dougieL

What is your definition of elite?

Just wanted to clarify - everything I wrote in that post was a paraphrasing of what Drance said on his show. None of that was my own opinion.

He didn't insinuate it. He literally said it. I can't speak for Drance, but I mentioned the reason he gave for giving Karlsson his vote in that paraphrasing. There are very likely other dmen that he thinks are better than Hughes. He was just comparing Hughes to the other Pacific division dmen. While he thinks Hughes is a better all-around dman than Karlsson, as you know, the Norris hasn't always gone to the best all-around dman.

Those players are legends of the game and Cup winners. All but Ovechkin are multiple Cup winners. The Sedins are nowhere near those guys.

From Drance, who voted Karlsson for the Norris (paraphrasing): thought Karlsson deserved the Norris because he outscored McDavid 5v5, but Hughes' all-around game matters more. Hughes is just better, controls the game more, and there is no dman in the Pacific that measures up to him. Edit: just to clarify - everything I wrote above is my paraphrasing of what Drance said on his show. None of it is my own opinion (even though I do agree with what he said).

Yep...I remember very well there was a someone who ridiculed you for bringing up the possibility of an OEL buyout back in November. You mentioned that SN650 was talking about it, then the person said something to the effect of "Oh well if SN650 is talking about then it must be true". I hated the OEL trade the moment it was made for the reasons that you mentioned. His contract had to be among the most toxic in the NHL, and some were all too happy to see us pay to acquire it. Made the mistake of taking Benning and Daniel at their word, I suppose. I guess they just chose to ignore the very obvious warning signs (I'm not even sure they were warning signs - OEL was just flat out not good by the time we acquired him).

Definitely not absolving Benning of any blame. Just saying were told a lot of stuff about OEL that turned out to be incredibly wrong.

We were also told by Daniel Sedin that OEL loves the pressure of being "the guy".

I wonder if the Sedins called up Luongo and told him that OEL took full responsibility for his poor play this past year, and that he'll do anything to help the team win

Why do your posts make so little sense?

Something like "Welcome to the team, Adam Fantilli"?

Say what you want, but I wasn't the one ridiculing people for suggesting the idea of an OEL buyout (only for said buyout to happen 7 months later), nor was I the one accusing people of moving goalposts due to use of decimals.

When did they say that

Uh...where did you get the Tier 3 information? And Michkov fell out of the top 5, which means that, according to you, pick #7 was a valuable pick (a far more valuable pick than #8, apparently).

Why not? Do you think the first round was a top 3 followed up 29 other players all of whom are equally desirable?

We could have not played Hughes close to 30 mins per game, we could have played Demko a few less games and we could have limited Pettersson's and Miller's minutes to below 20. Or we could have just chosen to do only 1 or 2 of those three things. But no, we deployed our players as if we were in a desperate playoff chase. There really was no reason we should have finished above all of Washington, Detroit, or STL.

Then suggested they wanted to move up at the draft, only to stay put because presumably it was too expensive to do so. Would be funny if it weren't so stupid. As for Hronek, I don't know why people keep emphasizing that he has 2 more years of cost control as if it's going to make his next contract appreciably cheaper. If we sign him to a deal of any appreciable length, we would be buying only 1 RFA year with the rest being UFA years. Allvin also brought up the 2 years of cost control when we traded for him. Unless I'm missing something, I find it quite disingenuous. He effectively has one year of being cost controlled, with his new deal coming into effect the same year the cap is expected to increase significantly.

Fair enough. I was just using ASP as a proxy for the 17th. I think Oliver Moore would have been available at 17 as well.

I'd be willing to wager it will be more like 2.

Yes - obviously different situations, but I think the question still stands. Will there come a time when we wish we could undo the trade, and if so, when will that time come? I suspect it could come as soon as before ASP even makes the NHL, depending on what Hronek's next contract looks like.

Someone had to say it first, didn't they?

I wonder how long before Axel Sandin Pellikka + the 2023 second round pick + Hronek's cap space (whatever it turns out being) will be more desirable than Hronek the player.

Looks impressive in highlights. Great mobility and quick feet, and looks to have a good shot too. Seems to play both ends. I guess time will have to tell. I do hope that passing on Benson won't come back to burn us though. I don't have much of an opinion either way, but Willander looks like he could be a really good player.

Waiting for the "I was meant to be a New Jersey Devil" piece in the Players' Tribune.

Pretty sure this is you trying to figure out decimals