travel_dude

Yeah, I don't know how much his production dip was injury and how much was Backlund impact. Players have performed well with Backlund up to a point and then need to move up. His shooting % definitely took a hit. Generally beyween 15% and 19% but 9% last season.

There's zero contract benefit to send him to the AHL. I can make a case why Ruzicka should not be waived and sent down. Coronato is only a question mark about best use of contract ELC costs. He's got 2 years at the present cap hit. Unlike junior players that had slide years, we start birning his ELC this fall. Unlike Pelletier, Coronato is a sniper. If he's going to do anything on the Flames, it has to be in a top or missle 6 role. I suppose you could have a line of Pelletier-Ruzicka-Coronato, but why would you? 8-10 minutes doesn't get you enough out of them. They are the value part of the lineup. Honestly, I would be okay in doing a bit of a revamp of the middle 6. Backlund and Mangiapane out, if we could get a bigger version of Mange or a young top 6 C from the cost of both. I may be wrong about Mange, but I fear he will be close to last year than his miracle contract year season. Unlike Dube, he only plays LW.

Both are somewhat unproven. Ruzicka had a great start to the season when he played top minutes. Perhaps that's what he is, a top line player needing the minutes to produce. Duehr needs to be able to produce against all teams, not just the fringe ones. He had his most points against ARI, SJS, with only 4 of his 11 points against playoff teams. I think it's somewhat okay to have a PTO for some of the remaining guys available. Tartar on a PTO is better than some of what we have already signed. Comtois. Donskoi, Nolan Patrick. Ethan Bear. Some guys that may not get deal otherwise. A one year deal at the end of TC means we have a potential pick or prospect coming back to us at TDL. We can't just look at what we have and say we are fine.

I read a rumor story that appeared to be just a speculation story. something in the realm of "it might make sense that DET would be in the conversation", or in other words not really based on any sources. I'm fine with discussing trades, but it has to be more like ones that make sense to both teams, not just they have cap space. TOR has a need. BUFF has a need. Who else really is needing new blood to either be a playoff team or maintain that.

I look back at last year's TC and wonder what the heck happened. Lucic and Lewis basically told don't worry about it, you have your spot. Pelletier and Ruzicka have a meh camp, but they really didn't get much opportunity to stand out. Phillips stood out, but he was in the "na gonna happen" state. Mackie put in a position to get a spot while Valinaki put in the gotta prove it state. To be clear, I have no issues with waiving guys that are marginal NHL at best. I have no issues with sending guys down that didn't have a good camp. What we actually ended up with was a NHL experience bias influencing camp lines resulting in NHL players gifted spots. Camp is still a long ways off and we are yet to actually do anything this summer to deal with deficiencies or pending UFA's that we maybe don't see as being long term players here. Almost like the mentality is that we are good enough to win the cup and just need the players to step up. Really, I can't even tell what the GM expects the top line to consist of. Lindholm, great if he's signed. Huberdeau, if you have a sniper to step up and score from RW. Daily faceoff has the following lines and pairs: Huberdeau-Lindholm-Sharangovich Dube-Kadri-Coronato Mange-Backlund-Coleman Pelletier-Ruzicka-Duehr Hanifin-Ras Weegar-Tanev Kylington-Zadorov Oesterle That's all well and good, but.... - it's perhaps a weaker team than last year - 4 of the forwards played less than 1/2 a season in the NHL - Backlund and Hanifin want out - Weegar is a top pairing D - 8 pending UFA's and none re-signed to date, 6 of which are D - 3 pending RFA's at forward

With Bergeron winning the Selke every year, there is no way to tell if he was high on people's lists. Not a scoring star, but every bit as effective defensively as many 2C's in the league. You lose the trade if the cap allows you to improve the roster. Does him a solid by trading to a new team to fit in.

