D-Money

Hoglander is outproducing Reinhart’s rookie season. And on a team that is collectively -29, he leads all forwards (who have played at least 30 games) with only a -1. Hoglander is part of the solution. And his cheap cap hit is desperately needed with the flat cap and big raises needed for EP and QH.

Screw trading Hoglander. Are you kidding me? The guy is already a stud at 20, and only costs $900K for 2 more years.

At least part of the problem with defence is on coaching. The team has made too many improvements on paper to still be this bad at suppressing scoring chances. A few years ago we had Gudbranson, Stecher, Hutton, Sbisa, and Biega all playing regularly, 2 of them often getting top-4 minutes. Edler and Tanev were good, but often at least one was injured. It was no surprise that defensively we sucked. But now with the additions of Schmidt, Hughes, Hamonic, and Myers, we should be significantly better...but we’re not. Gotta change how they’re being deployed.

He’s as close to a perennial 30-goal sniper as you’re gonna get, and his next contract will involve UFA years. That’s almost certainly going to cost at least $7.5M per, regardless of the qualifier.

Carolina places goaltender Collin Delia on waivers. @Nail Delia meets the requirements for exposing a goalie in the upcoming expansion draft. He still doesn't require waivers, and is signed for another year in both FL and the NHL. Not a bad option for a 3rd stringer next year. But have a glut of goalies, and want to give him a shot elsewhere.

Something involving Kakko for Eichel would make sense for both sides.

... But why? EP and Horvat are a solid 1-2 punch down the middle. Why would we spend all of our quality winger depth for another one?

Peca scored 50 goals in 55 OHL games, and made Team Canada for the WJCs. He was a very skilled young player who embraced a 2-way game, and became a key NHL player for many years. It would be nice if Lockwood ended up a decent bottom-6 player. But “Peca clone”? That’s not happening, anymore than Gadjovich will become a Bertuzzi clone.

Won my 10-team Yahoo pool with some local friends. Now just in the lull waiting for the playoffs to start. One piece of good news lately: it seems the reports of Reilly Smith’s death were greatly exaggerated. He has has a rough year, but seems to be heating up at just the right time.

You have got to be kidding me. I watched the clip of the play in question, and there isn't a knee of any sort. There is lots of footage of Nurse doing a lumberjack impression though.

Thanks Koskinen. That was a solid.

Edmonton

I’ve never understood the issue with Wilson on Panarin, other than people just hating Tom Wilson. Panarin willingly entered a wrestling match with someone much stronger than him, and did not have his helmet fastened properly either. The result is 100% on Panarin. I didn’t like the punch to the head of Buchnevich though. But that wasn’t as bad as Buch’s high stick either.

Avs took Makar with their own pick. They got Byram with Ottawa’s.

I’d be lining up to hire Davidson and Gorton. Big fan of many of their moves so far.

That’s exactly what we had, but the GM and AGM disagreed, and won the argument. Just before free agency in 2018, Trevor Linden stated that the team would be “extremely young” the following season. But then when free agency hit, the team immediately signed Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, and Tim Schaller, at cap hits that shocked most people. Linden stepped down (or was fired, depending on who you ask) shortly thereafter. Word around the league was that Linden favoured a more long-term rebuild, letting young players play, and not committing long-term dollars to aging players. Benning and Weisbrod disagreed, believing that with the right veterans the team could become a winner more quickly. Turns out Linden was right - Beagle/Roussel/Schaller didn’t help us win much, and the Beagle/Roussel contracts are now interfering with our ability to sign other, more important players. This trend continued a year later with the Myers and Ferland signings. That’s exactly why the #FireBenning crew exists. Most agree that he’s made some great draft choices, but his entire team-building philosophy around them is a disaster. Had Linden truly had the power his title inferred, and was able to deter the free agent signings and focus on development and asset-building, the team would likely be significantly better off right now.

Those teams weren't wasting $22.4M on Eriksson, Myers, Sutter, Roussel, and Beagle, and another $3.3M on Baertschi and a Spooner buyout. That's $25.7 M on below-average to AHL players. Even with just 2/3 of that money, we could have easily retained Toffoli and Tanev, and likely added more talent in free agency. Not to mention being able to sign Boeser to something longer-term, which would have been ideal (but not possible due to the cap situation). The team is losing talent because of Benning's terrible signings, plain and simple. And it's not hindsight either, almost everyone in the media identified those signings as foolish on day 1. It's atrocious team management.

Am I the only one who didn't have an issue with the Panarin part of this? Panarin engaged him, and was rag-dolled by a bigger/stronger player - it was his own fault. Mess with the bull, you get the horns. That said, Wilson should absolutely have been suspended for punching Buchnevich in the head. He wasn't willingly engaged, and in a defenseless position.

With the team forced to play so many games after recovering from COVID, I don't know why anyone would expect anything more than this. I'm not mad at these games at all. And if it leads to a higher draft position and the GM finally getting canned, then it's probably for the best, long-term.

I was never a huge Midnight Oil fan. But my buddy convinced me to go to their show at the Commodore years ago. Boy, was I glad I did - one of the better live shows I had the pleasure to experience. So much passion and positive energy.

In my estimation, this is just another loss for the organization because of the ridiculous contracts we signed in free agency. It's the same financial squeeze that led to bending over on the Gaudette trade to acquire a player signed for league minimum. That said, this isn't that big of a loss. Tryamkin will likely be a bottom-pairing depth guy, and if it's between spending on him or Hamonic, I'd choose Hamonic for sure. But it would be better to have the money for both. And for the organization, another lost asset (however small) is just another log on the fire. I wouldn't be surprised if the COVID outbreak played into this too. That looked really bad on the organization as a whole. Nikita had a young family, and already had doubts about playing in Vancouver. The way that unfolded might affect our ability to attract talent this offseason as well.