HorvatToBaertschi

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Irwin plays very minimal games with the big club, and was signed to be an Abbotsford 1D in order for us to bring up Wolanin full-time as a reward for his stellar play last season. I'm all for getting Rutta; guy has 2 stanley cups and would bring some stability to our blueline, as well as finally another RHD. I don't know if playing as a 2D is ideal, considering that he's never averaged over 19:15 TOI, and that was his rookie year 6 years ago. Hughes Cole Soucy Hronek Wolanin Rutta That would be how I see it, where you can mix and match at times, and have Rutta play some shifts with Hughes in specific instances.

Horrible GM, horrible coaches, internal issues with the Bo Horvat contract, medical investigations, insane COVID outbreak that retired our 3C, 4 long term surgeries needed to start last season..... This team can't catch a break and it's so frustrating because our core is so talented.

As time goes on, people will finally see that his defensive game has improved consistently since the COVID year where he was a sophomore playing against McDavid 10 times. Little by little, that bias towards him won't matter anymore and his defensive game + his insane offense will get him nominations.

Would rather play for a lotto team and make better money than play with McDavid and be on a contender making a little less money. IMO, Edmonton and Toronto dodged a bullet there.

I agree with you on most points. I'll fight you on this one; Kuzmenko's shooting percentage is sustainable because 30 of his goals (probably an exaggeration) were from tip-ins into open nets. He doesn't actually shoot the puck very often.

I agree with you (other than Hronek being an unknown) but let's face it, any team with an injury to their top 2 players would struggle heavily. Just in our division, an injury to McDavid or Drai would be horrific, an injury to Kopitar or Doughty could crush the Kings, Vegas seems to be immune to it, an injury to Lindholm or Huberdeau could cripple the Flames, an injured McCann or Beniers could be terrible for Seattle.... This year we start with the following players not needing season-ending surgery; Demko, OEL, Pearson and Mikheyev.... We have a huge advantage compared to last year

I think this is the year we see a big step up in the standings. A healthy Demko, a revamped defence, an established system by a competent coaching staff and a retooled PK unit makes us a much stronger team. If we can just get lucky and have a relatively healthy season, we can do a lot of damage. I'm not very sold on LA as a lock for a top 3 spot in the division, and Calgary is on the downswing. It's as good a year as any to start making some noise.

Might want to add a proposal tag to your thread before a mod sees it. On another note; in what world is Calgary starting a rebuild? They have Huberdeau, Weegar and Kadri all signed long term and are waiting on extending Lindholm and Backlund as well long term. They're not even re-tooling.

Hasn't DeAngelo had something like 5 chances already though?

What’s wrong about acquiring a RH top pairing dman that fits our core’s timeline? Provide SOME substance

I see we agree on a lot of things. Cheers EP

Soucy Cole and Irwin are overpriced? L take

PA + JR would have looked really stupid passing on the most coveted position in the game (RHD) in order to draft an undersized winger, a position we have an abundance of.

You are crazy if you think 100% of people who attend games are actual fans.

I don't know many bottom pair dmen that can boast playing beside Hughes and Rielly in his last 2 seasons. His numbers got inflated, and he got a very decent contract out of it. Let's not pretend he's worth 3 years at near 3 million, or that his numbers are going to stay the same, unless he plays with Josi

I mean with ticket prices, concession prices, parking prices, their only job is getting to the arena after a long day's work, knowing that with most games, you're getting home really late before another long day of work. Something that would help with the fans' energy would be a respectable product on the ice, which we haven't had consistently in almost a decade now.

Luckily for us we have a 100 point guy that will be contending for the Selke for the next decade.

This is exactly my point...

It is, in fact, absolutely true. Edit: Aho finished 14th in 2022

I think Pettersson's defensive game has been pretty consistent his entire career. His immediate comparisons to Datsyuk weren't solely due to his hands, but also to his defensive acumen and high hockey iq. Either way, Aho is an excellent player and he fully deserves his contract. He's been a consistent 2 way player his entire career and one that all 29 other teams that passed on him should be pretty bummed about (although Edmonton only had one pick and used it on the greatest player of our generation, so make that 28 teams).

Aho has hovered around JT Miller for Selke votes his entire career, around 25-30th. Pettersson this year has obliterated Aho's highest Selke placement by something like 15-20 spots. Aho is also 1 1/2 years older, so the argument could be made that he has a more consistent defensive record. Pettersson has proved this year that his defensive game is top 10 in the league, which has never been the case for Aho (who's no slouch himself, to be fair).

Not true.

Yeah, Aho isn't an exact comparable for Petey. This is a solid deal for Aho, so a solid deal for Petey is starting to look like 11, which I would be VERY happy with. Aho's been more consistent and less injury-prone, but that's it. Very solid player, would have loved to draft him in 2015.