+1 Yes, that's kind of the point that we lost to a team we have every business beating. Not that I expected us to go onto the cup, but a series win maybe changes outcome afterwards. Hard to buy into a diatribe when that proved to be bunk. Anyway, back to lines. We are missing something right now. Even if Hubey and Kadri have great seasons, we have flux after them. Lost a top RW and never found a good 2nd line combo. Are we gonna have to play Backlund 17 minutes a game? And this for a player that wants out.

You could see the Sutter control being exercized after game 1. The players were wound up about the series and came out like gangbusters. Instead of looking at what went right, he focused on playing a 2-1 style game. Power vs power to try to play to a draw and hope Lucic gets you the win. LOL. Rookie coach played him. They will just let the hard checking result in PP time, where McD plays 1:50 of 2 minutes. And sure, put out your 4th line for 12 minutes, because we they are just going to throw out McD and/or Draisaitl. Take a penalty with 4th line out there? No problem. Sutter was great for laying blame. Put out Pelletier with Kadri in OT, blame the kid for missing an assignment. In a situation he hasn't faced before. Suggests the big name players aren't scoring the big goals, but who's sitting in OT? End of a PP, throw out the 4th line. Play the Backlund line for the most minutes to manage a tie if possible and lose in OT. Anyway, I kinda done with the Sutter talk suffice to say that the change needed to happen and he took down the GM with him. The Sutter roster hangover is going to take a lot of greasy food and Tylenol to get over.

Maybe, just maybe we have a GM that looks past the immediate. The now suggests that we have Backlund as an option for 3C. The now suggests that we could run him back and figure out what to do with him by February. That solves exactly nothing. Having a player say that the "may" decide to re-sign as a UFA should set off warning bells and that you take action now. A trade either brings back a better player for a wing spot or just picks/prospects. That leaves the spot vacant for players to step up. Ruzicka and Zary have not had any chance at a C spot with better than 4th line player or at all. They don't need to be Backlund, they need to be a 3C and the defensive role is spread out. If they can't rise to the level you need, then you know what you have. You make another move. $5M for a 3C is insane unless you have value in 1C and 2C. We don't. Move on time. We really can't afford both him and Hanifin this or next year.

Considering the AAV, that seems like missed opportunity.

That made me laugh. I think they are performance enhancers in the minds of the person using them. Wow, did I just do that? Yup, you managed to walk to the store.

I watched it with subtitles before I posted the reply to Peeps. I didn't really need to hear it, but it's good that it was not addiction.

I would think that Suter might be an option for that. Backlund is only as useful as him wanting to be here. Once he wants out, we have to get rid of him. Or at the very least TDL.

That dude is cut! By the sounds of his candid interview, he may have his head back in the game.

I'm not really making a judgement call at this point. We had a GM with his own belief of what a team needed to be. Some of his stuff early on was Burke influence. Or guided by the owners telling him what he needed to do. When he got freedom, he followed a script. Maybe the wrong one and the results speak to some of the mistakes or things he failed to do. Sutter was a big wrench for this team. He was a big influence on where we were headed and what happened with players we had. Going after Hubey and Weegar in a trade wasn't the worst idea, nor was signing Kadri. Those players with Sutter were. So we have made some big changes in front office. New GM, new coach, new A/coaches, adds to pro scouting team. They all fall under new bosses. Hanifin is blocking any moves the team would like to do. Indecision by Lindholm is a bit as well. Backlund should be moved just because he's being wishy-washy. He wanted to be the captain and will hold out for that this year if he stays. Time to move on. And we need to make it happen sooner than later. Then we can get an idea of what this new group will be doing. If we see more of the same from Connie, then I agree with Conumdrumed. Prove him wrong.

Maybe we can shut this sucka down, since he's not the GM here.

Kucherov had the luxury of being LTIR due to surgery before the season even started. The rules say that if you are deemed healthy, you have to be back on the roster. I find it odd that it took until the playoffs for that to happen, but easier to get around it by not playing a single game prior. It's speculation to suggest we are the one team doing it and ignoring long term risks. Once you are deemed healthy, the player goes back on the roster , playing or not. I also find it hard to believe that all other teams are following the cap rules when it happens. A day comes when Yamamoto is due back on the roster, but there is no cap room. Amazing how someone else gets placed on IR. Mike Smith is so injured he can't play after they get Campbell signed, but healthy enough to play their last playoff game. Just a couple examples. Anyway, I grow tired talking about this. Have at er if you like.

