Diamonds

Not really. Suter has established himself as a very solid defensive forward, but Blueger plays more on the PK, hits more, and historically has a better faceoff percentage all while scoring at a similar pace (except for a down year this past season). Adding both should be a massive boon to our PK.

Suter vs Blueger for 3C should be fun to watch in camp. But where are we getting the money from? Aren't we already over the cap? Does this mean we actually found a trade partner for Myers or is Pearson way behind on his rehab again?

Training camp will definitely be interesting if no one else gets moved or added. I think they will hold open auditions for a Hughes' partner but my gut says they want to keep Hughes and Hronek separated, except for situations like trying to push for a goal late in the game, and that they're leaning towards Cole playing his off-side as Hughes' partner. As such, it means no rookies on the right side and probably going with Irwin as 3LD unless Hirose drastically outplays him. As such I agree with the vet line-up others are also putting forward and voted none and Matt Irwin. If someone gets moved or added though I will have to update. Also a Cole-Myers second pairing could be interesting if they decide to keep the two offensive threats together and would free up a spot for probably Johansson to play on the 3rd pair beside Soucy. Edit: I wouldn't be surprised though if we end up running something like Irwin/Wolanin as a joint 3LD where Wolanin plays games we want more offense and Irwin plays games we want more defense.

This was definitely a handshake deal. NHL said no to the trade so they found a way to make it happen anyway.

Anyone know what the record is on most pieces moving in trade? This has got to be up there. But honestly a lot of this feels like moving pieces just for the sake of moving them. For Montreal, the 2nd is nice and DeSmith can be a pretty solid 1B in a tandem, but they also already have 3 NHL capable goalies and DeSmith isn't actually that young. I guess the bonus is they dumped Hoffman. Pittsburgh just acquired a new top pairing this offseason in Graves-Karlsson. However, there is risk with Karlsson as even though he's coming off a fantastic resurgence he had 2 brutal seasons just prior. Once Karlsson no longer gets his 70% offensive zone starts, he could become a liability again. San Jose at least gets a 1st round pick for Karlsson, but they also get a lot of junk coming back as well. Honestly just a lot of meh all around. Montreal probably does the best as the assets they got are at least still movable for other assets.

Nonis found some gems his first 2 drafts including Jannik Hansen in the 9th round as well as Edler and Raymond (and was solid with his firsts in Schneider and Bourdon). However his last draft in 2007 was absolutely brutal, headlined by taking Patrick White in the first round. How Gillis managed to turn Patrick White into Christian Erhoff is a miracle. Nonis definitely doesn't get enough credit though for his early picks.

I just saw Amanda Kessel got named as a Special Assistant to the GM. Did she retire? I thought she was still relatively young and still a star for the US national team. Should be a good pick up for Pittsburgh though.

Yep, anyone on that team who played a primarily defensive deployment got lit up. Sean Kuraly and Boone Jenner were also at -28 and -32 respectively. Obviously a -41 doesn't look great, but considering that he had 68% d zone starts on the second worst goal differential team in the NHL last season, I don't think we can put a lot of weight into it.

I didn't know that about Brzustewicz. I already liked him as a pick but this makes me even more excited.

Agent to President/Hockey Ops seems to be a better transition than Agent to GM. When agents become GMs, other GMs seem to not like dealing with them whereas actually building some business chops as an agent helps with managing team budgets and responsibility allocations as a president. Obviously this is all just my personal observation. Still a little bit odd to hire the agent of your biggest star to run the team though.

Having lived in both countries, both healthcare systems are broken. Yes, Canada has universal healthcare which is great knowing you don't have to pay for the ambulance or ER. However, doctors are actually disincentivized to order testing and when you can get it it's often a multiple months wait for things like an MRI. Yes, the US has major issues around getting health insurance, and far too much of the population is without it, but if you can get a good health insurance the healthcare system functions incredibly well and expeditiously. When I had good health insurance the quality of care I got in the US was miles better than what I've gotten in BC.

They won a cup once, can't be bad luck forever.

