travel_dude

So Kylington should only make $70k on the taxi squad while they will pay Ritchie and Stone full NHL salaries if they sign and waive them? Nickel and dime a player that the coach won't trust. Was waived before he even had a single scrimmage. Last to be signed from RFA's. Forced to accept a 2 way deal. Hey you can practice with the team and we'll pay you $70k to travel with the team and live in Calgary. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent gig for most people in these times. I don't like the nickel and diming BT does with young players just because he overpaid elsewhere. And I'm not talking about core players like Gaudreau, Monahan, Lindholm, Hanifin and Tkachuk. $2.6m owed to buyouts. Neal traded for Lucic.

Honestly, I have no idea how you can listen to hockey and get anything out of it. I watched tonight with Loubo and the other guy. Doesn;t do the game justice. I'm the type to watch a game with the sound off just to enjoy the sport without the talk. Had to do that whenever I watched the Oilers play. Quinn was Mr Catchphase who would announce the McD or Drai goals even when they missed or the goalie made a good save. Worse homer I ever listened to. Glad they moved Debrusk to full time Oiler shill. And got rid of Quinn.

I'm not suggesting you are wrong to develop C's, just that forcing the issue may not be wise in a short season. I get it, go for broke and hope it works out. Other teams do it all the time and it works out. Or it doesn;t. Let me put it another way. Are you willing to risk missing out on the playoffs becuase you traded an effective C and your replacements couldn't get to the right level fast enough. It can be a two year strategy. Better draft picks. Owners are PO's because you traded away depth you actually needed. I watched Bennett and Ryan play the same position tonight. One was okay, the other was regular season Bennett. Neither was a big difference maker. Maybe you are right. Trade Ryan and Bennett. Insert Gawdin (RW) and Ruzicka (4C). Roll 3 lines and about 8-10 for 4th line with Lucic. Pray there is no injuries to Mony, Lindholm and Backlund. Make a TDL trade for a couple of weeks of Hall or a decent C. Win maybe a round in the playoffs.

I think what you have to consider is the perceived depth at C versus the actual depth. Actual = full time C's or those that have played a good portion of NHL games at C. We have Lindy, Bennett, Dube as part-timers. Monahan, Backlund and Ryan are the full timers. An injury to any of the top 2 leaves us short. Lucic is the problem much more than Ryan. But I digress.

Stone is not a great example. He played 19 games on the original deal, and was decent enough. Maybe not worth 3.5m but there were not a lot of deals at the time. He was bought out when it became apparent he was not the same player. Brought back for cheap. My problem with Stone is that he appears to be effective but for me the impact is the puck stays in our end a lot. He does some things that make you think otherwise. When I watch, I see ineffective breakouts and clearing. For the money, I would rather see Yelesin or Kyl play.

As of December, he was talking like he wanted to re-sign. I think he would be a good guy to re-sign to a decent deal. He wouldn't be getting $3m+ this time around. Expose him during the draft. Doubt he gets chosen, but you never know. Especially when Bennett may be the guy to not be protected. He's effective and would be a smart choice for a building team, but it depends on what else they select. If his salary was $1.5m or less, then he would be a decent risk.

I read this a minute ago. Any team that waived a player can't claim anyone off waivers until their player clears. I have not gone through the list of team that have not waived players yet. EDIT - 23 teams have waived players (incl CGY).

I didn't have a problem with Ryan on the so-called 4th line over Nordstrom. Bennett hasn't proved anything in the regular season. He looked good in the playoffs against two teams. If cap is the only reason for the move, then fine. Nordstrom is a less effective player. Gawdin hasn't proved anything. Ritchie is questionable to provide anything more than Nordstrom, but I don't mind the PTO. He's a big body. Teams have to get creative, I get that. Not much flexibility unless a player actually goes to IR. Taxi squad is fine if you can actually have available cap to use the player when Tanev is out for a game or two. Or Bennett is out for a couple.

Something was different about him this summer. He wasn't as effective as he was in the regular season. FO% down to 43%. Minutes closer to 10.

I'm assuming that taxi squad is NHL salaries whether you are on a one way or two way deal. Only the cap saving is realized in that case, not payroll. I think they need to also waive Nordstrom. Nesterov should stay up IMHO, since I think he is the default 6th D-man. By some accounts, he has played fairly well. He's well seasoned, and isn't Stone. If they park Kylington in the AHL and not bother bringing him up, that's hopefully because they are using Mackey regularly. Not sure I see the fit based on zero NHL experience, but who knows.

