travel_dude

We haven't been good at identifying those players in FA.

In hindsight, it would have been great to pick Vas. He wouldn't be playing in PITTS. If your goal is to win one or possibly two cups at any cost, Tampa is a great model. Be fortunate enough to have a team take a cap dump and give you a 1st rounder. Be able to play with the cap to have an actual cap of $98m this season. Amazing the timing of it. A 1st, 3rd and a 4th to get a D-man at 25% salary. Smart cap management.

The only absolutes are the team wasn't entirely through drafting and Vegas was built mostly through trades and signings. Certainly, they had top scorers drafted over a long period of time. Certainly, the contributions by non-drafted players played a big part in winning the cup. Neither team is a contender with just drafted players or just traded for players.

Gaudreau doesn't fit. Mangiapane doesn't fit. At least by the LA Kings standard of Sutter players. I do think Sutter is not a fool. He wants a player, no matter what size, to buy into playing 100% every game. He called out Gaudreau the one game where he took a big hit and shied away from play after that. Since that time, I think Gaudreau has been exactly what Sutter wants from him.

Never say never, but I just don't think enough teams have 1st rounders to trade for prospects. a 12th + Pelletier or Zary moves you up no doubt. But, here is where I am at with trades. Why are you trading a top prospect for a chance at another potential top prospect? How is that any better than trading a pick for a player? You want to trade Gio for a 1st? No problem.

Nobody is defending the Lucic trade. Ignore the Sergachev and Shattenkirk non-drafting if you like. They won the cup because of signed and traded-for players, not in spite of them. Vegas is almost entirely a trade and signing team.

If we managed to hold onto Gio, do you think that is an option for us? Trade Gio at TDL for a 1st? I know that is unlikely if we are seriously in the race, but it should be in BT's mind at least.

First, I have no concerns about the Harvard thing. Free development. 3 years there he is NHL ready, as opposed to a WHL kid that have 2-3 years left in junior and AHL. I would say there are very few that will play post-draft or draft + 1 in the NHL. I think we get so hung up on CHL and good Canadian kids. A reach at 12 maybe, but what are we really trying to do here. Draft safe players? Draft the guy with the highest ceiling? BPA? It's a tough year to properly evaluate, but I will say we will most likely regret not drafting him in 3 years times. A plethora of D available, lots of interesting guys that have dropped. Better to have another pick in the teens or early 20's. Wouldn't trade Pelletier at this point. I don't think he gets you a 1st, so why bother. See what he translates into. Could be in the same mold as Mangiapane. Smaller guy with a strong work ethic. Don't need less of that type, just less guys that give up when the going gets tough.

Every team that ends up winning the cup has used both FA and trades. It ain't the only thing, but let's not undersell it. I'm not proposing we dive in, as we have issues to deal with that have us spending too much for lesser players. If there happens to be a good price for a good player, why would you not do it? You can't build a team solely on drafting.

Might as well just keep Monahan unless something really good comes along. Funny how he is listed as a LW. He seemed to have no clue how to play it. In absence of an Eichel trade, perhaps it makes sense to swap Monahan for Reinhart. Still need a top 6 RW. Maybe 2. Gaudreau-Lindholm-RW Mangiapane-Reinhart-RW Does a Tkachuk get you two top 6 RW?

Round 1 - knee to Nylander Round 2 - careless hit to Scheifele Round 3 - Nate trips over Gaudreau and breaks his kneecap Round 4 - Barzal loses it over a Tkachuk hit and gets suspended

I'm starting to think his value is Monahan alone. Coaching has been an issue for PLD over his career. Torts, now Maurice. Not saying he's been good at all, just that I think you have to break him down to the basic skills and build him back up.

Back to the draft. Would you be okay in drafting Coronado? 5'10" buzzsaw, stocky kid. Plays in the USHL then going to Harvard. Rated about 20's in the draft. Definitely a player I would like to have an extra pick for, just not sure about #12.

