travel_dude

I think that Zary at C is a good idea, but I would set them up on their own line. Maybe Sharky is the best, as he is still just 26. Or Coronato. Give them sheltered starts until they take over as the top line. Sacrifice Huberdeau with Backlund. Have Kadri with Kuzmenko and the Mangiapane replacement. 4th line is built for speed with what is left. Maybe that's Morton, Pelletier, Klapka, Schwindt and Rooney. I think Hunt is more of a grinder, so that may not exactly fit the idea of getting faster. Rooney is okay, but isn't a long term fit. I don't think Sharky is a guy they expect to trade. They may do that with Kuzmenko, and there is arguments to both sides of that idea.

The borderline call after the 3-1 goal killed them. It set up the 4-1 PPG. That was the backbreaker. While their poor PK didn't help and the play that set up the shortie started the game off on the wrong foot, they didn't generate enough in the 1st.

11th overall would be fine, but I doubt it. If they crash and burn, they are almost as likely to crash and burn in 2026 as well.

Talbot only makes sense if we are moving on from Vladar. In the first year of a transition to a new younger team, keeping the youth together to figure out how to win together probably makes more sense. If we bottom out, that is part of the progression. It's not going to kill our goaltending. The D will adjust. The F will adjust. I've always like Mony. I don't have his jersey, but I do have a blank one. LOL. But, I don't know the logic of signing a 2/3 C. 1C is the issue, not 2C or 3C.

I will ignore the pairs for the moment, since Kylington could fit in several places, since his skating helps helps his partner. 4 of 6 are RHS. 3 of 6 are able to play LD effectively. Thinking of vets, I wonder if Brodie could slot into the top 6, moving Pachal down to 7. His skating is (used to be at least) similar to Kylington. Ras and Weegar tend to get caught a little flat footed.

This game reminded me of a Flames game. Overpowering the other team, get the PP and then a lazy cross ice pass to get picked off. Let them get a 3-0 before we show up. Battle back to get it close and blow it on the EN. FLA has to stop taking the dumb penalties. You are not allowed to try to hurt McD. He is given the benefit of the doubt on hacking and picks, but you touch him the wrong way and the refs get ticked. I wasn not impressed with the level of reffing. You don't always call the team hitting first; usually it's the retaliation, but I guess there is none of that. Can we get to the off-season soon? These 2 full days between are killing me. Being forced to drink Tim's out of disposable Oiler cup in orange makes me puke a little in my mouth. Disposable is right. Much like a jersey is when they lose one game too many. Let's make that soon.

Just get it over wirth, either in FLA or EDM. The last thing we need to hear about is the only team in a 1000 years to come back from being down 3-0 to win the cup.

I hate the uncertainty of that trade. We know MTL is not entitled this year to take it. Next year is a bunch of conditions on two teams' 1st rounders. It gives me a headache. We tank, FLA tanks, we both tank, neither tanks. The sub scenarios get even more complicated and I don't even want to think about them. Suffice to say that either we have a top 10 pick in 2025 and FLA does not OR we both do not have top 10 picks.

It just comes down to the current value of a bona fide NHL starter. I get the age argument, but unless there is a better option out there, it will be supply and demand. I heard Binnington's name bandied about. He's 30 and hasn't exactly been a stud the last few years. Bit of a headcase. Grubauer expected to be bought out. I'm not saying it will be a bidding war, but there are more teams out there with questionable goaltending than just NJ. Connie saying he doesn't need to trade him says that we are not just going to take a crap offer to settle it.

Well, you can take this with a grain of salt. He's not going to let the media define his position, good or bad. Admitting or keeping mum, it would have made GM's believe that they just needed to wait it out and Connie would cave. What this also says is that there isn't a hard date for this to be done by. We traded Monahan from a position of weakness. I have seen lots of lesser players or really bad cap dumps get better returns. But it was a foregone conclusion Monahan was being traded to make way for Kadri. Every team knew it because of insiders.

Uggg, don't remind me

The buyout option costs them little other than some future cap pain. Pageau is a little more problematic, so it's possible they trade to avoid it. But I don't think the 2 years remaining gets you any great return. I'm curious how you construct the trade. What do we send the other way? We get Pageau and a pick for what?

You have a desperate team against a team knowing they have 4 chances to win one game. Nurse not getting 5 and a game set the tone for the game. Instead of having 5 minutes to score, they have 2 and push a play that wasn't really there. That gave the home crowd life. Not scoring right after that set them back. Once they were back to 2-1, they risked it a bit too soon and a depth player gets a rush. FLA just needs to get back to their game and not let EDM get any momentum. Maybe don't take 3 penalties to EDM's none.

