Moustachio

Don't really understand all the hate... it's not like Nylander or Ehlers were risk-free picks, especially in the western conference. Would have been fantastic to trade up for Reinhart, but the reality is that outside of the top 5 all of the picks come with substantial risks. I'm comfortable with the idea that Benning and his team made the best offer they were willing to make for a higher pick and backed themselves in from there. Further than that, one of the main reasons Benning was lauded as a great hire was his depth of experience in scouting and recruitment. I'm going to choose not to make the bonehead assumption he would select Virtanen just because he's from BC. He has access to a wealth of first, second and third-handed information on these kids and he was hired because he knows what he's doing. Looking forward to seeing how this all pans out!

It was Sam Bennett who struggled with the pull-up's. Sam Reinhart is an entirely different person...

I'm not really leaning one way or another, but you can't expect MG or Gilman to come and and blame a flubbed deal on ownership. He gave a politcally correct non-answer, just like MG did, and neither really shed any light at all on what happened. I'm inclined to think they wanted to move Kes and shake things up, but the deals on offer weren't enough to satisfy everyone. Hopefully they get a second shot when the season is done. Was a bit annoyed that SNET was making out like Kesler looked unhappy in the vision of him at training. He looked relieved to me... and anyone who knows the nucks should know that he never looks happy - the fact that he wasn't dancing around and beaming from ear to ear shouldn't mean jack-all.

Has it actually been confirmed that Lack is starting, or is all of this still coming from the TSN report? All I've seen so far is a comment from Torts that he'll be making his decision on Sunday, so just wondering if I have missed something more decisive directly from the team.

No Tanev, noooo!