travel_dude

Missed calls are always going to be complained about. A linesman letting go too many men, where the player coming off doesn't attempt to touch the puck, well it happens. The more annoying ones are a botched call at one end that leads to a goal the other way. In that case, the only way the play develops is due to the missed infraction. Really, if the calls are consistent, the complaints have less noise. It's the finals and you can't call everything. Set a standard and stick to it.

I wonder if Bear is a player we should be looking at. Not many young RD out there available. I think that he could be salvaged, so I wonder why CAR is thinking about trading him. It may just be them offering a reality check to the player and he will sign there. He wasn't the worst thing EDM had, though it's hard to tell if he could play well in a more limited role with us. The Oiler stink has worn off.

This was the first year that Tuulola actually started to do something, but took most of the season to do it. Kinnvall was often scratched, so the writing was on the wall. Anyway, we have two new D coming to the Heat next season; Poirier and Kuznetsov. Both are high end players in their roles. Work in progress perhaps, but Poirier looks a lot less of a one way D. Kuz has a mean streak.

We should be in on this as much as PLD, if not more. Both are players that give you 100%. I'll give PLD a pass under Torts, since that was isolated. Unfortunately, trading Hanifin sets us back if we don't get a LD. Kylington would be a fair trade and while we might regret it, the return offsets it. We might need to bridge him to make his deal work though. I am a little concerned that we are yet to tap into Kylington's true value. We don't have anyone at that level to replace him. But the flipside is that Kyl without Tanev to start the season isn't good either.

Insert joke about fans of BJ's and the market for them being huge.

How about the kicked in goal? Guess it's only okay in the case of a cup fave. I didn't think it was kicked in, but it's not consistent reffing. And the same bozos that reffed for us are still in the game. Some of them at least. The NHL reward poor reffing. I'm okay with letting a lot of stuff go. I'm not okay when it is game management and help/hurts one team.

You will note I was questioning why hiring her would make any difference. I got no issues with it. I believe that the players involved were from the OHL, not WHL. At the time, I noted that it likely didn't include Dube.

Maybe Poolparty will do the same. Seriously, I would prefer PLD. But, I do think EDM undervalues Pooly. Concentrate on PLD and make it happen. If we still have assets that would work, then do something with Pooly. If we are set up, then do a $3.9M OS for Pooly, assuming that EDM has not managed to make trades.

What a cup final game. OT and Kadri puts it on the inside shelf. Holy Heck, wasn't a great shot but managed to disappear in the net.

WTF? Now we have RFA's wanting to "test the market". I heard that CAR is letting Bear listen to offers, to get a trade going. You know that if WPG lets him listen to offers that CGY will be in there like a dirty shirt. We wanted him before. Would need to be an interesting offer to move the needle. Yes, it would require taking a crap contract. Maybe you know a bit better. Is Wheeler the problem there? He seemed to be pretty sour about not making the playoffs. Like people weren't carrying the weight or too many blaming him.

Kuz sure like to play a physical game. I mean it's just the Memorial Cup with junior players, but he uses his body effectively.

Why does hiring a female GM mean Dach for Dube makes sense? Maybe that's a fair deal anyway. Is Dach a misogynistic kid? LOL. Just asking.

I agree about Schmitd. He was worth what VAN paid for his contract, but I don't think he's worth 6. Not close. That's like Myers bad. Wheeler is a tough sell.

When I started typing it, I thought we could go higher. But even $4.2M is challenging to WPG. If they can't get the deal done, we should be talking to them. Not sure I would offer Tkachuk, but the value would be close there. Looking at WPG cap, they have nothing major yet they are capped out. We could possibly offer Mangiapane and Hanifin or Kylington + a non-roster player. In return they send back Schmidt + PLD. Just thinking out loud. They have Pionk and Schmidt chewing up $11M. And Dillon at almost $4M. That's a pretty poor use of cap.

I just meant we can only do 4.2 or over 10.5 on the OS. As it is WPG is hard pressed on the cap. $18M cap remaining and need to sign 8F and 1G. They can't do 8M.

