Tom Sestito

If there's people who want to start playing haxball again, I can teach you guys how to play again. The game at least in NA is starting to build back up a bit. Time Lord still plays in some leagues here and there. I play competitive 4v4 and can help a lot.

Yup. Markstrom played well tonight. He's played fine recently. The team has had no chemistry recently, and everyone is playing worse in front of him. We're not creating high level chances while we're conceding high level chances on our end. Markstrom is a legitimate top ten goalie in this league. The rest of the roster composition is the issue.

McCann's advanced stats were also good here. Really good ES player at the NHL level relative to deployment. Loved when we picked him, always thought he was better than Jake.

The Pearson for Gudbranson trade was always a win regardless of how good Pearson was. Gudbranson played at an AHL level during his tenure here, but the optics would have never been good for management to not have him in the lineup. He was a constant net negative on the ice with no self accountability. Everyone was worse with him on the ice. At the worst, Pearson was going to continue being a replacement level scorer which was automatically better than bleeding goals Gudbranson. Best case was that he finds his game again, which he clearly has. It blows my mind that a team was willing to take him. Awful player. But, I do agree that the trade never should have been made. Forget the fact that he wasn't ever really that good, it was not a logical move to trade a good young ES player for a guy they had to sign the following offseason who was decently older. Pearson is a legitimately good player. Him and Miller have been our best forwards this year.

@Warhippy this was the original post i responded to, which you were supposed to quote. Again, I will repeat that I don't know why you're trying to create a strawman. The Baertschi trade is one of Benning's most favorable moves among the fanbase. So, the strawman you've created is not representative of the fanbase opinion. Again, I will repeat that you do this continuously where you come into threads that are debating a questionable move and make a post like the above. It just seems as if you don't have an argument to be made about the move so you want to indirectly mock everyone who disagrees with it. Can you provide any insight into the move so there's something tangible to go off of?

Especially when you're throwing the $5 bill in the trash in favor of the paper weight that is Loui Eriksson.

Yeah, because the bolded was all you posted and the rest of your post doesn't exist. I will repeat again to answer that bolded part but the Baertschi trade was by far one of the least scrutinized Benning moves. Would you like to try that again where you quote your entire post so that we can address the rest that you want to pretend doesn't exist?

Sending down Gagner over the useless corpse of Granlund was a stupid move.

The Baertschi trade was one of Benning's most universally understood/applauded moves. That is to say, I'm saying that relative to the other moves Benning has made. He was a good gamble. At worst, the consensus from even the staunchest of Benning haters is that it was an understandable gamble. I still don't have an issue with the trade or the contract he signed. You do this every time there is a decision that is being debated. You come on, act as if anyone who disagrees is dumb, and then never really want to dissect why it's being criticized.

While I agree with your take on Ferland, I can't agree on the Baertschi front. Yes, Baertschi has been more effected by his concussions than Ferland. Concussions are also unpredictable and the next one for Ferland could really go badly. My biggest issue with the dump of Baertschi is that we had potential to have three scoring lines for the first time in a damn long time. Sutter and Eriksson are absolute blackholes on a third line and Beagle, while doing a good fourth line job, will not produce much offensively. I was actually quite excited about the prospect of having Baertschi - Gaudette - Leivo on a third line. They've also put themselves in a situation where they won't have cover for the top six now if Baertschi doesn't get claimed. Eriksson, Virtanen, and Goldobin were the canucks three worst forwards in camp. Not sure why two of those guys survived above Baertschi.

I have a midterm in three hours and all I've been doing this morning is reading the nonsense. There is no possible justification for Baertschi and Biega on waivers over Eriksson and Fantenberg that does not make the management group look bad.

why are you creating a strawman to justify your stance dawg

I agree that Ferland and Miller are good players. I would have taken the same gamble on the Ferland contract that Benning did. I did not have an issue with the signing. But, my issue is that people are ignoring that his concussion history means it could go downhill very easily. And, if Baertschi with his concussion issues but better offensive ability was untradeable with half the term, then you can assume that Ferland is now untradeable. I also really like JT Miller; he looks awesome. I also really like having my first round when the team has a 50/50 shot of making the playoffs at best.