J-P

I don't get why everyone wants to get rid of OEL. Sure his contract is too long and 1-2 mil high even with the retention, but he's our only defender who can actually defend against top lines. Could include Myers as well, just that for some reason Myers didn't do so well in that role before OEL arrived... So if OEL is traded who plays those minutes without costing 5 mil+ and weakening the team? I personally would love to see Myers go and replace him with a cheaper defensive RD. Bet that would do wonders for OEL:s numbers as well. Not dead against moving OEL, but as it's a bad contract (and I guess he still has the NTC?) I think it will be hard.

Watching Deadmonton dieing the break. Those orange dresses look terrible. Go kings!

OEL skating better and looking better overall today.

Agree that Podz needs to be the guy in all situations, so all for him joining Abby for the AHL playoffs. I get that marinating players in the minors is often a good thing, and maybe you're right that Podz would have benefitted. Didn't hear anyone suggesting Hogs in the minors last season though, the argument that's been made (not by you) that he was gifted top six minutes and that it hurt his development is all hindsight imo. He just took that spot and never looked back. He's getting some tough love from BB and maybe that will help him long term although he does look a bit lost right now, but my guess is it's the sophomore slump more than anything else. Apart from the limited number of recalls, we really don't have any players to recall either. Nothing wrong with giving Lockwood and Rathbone a chance, but none of them are fully developed in the minors yet. We also have Petan and Chiasson on the roster, I don't see us sending e.g. Podz down as long as that's the case and we still have meaningful games to play.

My guess is Domi will get 4.5-5 mil. Maybe more on a contract for 3 years or less. Would like him on our team but at 27 and at that price I'm not sure he's a good fit. Also 0.3 ppg in his only playoffs. Small sample but still raises questions. His contract will of course also depend on how he's deployed and how he performs in the playoffs this year. Nice pickup by the canes.

Good point on the mental part of things. Chances are a lot of the players (especially the more established ones) really need that day off both physically and mentally and nothing wrong with that.

Cheering for Canucks to make the playoffs of course so I noted you wrote this post isn't for me to reply to, but I will anyway. The season looked done with the losses to Buffalo and Detroit, but was somewhat salvaged on the current roadtrip. The issue is that we need to continue winning at a pace that might not be sustainable, and that assuming we move ahead of Vegas it's still highly unlikely we can catch Dallas. So the only chance of making it is really to beat out the Oilers who we only play once (last game). If the Oilers go .500 the rest of the way we need to go e.g. 9-4-3. None of these two things are likely to happen. We are 4-3-3 the last 10. Still, it's not impossible and as long as we're playing meaningful games that makes them that much more fun. Let's hope for an Oiler losing streak coming up...

Did a comparison with Victor Olofsson (BUF) and Oskar Lindblom (PHI). A young developing player scoring over 0.9 PPG in the has a very high likelihood of making it in the NHL as a 3rd liner or better. Olofsson is a quite common example of a late bloomer, while Lindblom is a more typical case in general (getting to the NHL that is, not getting into his battle with cancer which he seems to have won luckily). Neither of those two were elite prospects by any means. Lindblom selected in round 5, Olofsson in round 7. It's worth noting that both these players needed a season in the minors but produced at middle six level or better after that. Also worth noting that Lindblom is a very good overall player who contributes more than scoring. As by coincidence, both these players make 3 mil on their second contracts. An example of a player with a different path was Anton Rodin who went to AHL/NHL at 21 years old without producing at a high level in the SHL. He went back to Sweden, did produce at elite level and gave it a second try in the NHL but by then he was 25 and had terrible injury luck. On that path, most players either don't make it or become defensive bottom six forwards. The one red flag for Linus Karlsson is that he spent several seasons in the league below SHL and has only one SHL season. As he took a major step forward that season against much better competition I see it as less of an issue though. Of course every player and development path is different and nobody can look into the future, so LK could have both a lower and a higher ceiling compared to the mentioned examples. Typically though, we can expect a middle six forward who can score and be tough to play against down low. As he might need time in the minors it would probably be good to have him here next year instead of him playing one more year in Sweden. Is this projected path good enough to win the trade vs Burrows or Dahlén? Vs Burrows at that stage of his career definitely yes, but even vs Dahlén it's a yes for me. Dahlén is a good player but already 25 with kind of a shaky development path and probably already in his prime as a complementary scoring winger. Even though I'm not sure Karlsson will score more my guess is his game will translate better and he'll contribute more and have a longer career vs Dahlén.

Either that or mind games with his own players to get them ready for a big game and try to avoid the usual slow start.

This thread is golden.

Don't know if it's been mentioned but it's nice that we can keep up with top teams the last two games, but the fact that both outplayed us and that we couldn't beat Detroit and Buffalo at home tells us where we're at. A middle team with lots of promise. This off-season is huge, can't afford any step back if Horvat and EP is part of our contending window which I certainly hope.

