing the player end of the season, there really wasn't a good path to the cup that made keeping a player you were losing just for the sake of a poossible first or second round exit. It went through EDM, LA, NAS, COL, DAL, MIN, STL and possibly VGK. Fans would have been on board. AT least I think so.