JeremyCuddles

Well that about sums it up.

Panarin did come over much later and was undrafted (I think), maybe the NHL was never really in his plans?

We aren’t saving any cap. Just trading Eriksson. On top of having more salary. Sure, ownership would love this idea.

Unless the intro song is about whether or not to run a new jersey logo I say who cares

At 6'8 he'd make a great goalie. Frees us up to trade Demko or Markstrom in a package for Mitch Marner who would make a great puck moving defenseman.

We have one top 6 spot, on paper, up for grabs. I imagine anyone and everyone will be considered for it. And I am pretty sure that'll be to the discretion of Green and not JB. With the cap not going up, likely next season as well, and Lu's recapture I don't see us acquiring another top 6 forward. Sutter and Tanev's injury history and Eriksson's lackluster play likely means we won't be able to move any of them for relief either unless we give up another 1st rounder in Eriksson's case. With the guy's we are likely to go into the season with it should be an interesting fight for that last top 6 spot. Eriksson, Baer, Virtanen, Leivo, Goldy and even Gaudette could all make some noise for that spot. People have given up on Baer but I still have hope and believe he will be a good top 6 option. Pearson - Horvat - JT Miller Baertschi - Pettersson - Boeser On paper I'd say that's a very formidable top 6. Personally I'd like to see Green continue to give Jake a look on that Boeser/Pettersson line. Hopefully Green and company told Virtanen what he needs to do this offseason for a legit spot at that role and hopefully Virtanen keeps improving. He had 15 goals last season playing with guys that barely scratched 15 points. Say what you will about how he scores but scorers score. And 15 from a guy that can hit and has elite level skating is pretty damn good in my books. Hell if he improves his offensive instincts even a line of Pearson Horvat and Virtanen could cause all sorts of problems in all 3 zones for the opposition. I love MacEwen and his development but I still have Jake and Goldy higher on the pecking order. On top of guys like Bear and Eriksson that should be battling for the top 6.

I disagree with the idea he has phoned it in or is coasting I think he is just deflated from how things are going. He is squandering pretty good looks. He gets played in the top 6 but just fails to play at that level then gets demoted. I am sure two head coaches have tried everything in their power to make him work in the top 6. He failed with the Sedins, he failed with Bo Horvat. At this point the only thing left to try is Eriksson, Petey and Boeser. Assuming they never tried that, I can't recall any extended looks with them together. He had 38% ozone starts last season, which is by far the lowest of his career. That's shutdown forward deployment. Which isn't his game. Just glue his ass to Bo or Petey's line. Where his deployment is at lowest 50% (which is in line with his past deployment) with Bo or as high as 60-70% with Petey. He's not a defensive liability and pucks don't die on his stick the way they do on Sutter's. Give him the entire preseason with Petey and parts of October. If he keeps sucking I am with you. He's a lost cause. Also, the problem I have with Green is he doesn't give combos more than a game or two sometimes only a handful of shifts within one game and if they don't produce he jumbles the lines again. Other than Petey and Boeser I don't think any line combo stuck around together for more than a handful of games. Hard to gain chemistry like that. Pearson, Bo Miller. Eriksson Petey Boeser. Run it until November. See what happens. Deploying Eriksson like he is Beagle is not helping Eriksson or us honestly.

He isn't saying someone has been mistreated, but how Vancouver handles Eriksson could have negative ramifications going forward. From the sounds of it he is referencing the idea that if we dump Eriksson in Utica to force him to walk away from his contract it'll make us a less appealing free agent destination. Which I agree, intentionally putting him in a bad situation (demoting him to Utica) to get out of his contract seems suspect. He's not an AHL player. He can play in the NHL. It's just the fact he's not worth what he is making for the production he provides. Sending him to Utica to make him quit on his contract would indeed make us look really bad.

Tanev is never really around. If someone around the league values him enough to throw us a bottom pair d-man and a 2nd or 3rd rounder I think we'd be mistaken to not at least consider it. I doubt anyone would without at least seeing if Tanev can stay healthy though. So we are probably stuck with him for the year healthy or not. Since I see us being playoff bound this season.

I mentioned in my post Sutter only logged 26 games.

The only thing disappointing about Sutter, for me, has been his health. But I guess my expectations are lower.

Agreed. Yes we can get bottom 6 players in free agency. But having top end ones is rare, as silly as it may sound calling a bottom 6 player "top end". We paid a premium for Beagle who was arguably the best bottom 6 player in his free agent class. But considering he can slot in at 3rd line center and can play with 18% ozone starts and not complain we got a real gem there. That's not even including all the other intangibles he brings. His leadership and professionalism is a huge boon for the kids.