Think QH:s lack of shot is really hurting our power play.Whenever he shoots it's an easy save or clear + since the defenders don't have to respect his shot they always cheat on EP taking away that option. Really think we should move Brock off PP1 (almost never has the puck although he does get the occasional goal down low), let OEL be the shooter from the point and deploy QH in a more free roving roll on PP1. That would also allow JT/EP/Bo to circle around more. Too much stationary and predictable play still from that unit.

The speculation does give a bit of a bad vibe both regarding TH and the org in general, no matter how you slice it it's not a good look. The trade in itself needs no justification however, anyone who has watched him play the last games can tell we were happy to give up on him for anything (or nothing at all) + the cap space.

It's not as easy in reality as it might seem... There are only really 3 options with Boeser. 1) Let him walk 2) Resign him lower than his QO 3) Arbitration The issue with 3 is that it will get really bad if he doesn't improve as that's an immediate bad contract and hard to trade (not to mention that the arbitration process in itself will likely come at a price). The decision between 1 and 2 is really up to whether you believe Boeser is a good fit going forward and that he will improve at least partially. I personally don't see him as a fit and believe there are too many ifs and buts to make a long term deal plausible. A short term deal will be a disturbance, although it could make a trade to a contender possible. All in all though I'd just rather take the cap space.

Yeah, "they wouldn't take a 5th" is hilarious. Pretty sure we would have taken anything or even just future considerations if Ottawa had kept their cool and waited it out,

Fully agree. I do think Motte will get 2 mil+ though, but it will be from Arizona, Seattle, Buffalo, Ottawa or some other team that needs what he brings in intangibles and are willing to pay for it, not a playoff team.

That's debatable as there are lower tiers in FA where the value is better and you could get e.g. 2 players balancing the roster for 6 mil, but I agree FA is not the main purpose of cap space. Cap space puts us into a position to take advantage of other teams. Just as an example - realistic or not - let's say CAR needs to shed cap and are willing to trade Taravainen and Baer for Garland + our newly acquired 4th rounder in 2023. That's a trade you take every day and with cap space we could but now we can't as we can't add the extra 2.5 mil.

I personally don't think he will be qualified. The optics of that won't look great, but from a business perspective the almost 6 mil we gain in cap space is probably more valuable than any trade return (assuming we resign him before trading him).

Juulsen was really bad last game, but I'm giving him a pass on that one. The previous games he's played for us he's looked fine most of the time but with 1-2 brutal mistakes each game, which is not uncommon for younger D:s but stiill concerning. He does have skill and the physical traits, so I agree that it's probably hockey IQ and processing that are the question marks. Hope he gets some games down the stretch so we can find out what we have in him, if he gets adjusted he could be a really cheap reliable 3RD which is something we'll need after Myers and Schenn are gone.

Watched the 3rd period. LK really impressed me around the net and driving to the net and he does look like someone who could develop into a power forward with a great shot, but he made some bad puck decisions and his skill level doesn't look great. Have never seen him before so those are just first impressions. Regardless - if you score 25 in the SHL and are 22 years old you definitely have a shot at the NHL.

At first I thought so too about the cap space for Halak's bonus, but after thinking about it I believe that you have to be under the cap before LTIR to pay bonuses and also that the cap hit is calculated over the entire season and not just the remaining time. Capfriendly shows us with no money available for bonuses. Maybe @mllcan share some expertise and enlighten us?

While AL certainly isn't very charismatic, I do get the impression that there is a clear strategy in place and I do see the logic in the moves regarding Motte/Dermott/Hamonic. The cap space we gain is not insignificant, and if Dermott pans out that's a huge win. Richardson is more perplexing, although the Lam line has really been our 3rd line for a while now. With Petan and Chiasson on the 4th line I guess you could view Richardson as an upgrade of sorts. I do interpret AL:s comment about him though as there were other deals in the making that didn't go through and where we would have received picks rather than players, i.e. they needed a warm body on the 4th line + PK.

Good point, if Poolman can let OEL unleash some more offence it will make a huge difference. Problem is though that OEL and Myers are really the only shutdown options we have. Don't think Poolman is the answer there.

Don't want to be a downer but I think the loss to Detroit ended our playoff hopes. The only way we can make it is by beating out both Vegas and Oilers. Vegas can still be done but if the Oilers play .500 the rest of the way they get 94 points. So we'd need to play like 13-4-2 to beat that. Not happening and hopefully management realizes that.

"A player becomes a Group 6 UFA if they are 25, completed 3 or more professional seasons, has a contract expiring, and has played less than 80 NHL Games." https://puckpedia.com/salary-cap/unrestricted-free-agents-ufa