They don't even know the rules? You can't put Looch on the taxi squad. What will PO me is if this is just so they can sign Stone and not waive him.

Any belief that the Flames may claim a player? Corey Perry? Have the one-two punch of despised players?

Ryan is shocking. I will say that during the playoffs he was a non-factor. Played very little. Maybe they are higher on Gawdin than we think. I can't see why they demote him to taxi squad unless they have an additional C or RW they will use. It's not like Gawdin was part of the top lines in practices. Perhaps it's the additional cap savings. Over $1m. Kylington is a shocker for me. They don't have to do that, even if they want to sign Stone. Unless they want Stone to be the 7th D for the season. Or they want Mackey on the main squad.

The taxi squad makes sense if they are going to play all of the 6 games within a couple of weeks, as a method of managing cap. That is if they feel he can contribute. I have no idea if he is ready or not, since all we saw was kids playing in the WJC. Would it be like sending Dube out against VAN in game 1to see him get creamed? All things said and done, do we really need him to play? I don't think so. We have enough depth to not use him, as well as fringe NHL'ers and guys like Gawdin that are able to handle the grind. I would actually put Ruzicka ahead of Pelletier, not from a skill or readiness, but size.

I was suggesting they keep Pelletier on the squad so they could play him up to 6 games. Assuming they feel he is ready. They get an extended look at him. Even if they sent him back, I doubt the Memorial Cup will be a thing. NS teams can't play NB or PEI or QUE teams without quarantine. Same for NB. I don't know how they will get it sorted out. Anyway, I realized I had Stone and Yelesin on the taxi squad. It would really be Mackey for now over the lesser of the other two. I know some here feel Stone is a good guy to have available. I'm not one of them. 4 seasons so far. Never felt that he did eben as good as Hamonic defending. He's got a hard shot but rarely hits the net. He's tough but can't seem to clear the netfront. Time to move on. Yelesin is not proven by any means, but I would prefer him based on very limited evidence. If we are playing Stone, then we have bigger problems.

Well it's an interesting situation for waivers. You can waive a guy to send him to the taxi squad. If a team claims him, they have to have a roster spot immediately (most tams have waver exempt guys though). They can't park him on the taxi aquad without waiving him again. I would go with Kylington as 7th D and waive Stone if we sign him. Keep up Pelletier on the taxi squad as 6th player. Zary isn't ready, but they may want him there just to keep him practicing until the AHL camp starts. Rinaldo, Gawdin, Pelletier, Stone (or Petrovic), Yelesin, Domingue is your taxi squad. Need at least 2D, plus a bruiser. I think they run with 13F and 7D. No need to pay for Rinaldo as a 14th F. Cap is king. The US teams have an unfair advantage for TDL and waivers. As well as moving to and from taxi squad.

Monahan struggled at the end of 2018-19, some of which may have been the injury. Last season his sniping wasn;t the same. He wasn't money the way he used to be. Lindholm scored more, but that's because he shoots from all over the place and has a good shot. Monahan is in tight and accurate when he is 100%. It just wasn;t there this past year for a variety of reasons. Gaudreau depends on one or both linemates flying. His scoring depends on getting the puck to him in a scoring area or doing something different on breakaway. While I agree it might be best to seperate Johnny and Mony, I think it's more imperative to have a 2nd scoring line than disrupt one known factor. Gaudreau-Monahan and Tkachuk-Lindholm gives us that. Two potential top scoring lines. Which one do Canadian teams send their top D against? Who does their shutdown lines play against? Let's just say for a minute that the top 6 is as such: Gaudreau-Monahan-Simon(Dube or Leivo) Mangiapane-Lindholm-Tkachuk You can move any winger between those two ines. Or create the OHL line. My personal opinion is that camp has so many eyes on it that they don't want to break up the top line. It sends the wrong message. All summer we heard about trading Gaudreau or Monahan. No need to have that during a short season. Gaudreau is talented enough to switch to any line, besides he has played a lot with Lindholm anyway. No way is he going to be a winger to Bennett at C. So, they keep the lines and try out thirds on the lines. See if Mangiapane or Dube fit on RW so they can leave Tkachuk on LW. Still have Leivo and Simon as fill ins. But focus on having the best two top lines ready.

Welcome back to the bandwagon.... I think even with the same type of season that the top line had, we could still see better results. For me, the offense starts with the D. Last year it was not well constructed. Stone and Hamonic were brutal. By D, I mean starting from the D zone, by first gaining possession. So many times we strip the puck, only to have it back on the other sticks. Or out and back in. And we have to do more than just letting teams pick up the puck behind their net and skate in. Take care of the D-zone first. Forecheck to make it tougher.