Not true, not anyone can insulate. You want them to ideally be good at what you are asking them to do otherwise you risk getting roasted defensively. And with Markstrom and Demko in net you'd rather not have them lose confidence in themselves because you have say a Gaunce or Gagner in a defensive zone faceoff 60% of the time. And we have some young defensemen too that you don't want getting overwhelmed by running a subpar player in a shut down role. Not really relevant to the overall conversation but an interesting thing to note about Dubois since you brought him up, he's not actually all that good defensively in the NHL. He had 67% ozone starts last season and is a sub 45% faceoff guy. He would need the same deployment protection that Petey has since CBJ is actually deploying him the same way we are deploying Petey. I won't argue Eriksson's terrible contract but I'd argue if not for injuries Sutter would be right in line with his paycheck. Beagle is maybe 500k overpaid, but from what I seen he could legitimately play 3rd line center full time and not be out of place. And he did play 3rd line center for a lot of last season and I'd say he was pretty good overall. And Beagle is not "decent at faceoffs" he's great at 56% win rate. He has leadership and some bite to his game. He's a premiere shut down guy that you win games with. Hence his nice little Cup ring. 3mil seems like a lot for things we can't see in box scores but for what he actually brings by the eye test and through the rippling effects in the lineup his 3mil contract is nowhere near "albatross" level. Edit: Yikes, sorry for the long winded comment. Lol.

Did they wait a little while because they didn't wanna make it obvious that Sullivan was only re-signing if Kessel was traded?

Now you're thinking like an idiot, I mean, CDC intellectual. Mike Gillis and his right hand man Gilboy gonna save our cap situation.

So we can fire Benning, come on. Gotta think 3 steps ahead.

Or just be less sensitive.

I can't even recall those instances, outside the Kadri shenanigans. Two instances really doesn't make a rivalry. But I won't step in front of people hating whatever team they want. I dislike Toronto cause of the media. Lol. Just feel like the "rivalry" thing isn't factual.

I feel like at this point the Toronto hate is largely media envy (I say this as one such fan that hates Toronto for getting so much air time and coverage on TV). If we had half as much shine as Toronto on sports media I don't think people would pay that team any mind. There is no real rivalry with Toronto and Vancouver on the ice. When was the last time we met them in the playoffs? When was the last time we had a meaningful game played against them at all? There isn't enough of a team rivalry to hate them the way we do. We have more nice things to say about actual teams in our division/conference than we do for Toronto. And in 2011 if I remember correctly nobody supported us in Canada. So to say we dislike Toronto cause they didn't support us in 2011 seems a bit nonfactual given nobody outside of BC really wanted us to succeed.

Now imagine Bo's faceoffs and zone starts if we had no Beagle. He'd be in the 20-30% ozone start range, maybe even lower. Beagle is not only helping insulate Petey and Boeser but taking the workload off Bo and allowing him to play a more two way role opposed to a purely shut down role. People complain about Sutter and Beagle' scoring/contracts. But they were never brought in to score 20 goals or anything. Petey's great season, don't you guy's think that might be because guys like Beagle and Sutter are taking damn near all of the defensive possessions? Beagle had 18% ozone starts. Sutter had 31%, probably would have been lower if he play more than 26 games. Bo had 40%, with Sutter that's probably closer to 45-50%. So imagine we lose Sutter, and we have no Beagle. Where is Bo's defensive deployment? Now, where are his offensive totals after that? They are having an effect on the game even if you don't see it in the box score.

My boys Heinen and Bennett though

Dang, would have been a nice add for us. Good pick up for Buffalo. They need help in the middle 6 area. Good price, great term.

I mean, it's not like his playmaking is leagues better than those behind him. Goldy is not irreplaceable or all that important. I am rooting for the guy but I am also not against just moving him out/letting him go.

Laine was a no show for most of last season. His 30 goals look impressive until you realize he scored pretty much all of them in the first 20 games. He's a one dimensional scorer, albeit elite level when he's on. 50 points in 82 games is not very good. Boeser had 6 more points in 13 fewer games. If Winnipeg is lucky Montreal offersheets him for 8.5 and they get two 1st rounders, a 2nd and a 3rd. I don't think they'll be hurting as bad as people say. They were incredibly deep last season. Most of what they lost were luxuries and not necessities. Losing both Myers and Trouba is interesting though.

The downside to being bad is no matter how many things go right people will just be negative. Not to mention everyone thinks there is only one way to be good again. Draft 1st overall every year. This team was competitive last year and was 5 games from the playoffs. Benning improves our top 6 and adds a top 4 d-man and somehow that is terrible for the team. On top of drafting one of the more highly touted prospects in the draft. We are so close to the playoffs and Benning and management can see that. Some fans and media can't seem to get over the fact we never drafted top 3 and are on our way to competing again. Also for some reason we can never trade picks ever cause "rebuild".