Can we OS Dubois? We can do up to $4.2M. Would need to make it right to them by offering a player at a discount in trade. Then they might not match. I suppose it would make more sense that we just offer say Mangiapane in trade. Maybe include Zary, so they have a C pros[pect coming back.

I don't think we can keep Monahan due to the money. If Lucic retired, we might be able to barely afford him. But I don't think it's a great use of money unless he can play top 6. I don't really see Monahan being able to be the #1C, nor do I think we should entertain that. We saw the best line in hockey without him. If we used Monahan in a top 6 role, then we should move Backlund. Monahan doesn't fit as a play driver, so he would need to be a defensive C. Mangiapane-Monahan-Coleman. That leaves us top line intact, and a 3rd line with Rozie and Toffoli. Not sure if Dube fits, since he has played better as a RW. I wouldn't use him with Monahan, since I think we saw that trio not work that well. So, the question becomes does a 50/50 chance of Monahan getting back to 100% make us better than offloading his contract and using Backlund. We might be able to improve the depth if we stick with Backlund. He actually was one of our better players in the playoffs. Still has a good year or so left.

A good coach can add structure, but can't make up for personnel. EDM is a good example of how you can only improve D based on who you have. FLA at least has a stud D.

The conditioning option is only good for a couple of weeks and up to x games. There's also a big difference between being sore and talking to the medical staff and having the medical staff identify a structural injury that can't be fixed by meds and tape and physio. The timeline for the surgery and recovery puts him on the ice well before the season starts. He may not be up to 100%, but would not expect to miss a month. I guess that having to put more on the previously fixed hip would gain strength there. Maybe he had two bad hips to begin with and this is the first time he will have rehabbed both sides? I have no evidence to suggest this, but I think Monahan comes back better than he did last year.

That, like everything else, is just an opinion. Other than his mom saying that she hadn't been able to travel during Covid to see him play in person, I haven't heard any suggestions that he's struggling to decide because of family vs loyalty. The Flames made an offer. There have been discussions back and forth. Some of may have to do with direction the team is going. Some may be on bonus structure (ie. signing bonus vs salary) and NTC. The agent is driving the discussion, so any leverage is being used. That's what agents do. No doubt the agent is keeping him up to date on latest talks. It's a process. At some point, he will either instruct his agent he wants to sign or allow it to go to the 11th hour and decide then. When he gets to that point, I am sure he will talk to his family about it. They have probably already told him his legacy is with the Flames and that Sutter is the best coach to get him on the way to HHOF. But that is just my opinion as well. This isn't negotiated in the media, but there also has been no indication of talks breaking down or "ball in someone's court". It's a process that makes every fan nervous.

Backstrom is getting resurfaced, which is different. If Monahan had a decent LW, it might be different. Combine Monahan with a skater that can't even get the puck out. Then you spend the entire shift defending. Once you go to offense, your winger is behind you.

Maybe you have a better memory, but I don't recall the skating to be his issue. His shooting percentage cratered to 7.2%. Used to call him Moneyhands, but this year is was Margarine Hands. It got to the point where he lost the PP. I never considered Monahan to be a fast skater. About as fast as Toffoli, maybe slightly faster. He's just built like he should be able to skate. Take away his shot and his tools are not great. The end result was a big player that played with Lucic and didn't drive play. Lucic was hot garbage in the D-zone, so hard to get offense when you can't defend.

If you are relatively pain free, then you go. I think that's where he was. Not really allowed to have a year to work on your game. It was pretty clear from the demotion that he wasn't up to his old self, even if he was 100%.

Not to mention butt ending.

He may not be happy about moving from the gangland Stockton to Calgary, but at least he can wear red. To your point, he will get a start or two if there is some roster flexibility or we have an injury. As happy as he must have been with his AHL rookie season, I imagine he was frustrated. Having a bad game wreck his numbers. Not getting a shutout, even when he had one going to the last minutes of play. Finally getting one in the playoffs. I'm not as concerned about his skill translating to the NHL. His size is what worries me right now. He's listed at 156 pounds. That's Matthew Phillips weight. As long as we have guys that would put out out of the game if you touched Wolf, then okay. He needs to bulk up a bit, IMHO.