I think that Duclair's output was fine even after leaving the team. It doesn't matter so myuch if he fixes Huberdeau as gove them options. No trade required, so it's adding an asset for just money. Maybe he is fine with a one year deal. Duclair doesn't seem to have off years. He seems to be averaging about 0.5 to 0.6 p/gp. That's as good as most of our players were last year.

Do you think that Huska is very much an extension of Sutter style? I've heard it boiled down to that, but maybe a bit too simple. With Sutter, you had Gaudreau/Lindy/Tkachuk executing rushes. That was a line that did a lot on the rush, no? The loss of two of three and now all three maybe made the dump more common.

I think we will be a little shocked during the draft, when one team goes for what looks like a reach. Then the one you would expect to get picked somehow ends up around 12th. I think Yakemchuk is too easily scouted by the Flames due to location. They would know all his weaknesses. Me thinking Parekh is our pick is just thinking that he will fall and we are all over ourselves to grab him. I don't think we would take Catton if he fell, but many others would be targets if they did.

For this team to have a decent rush game, they need play drivers. I find Kuz and Huberdeau to both be cerebral once they are in the zone, and make some good plays, but it's either on a O-zone faceoff win or at the end of a long zone entry or one that takes some time to gain control after a dump in. Maybe I am just remembering things that stood out, like Kuzmenko dancing around with the puck on a string or seam passes from Huberdeau that are just a tip-in away from a goal. Maybe those suggesting Duclair have something. The guy was at his best playing with Huberdeau. Huberdeau had a career year with him. He's 28 so he's young enough to be here for some time, assuming that we want to sign him longer term.

I can see the logic of both picks, but can't see MTL passing on Tij. Button has Silayev at 16, so don't know. Does Eiserman really drop to 13? Who knows. So many different directions teams could go in.

I just think there is too much smoke for JM to return this fall. Perhaps the talked have stalled a bit (unconfirmed), but that doesn't mean they are done. Too many teams got to the playoffs and lost. Too many were close and got beat out by a few losses. I don't think the draft is the place it happens, unless there is a team whose draft list got plundered too soon. Philly has Erson and untested KHL goalie. And they pick 12th. LA has #21 and they could be looking hard at replacing the old with an old. There was speculation that JM wouldn't waive to go there at TDL, but no proof of that. LA might be a better target for 2025 1st and Kalyiev.

This assumes that we either don't trade Markstrom or we trade him and also sign Talbot. For it to work, we have to: - trade Markstrom before FA - trade Vladar once we sign Talbot in FA I'm not sure Vladar's value is there right now. Hasn't been solid, so teams can find better without giving up assets. I think he has a better chance of thriving if he isn't playing under the shade of Markstrom. And it either gives us a solid 1-2 punch, or we learn what we have and where we are.

Don't get me wrong, I think Goodrow is a player underrated by many. Sorta like Coleman but plays C. But I have a problem making a trade for an older (not old) player when we still have guys like Mangiapane and Rooney. Are you thinking he replaces Backlund at 3C or does this allow them to bump up Backlund to 2C and move Sharky to RW? Just asking because I'm still trying to figure out how best to use Coronato, Pelletier, Pospisil and Zary. We don't have a true #1C and I'm not sure that Kadri is the answer either.

I'm not so much disputing the trade, but I wouldn't do it just to get Iggy. I would be happy with 9, 10 and 28. I think there is enough uncertainty in the rankings that we get a good-un at 9 and 28. The 10 would be gravy, but I think I want to get more than a 10th for Marky. Maybe a top 10 protected in 2025 plus a good young player.

Using Capfriendly's buyout calculator, while I still can, I looked at Goodrow.... There is only one bad year in the buyout length. The cap hit goes -$247k, $1M, $3.5M, $1.1M, $1.1M, $1.1M Three years down the road they have a cap hit almost equal to his 3rd year salary cap hit. And that is likely when the cap is over $90M easily. Maybe NY wants to clear the books, but do you think it nets us that much?

Still need #11, because that was the game. Funny, the trade up to 5th seems like it is reasonable, but I wouldn't do it. Not just to possibly get Iggy Jr. If we are moving Kuz, a TDL trade might get us a 1st.

I think the increase this year to something like $88M will give teams breathing room. I was a little disappointed with the returns this year for taking on cap in trades at TDL. A 4th? A 5th? In some cases, the team taking the cap had to even give up a player/prospect or rights just to get that. Dumba and a 7th gets you a 5th? Zucker for a 5th? I get the idea of weaponizing it, but I just haven't seen enough of it being worth the money.