Please tell me that Seattle bringing back the Metropolitans logo is the first step towards a Seattle vs Vancouver Heritage Classic of Metropolitans vs Millionaires sweaters.

Honestly this kind of makes Boeser’s deal look reasonable. Yes, Terry scored 37 goals two seasons ago but only 23 goals last year. Obviously Anaheim is somewhat betting on Terry improving to a PPG guy, but realistically Brock is the same age and if he can get back to even just 25-30 goals he will have earned his 6.65M. NHL top 6 salaries are clearly going up.

I don't think we really have a shortage of RH forwards. Kuzmenko and Boeser are both right shots, plus Karlsson (this thread's subject) and Klimovich are right shots who seem to be developing pretty well and should be close to NHL ready (especially Karlsson). In addition, Podkolzin is LH but prefers playing the right side (and is probably better suited to the 3rd line than Garland) and Mikheyev plays both sides equally well. Not to mention Studnicka is a right shot and can play C or W. And lastly, yes, Hoglander can play both wings and while he hasn't quite produced at the same rate Garland has he should be ready for more opportunity. Hoglander actually outlasted Podkolzin with the big team last year but ultimately the decision was made to send both of them down because the season was considered a loss and the atmosphere wasn't doing anyone any good. Podkolzin later got a call up but Hoglander didn't because one more NHL game meant he would have become waiver eligible and they wanted both players to be available for the AHL playoffs.

I think some people are only looking at that one video and not realizing it went far beyond that. While that video was a bit lewd, it didn't seem the Wennbergs or the team and too much issue as a one off and the problem was that it gave permission to keep pushing the boundaries. There's a second link in the article posted that details more of what has happened. After that video went up people started directly tagging Alex and his wife in more of a similar style video, direct messaging Alex with lewd and sexual content, and even approaching them in public. Plus apparently a lot of people messaging his wife about wanting Alex to cheat on her, telling her that she doesn't deserve him, saying that he has cheated, etc. The situation is harassment plain and simple.

What's the record arbitration award? Feels like this one must be scheduled to be in the running.

It definitely felt like Gustavsson was a "goalie of the future" and one to watch for a while but for whatever reason things never seemed to click in Ottawa. Excited to see if he can continue the emergence he had with Minnesota last year.

Comparing forwards to defensemen is always tricky I find. Take for example Phil Kessel vs Alex Pietrangelo. Kessel was a 1st line center for over a decade who finished top 10 in scoring 4 times. Pietrangelo is a do everything defenseman who is usually good for 45-52 points and while has garnered Norris votes over the years has never quite been a Norris finalist. Both players had Stanley Cup runs deserving of a Conn Smythe. Their career earnings have also been surprisingly similar. So which player would you take? I'm sure some would lean towards the flash of Phil Kessel (Toronto went in this direction) but personally I would take Pietrangelo. Edit: just realized I said center for Kessel but he's mostly been a winger and only part-time center

Shinkaruk also then had hip surgery and lost almost a full season of development plus never regained full mobility which he relied on for his shifty play style.

Isn't that almost identical to Samsonov's filings? I'm guessing it will be ~$3.6M again.

Putting faith in a rookie goalie is always a risk. Levi does have a lot of hype around him though.

One thing I noticed with Mikheyev last year that seems to be an anomaly is how infrequently he hit. He still had great defensive positioning and awareness, but he was only hitting at ~.25 hits/game and 1 hit/60 minutes which is half the rate of Boeser and Garland last year. Usually he's closer to 1 hit/game so I'm hoping it was him being cautious of his knee and we see him engage a bit more physically this year. He clearly doesn't need to be a wrecking ball to be effective, but it would still be nice to see a bit more physicality.

If Petey doesn't re-sign this summer it tells me he likely needs more convincing on Allvin's plan. That or he's betting on himself to follow-up on last season's breakout with an equally great season to raise his value.

I'm sure Carson Bjarnason will be considered and Quentin Miller likely will as well plus there's always someone who comes out of nowhere. Exciting to see Ty Young in the mix though! Ratzlaff and DiVincentiis are likely the two closest to being locks.