D-Money

Dustin Wolf is a young guy who is ready. In the last 2 seasons he has played 134 professional games, and won AHL goalie of the in both of them (and league MVP last year). It’s not often that you see 22 year-old goalies expected to play in the NHL, but he’s proven it. Silovs, on the other hand, has played only 71 pro games over the last 2 seasons. Although he has played well, outside of his Olympics run he hasn’t been dominant like Wolf. Ideally, he should be starting regular games with Abbotsford this year, ready to be called up in case Demko gets injured. I think the plan this year is to do Silovs and Martin a solid, and let them try to win the backup job at camp. But if neither blow the doors off, management is fully prepared to grab another guy off waivers during preseason. There are a number of teams with really interesting #3 (and even #4) goalies, and the waiver wire should have better options than what is left in free agency.

All the best, @Tony Romo & @Dak Prescott!!! You left the team with a lot of high end young players and prospects. It shouldn’t be too hard finding a GM who will want to take it over.

Surprised he got a significantly higher AAV than Nick Roy. But I bet they’re expecting he’ll challenge RyJo for 2C next year, and preferred to get him locked up longer term.

The reason a guy as experienced and professional as Ray is available for this job is because his wife works in Vancouver. It’s a good fit for him and his family. If anything, his connection to the team will help him not put his foot in his mouth, and say things that are too critical.

Just when Jeannot looked like he was settling in with the team last year, he suffered a freak injury that held him out till the playoffs. Even in the playoffs, he played a bit, but it wasn’t his true game. I remember a Tampa reporter saying the team was surprised that he could play at all. So I wouldn’t gauge too much off what he did in his brief stint with Tampa last year. That said, it was a ridiculous overpayment. For a team that has successfully minded talent deep into the draft for years, punting on the entire draft in a class heralded as one of the strongest ever, for a bottom-6 undrafted guy was just strange. But they obviously feel there is something truly special about Jeannot, and Nashville didn’t want to let him go unless it was a deal they literally could not say no to.

Toronto? St. Louis? Has A.I. taken the next big step, and immediately mastered trolling?

Do you honestly think that because a short, chubby, old hockey coach is friends with a wrestler, that will make wrestling fans more interested in hockey?

Raymond? Seriously? Copp? I’m not going to go full-Alf and suggest Hronek was better than Larkin (who is criminally underrated). But you’re really selling short how good Hronek was last year. Did you even look at the numbers before posting that?

Philly thought they dodged this bullet by trading him back to Carolina, only the league blocked it (due to Philly retaining, as it hasn’t been a full year since Carolina traded him). Supposedly the deal was going to go through last week instead, but for some reason Carolina said ‘no’ now. Regardless, don’t want this player on the Canucks. We have little use for him with Hughes running our PP. And even though he scores a lot, he gives up even more defensively. On top of it all, he sounds like a royal douche-nozzle. No thanks.

Much of Detroit’s success was from having the 2nd-greatest defenseman of all time. Once Lidstrom left, the magic was gone.

After seeing the Islanders go from the worst defensive team in the league, to the best one… along with back-to-back Conference finals… after losing their franchise player for nothing… I never question the impact of a coach anymore.

Hmmm, those last 2 signings were more reasonable than I expected.

Eh…I’m not so sure about that. If Bergeron doesn’t come back, that’s a huge loss. Add in Krejci, Hall, Orlov, Bertuzzi, Clifton, Foligno, Nosek… Even guys who stayed who had career years (Pastrnak, Lindholm, etc) are due for some regression. Lindholm in particular - he had 53 points, while his previous career high was 34. Bruins may still make the playoffs, but I suspect it will be as a wildcard.

Hoglander is the same height as Yanni Gourde, and even has 10 lbs on him. If he can develop consistent defensive mindset to go with his offensive skills, he could be a very valuable middle-6 player one day. The ball is in his court. If he doesn’t put it together in 2 years, I suspect he’ll go back to being a star in the SHL instead.

A 5-year deal may not be a bad idea. Because, unless there is some significant success in the next 4 years, it will be time to blow it up and start over at that point.

Air - 6/10 (Prime) About Nike trying to sign Michael Jordan. It was well made, with good actors. It was interesting at first to see how far Nike was behind the competition at the time, and it was fun seeing all the 80s stuff on display. But overall, there just wasn’t enough to hold my interest for nearly 2 hours. (A similar story involving Reebok signing Venus Williams was just a small part of a much better movie). Maybe if I were a basketball fan, or cared at all what type of runners I had, I’d have enjoyed it more.

What was he doing there?!?

I wonder if bring back in St. Louis will rejuvenate him. Some guys just love it there. Sammy Blais looked like a totally different player when the Blues acquired him. And take a look at David Perron’s career, he just seems to have another gear when he’s in STL.

I too wonder about Seattle next year. McCann and Dunn both just exploded, well beyond all expectations. There are assumptions that they finally arrived and this production will continue, but then again, they’re called “career seasons” for a reason. And Beniers looked great, but sophomore slumps are a common thing too. Eberle played all 82 games and had his best season in 8 years. Sprong scored 20 goals and walked. Soucy was replaced by Dumoulin, who looked pretty bad last year. Maybe I’m wrong, but there are number of signs that next season will not go as well as this past one did for them.

Prior to signing his current contract, Matthews had never scored more than 40 goals, and his highest points were 73. Marner had just peaked with 26 goals and 93 points. I’m not disagreeing that Dubas went way too high for both of them at the time. But with the cap set to start skyrocketing next year, if EP40 is going to sign an 8-year deal, I suspect it will be in the $11M range.

Matthews is on the verge of getting $14M+. Pettersson at $12M may not be far off, but I'm hoping he comes in around 11. Matthews AND Marner got more than 11 a few years ago, and Petey has done more than either of them did to when they were RFAs. Also, with the cap finally going up, it won't look that high in a few years.

Hope the best for him. Looked like he could be a regular NHL-er, but injuries really derailed him.

Zadina didn't "quit" on a team. If anything, he did Detroit a huge favour in mutually terminating his contract so they didn't need to buy him out. He's taking that risk because he believes he can still become a quality hockey player if given the time to work on his game. FZ went where he has a spot in the top-6 and PP by default, because he wants to prove he belongs there. Not many teams would have such a lack of talent that they could make that guarantee. Certainly not the Canucks, who would have at least 4 wingers ahead of him on the depth chart.

The Good Nurse - 7/10 (Netflix) A bit slow at times, but overall a solid movie with excellent performances. Although it tells the story of how a serial killer was caught, it is more about the problems in the US healthcare system that allowed him to continue for so long. That and what it would be like to find out that a friend who you thought you knew and trusted was actually a monster.

Debrincat had a down year, and forced a trade out. Not sure why everyone expects the return to be as good as when he was coming off a 41-goal season.