Tower102

Anyone still mad about this?

ESPN is projecting Petey to be 3rd in the league in scoring this year at 116 points behind the Oiler duo. This is the last year for me where I am willing to give it test. I personally look at the roster and think we are a top 2/3 team in the division easily. I think analysts projecting standings never give nuance and mostly just reiterate the last season's standings. I don't really see how we can fill out the edges of the team much better than we did this summer around the core. Give them a chance to see if we have a contender within this group. If we miss the playoffs again barring major injury to a core member, it will be time to tear it all down.

Chicago blew it up, come on, thats a rebuild. They traded a young Debrincat and a young Dach.

I wasn't really buying into the Myers to SJ after bonus paid rumours before but since we keep adding and all reports indicate Pearson is going to be ready for camp, I am starting to believe that they have a handshake deal and will be making that move. I would be happy with Myers on the third pairing but if Pearson is ready to go and we aren't having to move out an asset of significance with Myers than I am ok with it assuming we would than sign Bear and run with Juulsen in the spot until Bear is healthy...or we swing for the fences and trade for Pesce. I would rather not trade away Boeser or Garland for the sake of cap space as I think with our forward group, they add a fair amount of value. Boeser will be improved (and actually had decent per game numbers last year) and Garland gives us 3 scoring lines playing with Suter and Podz which is needed in this NHL.

I don't think enough people are talking about how fixing our PK alone will add a lot of wins. If we go from being dead last like the last two years to having a league average PK, that is the difference of potentially 5 wins IMO. Earlier I actually crunched numbers on goals saved and translated to wins but never wrote it down. I think we have done more than enough to be at least average on the PK now. The coaching change saw a difference than add Soucy, Cole, Hronek, Blueger and Suter plus a healthy Mikheyev.

IMO owners should all be willing to spend to the cap every year to try and build a winner. Hoffman makes $5 million this year so it would be around 17 million to fast track the rebuild and get to the playoffs sooner. At some point the owners HAVE to invest to make the playoffs to earn that revenue. But I do see your point. The interesting thing is exactly a year ago, this would have been considered a massive win for SJ to be able to get him off the books at all, let alone get an asset back as he was looking like the worst contract in the NHL. Lets see if he is finally healthy and back to what he's been or if it was a one off year and he regresses again.

Really don't see why SJ didn't retain 50% (they aren't winning in these 4 years anyways) and get a much better haul of picks and prospects. Karlsson at 10 is apparently not worth much of anything (the 1st is almost worth what it should take to take on Hoffman), whereas teams would have offered a lot for him at 5.75.

Are you being obtuse or really that dunce that you can't see the difference... the advantage isn't in using LTIR during the season... its in having all those guys back magically healthy come playoff time.

But timing can be cruel, even if just one year. When MacKinnon signed we didn't know when the cap would go up and how much. We are much more clear now that it will go up a significant amount allowing room for the inflated contract. There is also the fact that while one could argue MacKinnon over Matthews, Matthews has far more awards to boost his value. Sure MacKinnon has the cup, but Makar was MVP. I think we do more or less agree though, it should be that number at a 7 or 8 year deal, and something like 12.5 if less.

Its inflation and sets the benchmark for Draisatl's next contract and the minimum for McDavid's next. MacKinnon signed during the flat cap era which muted inflation, Matthews extension will kick in as we come out of the flat cap era. 13.5 is perfectly reasonable for the best player in franchise history, its just unfortunate it isn't for max term.

I haven't said any of the things you comment about. If you look at most of the top teams, they split their top 2 D to spread the minutes out. Hronek may not be Hughes' level, but he certainly is our 2nd best Dman.

Agreed. Top players like Hughes and Hronek can carry players, plus they can both play to full potential with the freedom of having a defensive guy beside them opposed to each other. Hronek and Hughes can still pair at times as well. Plus I'd rather 45-50 minutes of Hughes or Hronek on the ice than 25. It also allows us to shelter the 3rd pairing even more.

Hughes Cole Soucy Hronek Hirose Myers That's the best looking D lineup we've had in a long time with a lot of D prospects all of a sudden. With all three of the bigger additions today getting good on the PK, I really hope we can be average in that department. That alone adds a handful of wins to the record. Assuming guys play to their potential, I see us as the 3rd place Pacific team behind Vegas and Edmonton.

Turns Newhook into Colton, the 31st in a deep draft and Fairbrother. Keeps getting better for the Aves.