I seem to recall a game where Johnny was pasted into the boards and effectively was silenced for the rest of it. Lucic was the one that laid the player out later, and got a boarding penalty. That was a costly penalty IIRC. I don't really remember JH feeling that safe either way. Player X was not beat to snot.

I'm actually happy we didn't get in this year, because we might have beaten Toronto and put up a good show against Winnipeg. I don't think CGY, MTL or WPG would stand a chance in the semis. So, the randomness of us winning 2 more games and getting in, only to lose in round 2 or 3, would have resulted in a worse situation for the GM. Possibly thinking we were a move away. At least by missing, we will see some identification of inherent problems. Perhaps a few knee-jerk decisions, but they were probably a long time coming. They might seem that they were as a result of this season only.

Yeah, was forgetting about the remaining years. I would suspect that the teams he would submit a trade to may not be great partners for us in a trade. Whatever the direction we go in for the expansion draft, I hope we don't throw away picks just to protect or take a certain player. Expose Gio and Lucic and let the chips fall where they may.

In a normal year, you have to offer a 1st to take a bad contract with term. That's usually one that could be bought out. No team is going to take a Skinner for just that. Can't even buy it out right. In an expansion year, the first cost is to get them to take a bad contract, usefull player or not. The second cost is getting them to not take another contract. Your best opportunity is with Lucic waiver for the draft. After that, he's back to a full NMC. The only possible trade I could see him even thinking about would be to PITTS. That's only because they are more of a contender than us. Not exactly a destination city for a Left Coaster. Perhaps BOS, but I don't know if they go that direction again.

We saw what a team with no depth and two NHL points leaders was able to do in the season and playoffs. Nothing great. While a guy like Nordstrom is good to PK, he doesn't do much else. Forecheck for sure, but not much else. We had a 4th line and part of a 3rd line like that. The impact of losing Hanifin was that we missed the playoffs. That sounds bad, but shows you that we didn't have another top 2 D on LD. Our RD was fine in the top 4. Valimaki made mistakes that happen every day, but pairing him with a guy like Nesterov was a mistake. Stone was much more steady, but really didn't allow for him to use his wheels. For me, the only way we can fix the D is to ship out Gio and concentrate on what we have left. Tanev - about as steady a guy as you would want. Needs to play with a puck mover that can skate. Hanifin - improved defensive game and smart offensive player that can skate and move the puck. Ras - is at his best once you gain the zone, relies a bit too much on size to contain in D-zone, needs more confidence. Valimaki - can fly, just needs to work on D-zone exits. Mackey - more of a defensive guy, stay at home. Kylington - best skater of the bunch, but still makes questionable decisions. 2 RD and 4 LD. Stone isn't the answer. Need a top 4 guy like Montour to stabilize the D. Hanifin-Ras Valimaki-Tanev Kylington/Mackey-Montour I don't want to overpay, just feel we need solid partners to move forward. Each pair is a mix of skating and defense and grit. As far as Dube goes, he a smart player but belongs with guys that can move the puck forward. Backlund works, but I don't think Dube's defensive game is there yet. On offense, would be nice to see a 3 man unit attack with speed. We seem to have one poor skater per line, and that really hurts.

Zima was having a vad Google day. EDM fans hated him, and that's saying something.

I'm not sure what the measuring stick is. Valimaki played poorly with who? Are we blaming it on him? Dube was okay, nut should not have be top RW. But our 3rd line is a mess. The 4th line scored almost mothing. Barely played with Monahan. Can we possibly stop the poor fits and play guys that actually belong together? Hanifin-Tanev was a safe match. Gio was not a great fit with anyone other than Tanev, but was not the best pairing. Try complementing players instead of setting them up with the same style or teo tookies. Or a poor fit KHL player.

Jets suck. Can;t even beat MTL in one game. MTL > TOR > WPG > EDM How sad is that.

No big deal. I'm glad we didn't do something like that again.

No harm, no foul. You had me going for a minute

A little dated.

I'm not following you. What does Chaisson have to do with anything. He's an Oiler pending UFA. He's no more on the block than any other UFA.