I wonder if he has the Gaudreau touch for finding players open. Sure, I think he could score, but I think his game is more setup. More forechecking. It's hard to get a read on players in the WJC. Certain comentators were gaga over certain players, while others were 2nd thoughts. What I saw I liked. I thought he was well above Holloway. Other players seemed to only be noticeable when they were attacking. Ah, we shall see. Maybe 2021/22.

I would prefer they use Bennett at C, and have Ryan on the wing if they were together. Lucic-Bennett-Ryan The only problem is minutes. Just a quick set of lines with that in mind.... Mangiapane-Lindholm-Tkachuk Gaudreau-Monahan-Simon Dube-Backlund-Leivo Lucic-Bennett-Ryan Ritchie/Nordstrom Assuming you go with Lindy at C, I think you could have a top scoring line. Every one of them cab score. The "2nd" line has Simon, who supposedly is good at digging out pucks, could also put in quite a few. Gaudreau's biggest issue last year was missing about 30 breakaways by using the weakest finish available. When JH struggles, Monahan does as well. Unfortunately, Bennett would only get 3C at best if he stays at C, and that's only if Lindholm doesn;t play C. Pretty early to project, but we haven't had depth like this before. I don't really care about draft position at this point. If you aren;t the best player on your line, you won't play up in the lines.

It's a shame that Wolf won't get in to the Gold Medal game, though I think Knight has been good most of the time. Can't really fault him too much, but I don't think he has been great. He's been good and at times great. ...... Then again, I hope Wolf doesn't start. That would sting if he got the US a win. Looking forward to see if Pelletier has another gear. He was pretty darn good on the top line. If McMichael could close, they could have had 4-5 goals. I wonder if any team will sign that Finn goalie He was pretty good.

The Johnny-Mony pair deserves criticism, but it's not like they were trash last season. One down season from them. Neither will drag the team into the fight, but they have been the scoring leaders for years. Use them less in power vs power and try to exploit the matchups. One thing I think they lack is the dog on the bone player. I don't know if it would work, but Mangiapane is exactly that player. Enough speed to get to the puck. Shifty enough to come out with the puck. Tkachuk does that too, but he also draws the top D matchups. That's not what Gaudreau needs. I'm interested to see if Simon or Leivo can play with them. Neither us really top 6, but they might have the jam to retrieve pucks. I saw where Ras was practicing on the PP with Tkachuk, Lindy, Monahan, Gaudreau. If he can get back to his junior confidence in QB'ing the PP, then we may have something. Please try out Mangiapane on the PP. He's been so efficient a scorer 5v5 that he may be a good choice.

I don't like the idea of Bennett on RW at all. Has he ever had any success there? Maybe he's not ready for C 100% of the time, but at least put him in a spot he is comforatble in. I also think they really need to look at a ton of combos for lines. They should also be trying out pairs other than the typical ones. Valimaki on RD, paired with Ras, paired with Gio. Try things out so you are ready when the need arises.

Puljujarvi has a chance to come in and impress. He's coming in from 2 partial seasons in a lesser league on big ice. Sure, we were impressed with how Valimaki has played there, but he's also outscored Puljujarvi. As a defenseman. And Valimaki had looked NHL ready even two seasons ago, while Puljujarvi hasn't. I like the Kahun signing, but are the expectations even higher than when they signed Rieder? He was just a couple years removed from back to back 30+ points seasons. Expect a fight between Puljujarvi, Kahun and Yamamoto for top 6 minutes. I tend to agree that the Oilers have not really improved. The holes are still there. They have added some offense, which really wsn't their problem. Maybe the bottom 6 was bad, but I don't think the minutes are there to improve them that much.

This came out awhile ago, but the Alberta teams said that they can't afford to have the teams based in Canada. The whole concept of the taxi squad was to alleviate the border issues that the Canadian teams face. It benefits the US teams as well, but only as a quicker turnaround for players from the AHL. The cap hit is the same as a buried player in the AHL. Waivers still required, though the length may be longer than the usual 30 days (did not see that rule clarified). I'm iinterested to see of they sign Ritchie. While he's not a great player, he's at least a depth winger. As nice as it would be to have Gawdin or Phillips available to play, it only makes sense if they play 50% of the games they are on the taxi squad for. I don't want to see Stone or Rinaldo play games this season. Even Petrovich has to be questionable. He was not great in EDM.