We have a head doc and two other docs. Plus 2 ortho surgeons. I can't say whether Ras was healthy enough to play. Did the DET docs say he should be off a month? The LOC is for sure concerning. But what metrics say that he should not be out there so soon? Has to pass baseline tests. Can't have dizziness for x days in a row. I dunno. Could they have kept him sidelined? For sure, as there was no LTIR cap stuff involved.

I don't even think they passed it yet in the Leg committee. May have, but I heard nothing after the election.

We play a different game than some of the softies that try to play tough. I should say played. Tkachuk gets injured in the playoffs by acting tough and paying for it. EDM loses guys because they think they are tough. Other teams have unfortunate injuries. I don't see our team docs doing anything to cover up an injury. Monahan loved the game so much he was willing to play hurt. He may have thought he was ensuring he would get dropped down the roster. Maybe he just wanted to play. Tell me how Murray goes from playing in the playoffs to being injured LT. Or how some players stay on LTIR right up to the point that cap doesn't matter. Lupul. It's known that some teams cheat. All it takes is the rules being lax enough to allow it. GM - don't give me a guy that is 90%, I want 100. Unless cap doesn't matter. Anyway, just saying we follow the rules. Other teams don't when they can get away with it. Our docs say cleared to play.

Talk to the players that cover it up. If your player isn't complaining about something, how do the trainers know? Monahan confided in Johnny, but not the trainers. May have asked for a cortizone shot, but I would suggest that half the players do at some point. I would say that we are no different than other teams about missing injuries. Other teams have "lucky" injuries that allow them to LTIR players without the NHL saying squat about it. Because we follow the rules, our players come back perhaps too soon.

Versteeg is the only PTO that comes to mind that made sense. But I think we went 2 years with him. It's a function of spending to the cap every year. Last year we overspent and traded Monahan and a 1st. But that was a long term deal. We have no room to sign anyone. As much as I liked the idea of signing Dumba, it was something you do after. After you trade Backlund and Hanifin. After you decide to trade Tanev and sign a replacement. I think there is a longer runway with Dumba. So, we have a GM that didn't trade down at the draft. We picked in order of our picks. This is also a transition year, so I doubt a 1st is traded unless it's a homerun deal. We may look for a 1st, but I doubt we really want to or should trade Lindy. Others are fair game. Set up the team for longer term success. Create cap room knowing you can sign a UFA for less. Keep the term short. Can always re-sign them mid year if they work out. Or trade them if you are missing the playoffs.

I think a lot of fans were burned with the Gaudreau and Tkachuk thing happening, and the end result was a boring team with a boring coach. Nothing to get excitied about and the team seems more messed up than before. This team needs to take a serious look at itself and change the culture. But, I do think that there is some reason to believe there could be that kind of change.

ARI is doing what they do, sign a guy and trade him. Not a bad idea, since you either can re-sign him or trade him. They don't care if his body is still good or not, he's gone at TDL. I have a problem with letting Hanifin walk. It may free up $7M next year, but we lose a top 4D for nothing. We could trade him for an expiring asset plus something and still come out better. No way we re-sign him in the summer if he's already said he wants to go to the US. I'm not sure what the line is, but I think Karlsson got in the way. There may be more of a market now.

I was just saying that the market seems to have dried up a bit. He may well be fielding offers, which he should, but as the summer goes on the money available to teams dries up. Of the teams best positioned to sign him, most are in the rebuild category. DET looks like they could today, but are they able to and ice a full roster? I don't rely on insiders, but I wonder what he is weighing out when there is little mention of him. I guess they only ever talk about the big names. Should he sign here? For sure, perfect age for this team. Maybe we can then move on from Backlund and stop rewarding character only.