travel_dude

My complaint about using him is when he gets minutes and we won't even try out Ruzicka or Phillips. I like the idea of Ritchie pounding the p*ss out of Khaira or Nurse. Or the resident douchebags from other teams. I don't consider him a viable option for a line with Gaudreau. He has his uses, but not 82 games a year.

Must have missed that goalie named Sillinger. But, go on about how Cossa has surpassed Wolf already. Surpassed in height? Check. Rest? Nope.

Projecting him to be a great goalie is one thing, but he has 61 games played in 3 seasons. How is that further ahead than Wolf? Wolf had 61 games in his 2nd season. Of course, I forgot he is big. Must be a winner.

Brett Ritchie signed to a one year deal. Now we have the minimum exposure list requirements met. One year, $900k.

It also shows how utterly clueless feaster and JB were in that draft. We have a 12th overall, but we like a guy that nobody has heard of. Let's drop that pick to later so we can draft a nobody D-man in the 2nd. And we'll get quality in the 3rd. Yes, I believe you are right about deals on the floor. An indication, but that's only the teams they talk to. They tend to look at who has gone where and project who might select him ahead of you. The team may disclose who they like and trades discussed, but others are radio silent. But there is a bit of a wild card. We tried to move up in the Tkachuk draft, either to get Tkachuk or Puljujarvi. Neither EDM nor CBJ bit. And we ended up with the player we wanted (Burkie said that) or missed out on the one we wanted (speculated by others).

I do think that there is only one top ranked goalie in this draft that we be a starter. Okay, so a better than 75% at being a starter. Cossa reminds me of Koskinen. Being a big man in a league with smaller players, chances are he may just be an average player on a good team. Worth a 2nd? Sure. Our only pick in the 1st round? Nope.

My belief is that the finals showed a lot of teams that goalies are a priority. That's why I think Wallstedt is gone at 12. I also think Cossa goes to a team like Dallas that loves big lugs. I'm comfortable in getting a good player at 12, but not Cossa. I'll get behind it, if they go that way, but I feel it's a reach at 12. Trade down if you want to do that. 12-18 is still in that 2nd tier, with players due to drop.

Hurt feelings are a very real possible outcome. Maybe they have had that conversation, but I somehow doubt it. More likely is that they have talked to Gio and basically said, we can protect you to a certain point, but otherwise it's a trade, you get selected, or you return. We should know soon, but I doubt Seattle lowers the asking price much. If there is a deal to be made to move him, Gio might even waive his list to go somewhere other than Seattle.

You buy him out, it would need to occur today. But, Seattle could sign him for way more than $2m. And we lose someone else on top of Gio.

It's great that people are thinking about ways of retaining Gio, but I really think we have to move on. We expose him, he's PO'd. We trade him, he's PO'd. We buy him out, he's PO'd. Just cut bait if you can't afford to protect him. Trade if possible. Let him go to Seattle, if they truly want him.

It was an odd draft for us. Feaster/JB decided they needed to sign a C to help out Iggy, years after. Even if we hadn't traded down, I don't think we would have selected Vas. They had set their signs on Gillies I assume. I think this year we could see two goalies go top 15. I seriously doubt Wallstedt is available at 12. If he was, I would be hard pressed to pass. Cossa likely is, but I have little interest considering the other talent available. I just don't buy into the hype on him.

BT has been known for pulling off trades before time runs out. It doesn't mean he started calling GM's this morning. Heck, he proabably talked to Holland. And promptly hung up. If there is no takers for the player and the price is to high to keep him, BT will just play chicken. Would be sorry to see you go old salt, but the team has to move on at some point.

Between 10 and 25 is a pretty wide range of talents available. Who goes when will depend on a team's risk tolerance as much as the perhaps minor differences in the prospects. Teams stacked with D all younger than 30 can risk a homerun/ground out. Those needing an immediate impact will aim towards certain players. Risers and fallers are the ones you need to be careful with. A good tourney should not always be the basis of your choice. Would you have picked or passed on Askarov based on his 2020 or 2021 WJC results? As much as the 1st rounder is important to us, I don't have the great fear we will pick the wrong guy. I am concerned what we do with the 2nd and 3rds, since there will be a few guys that drop. More Mangiapanes and less Hunter Smiths.

The ;league doesn't really have teams that you should beat. Teams like Ottawa go through cycles where they are really bad, good and really good. One team managed to beat Ottawa all of their games, but that was the only team. We should frett about losing to a team not in the playoffs, but Ottawa can be a tough draw at times. We just found those times.

I think the only way we deal the 1st is for Eichel, which I think is remote. I could see Tkachuk or Monahan or Gaudreau dealt, but not for a pick. We beat MTL when they were making a playoff run. They clinched (May 10th) after dropping 3/5 to us, by virtue of an OT game. 2nd last game of the season for them. Losing Markstrom to injury certainly derailed us, but that was set up for us to fail by not managing goalie starts. It took a long time for Markstrom to get back to snuff. We should have learned this lesson when we lost Smith and Rittich in previous years.

Is this an imposter? Normally the hacks praise everything he does.

This is the key message for BT, but also a wakeup to fans; unless we rebuild, we aren't finishing bottom 5.

Bwahaha. Some fans expected Neal or Koskinen to go back if no salary retained. Bwahaha.

I'm assuming the money is the finer points. Since they don't have a 3rd this year, it has to be a 4th or next year's 3rd. They have been defending this for the last week, using tweets from CHI beat writers etc to justify it. Already saying this gets them closer to top 1/3 of NHL.

Coached Wolf in Everett and a bi with Zary at the WJC. At least that's the way I read it.

You said upgrading a 2nd with a 1st and said nothing about trading players to get a 1st. Trading for a 1st is a different argument. I only blame the coach for his poor decision making and failure to properly use two goalies. That goes back to last year. Agree or not, it had an impact on the state of the club. Continue to shout at the clouds. I'm sure you truly believe all the exaggerated statements you make.

Upgrade our 2nd to a 1st? Like how? I'm sure there are 31 other teams looking to do exactly the same thing. I mentioned trading a 12th for Minny's two 1st rounders, which is unlikely. The other option, which may or may not come to pass. We trade for Eichel, we lose Tkachuk and a chance at a "decent" D and a prospect. In other words, we lose a LW where we have two other LW for top 6. What we do suddenly have is an excess C. We can address the D with a trade. Or we address the RW with a trade. With a broken Monahan, a questionable coach for 1/2 the season, and a declining Gio, we barely droped to 12th overall. Doing nothing else means we are at worst 12th overall again. We just aren;t bad enough to drop as far as you want. Too many legit bad teams below us.

So, the key here is that this may be tied to a trade for Eichel and the expansion. If we get Eichel, clearly our needs are RW and D; I don't think Walltedt is expected to fall, so Cossa is too low to consider. If we don't, then you have wider range to choose from. If you consider Zary to be a top 6 capable C, then you probably don't go for Sillinger. If you don't, then you need a good scoring C. Coronato is hard for me to pass up. I'm not as much in love with the D that will almost for sure drop. Maybe a 2nd pairing ceiling or a surprise. Saying that, I don't think I would be upset with Coronato, Sillinger a decent D or Wallstedt. Doubt any of the top rated F fall to us, so I'm not listing them. Cossa would be a mistake at 12. Get a 2nd pick in the first round. 12th overall for 21st and 25th overall? Hmm, have to really think on that one. Some good later picks might yield good stuff or meh results.

I think Craig supports his bother, after the fact. I haven't heard him say anything negative and often he praises the picks. A smart scout looks at sources, but draws upon internal views of fit and purpose. I did find it interesting that Todd said the Flames had no real positional need.