D-Money

I was hoping that Calgary wouldn’t suck so much, so that the top-4 Canadian teams would want to add to avoid losing their spot. Oh well... There are still some pieces that should generate interest: Pearson - injured, maybe someone offers a conditional pick based on games played? Sutter - with 50% retained, should land a 3rd rounder. Hamonic - depends on if he’ll waive his NMC, think Edmonton or Winnipeg would trade a 2nd/3rd for him if he will. Benn - decent depth defender, should land a 4th/5th. Motte - would be lots of interest, but I’d only move him if we got offered what SJ got for Goodrow (ie - 1st rounder for Motte + 3rd). This might be a good year to load up on mid-to-late picks. With the lack of scoring that has gone on, there is more chance of talented players slipping through the top rounds. Picks are more like “lottery tickets” this year.

Really? If you use points percentage to account for games in hand, it looks like a pretty clear top 4 to me. 1 - Toronto - .656 2 - Winnipeg - .636 3 - Edmonton - .618 4 - Montreal - .597 ———————————— 5 - Calgary - .485 6 - Vancouver - .473

Well Morand was also a 2nd rounder. Hasn’t done much in the AHL though, but Tampa must see something in him. But it is funny that they couldn’t have squeezed out more from someone. Maybe Volkov was becoming a problem in the room, with a guy like Colton getting into games ahead of him?

That wasn't entirely under his control though. Trouba demanded out, and Byfuglien had an injury that led to his falling out with the team, and the NHL in general. Had he known the latter, he could have addressed it in free agency. Time has proven he did pretty well in the Trouba trade. Pionk has been solid, and Heinola looks promising.

I agree. Benning's drafting has been excellent. He's been able to build up pieces of what should be a good team in the near future. But from what I've seen, I don't think he'll be able to put the pieces together and build a winner.

Re: bolded... If you're correct, then that would back up my point. If Benning really "did all he could to give them a shot at a cup", then I wouldn't trust him to build a contending team. In his first four seasons, the team went 140-150-38 - one of the worst records in the league over that time. If he was truly doing his best to help the team win in the short term, then that's just awful. Not to mention the picks/prospects he traded away for guys like Sutter and Gudbranson, or the money he sunk into fringe players like Eriksson and Roussel.

True, but over the years as he patiently but up the team, it became clear his method was working. In just under 7 years from the date he was hired, the Jets made it to the Conference Finals, and he was nominated for GM of the Year. We're about to hit 7 years with Benning. Great drafting, but numerous other errors that lead me to believe he'll never be able to build a winner.

Chevy >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Benning

Between 2011-2015, Yzerman drafted Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, Point, Palat, Cirelli, Namestnikov, DeAngelo, and Joseph - the highest pick among them was 19th overall. It's definitely impressive though. In his very first draft with the Bruins (2006), Chiarelli drafted Kessel, Marchand, and Lucic - that one draft was a big part of their cup win. But outside of the picks he got from Toronto for Kessel (Seguin & Hamilton), he didn't find another really great player until his last draft in 2015 (Pastrnak).

Classy...

Hurricanes place Ben Chariot on I/R to make room for Renouf. LINK

8 years picking in the top-10, including 3 lottery picks (1st overall, and 2nd overall twice) - and still a giant dumpster fire...

Demko > Marks7rom

The Blues had a lot less time to get their crap together in the bubble than we have this season. They had 9 games over 20 days. Canucks were in OK shape after their first 11 games. But they fell apart from game 12 through 24, when they went 2-9-2. Kings are turning into a pretty good team. In their last 13 games prior to COVID, Kings went 10-2-1, including a win over Vegas, and going 2-0-1 against Colorado. Comparatively, Canucks went 6-6-1, including losses to Anaheim, Arizona, and Ottawa. Both teams are kind of picking up where they left off. Although LA is 2 points behind us, they have 5 games in hand - their .519 point percentage is far better than Vancouver's .469. San Jose and Arizona are also ahead of Vancouver by that measure as well.

Minnesota has improved this season. Better goaltending, and Kaprisov has upped their forward talent. The numbers suggest they’re a better team than Vancouver this season, by a fair margin. Most of the Blues were recovering from COVID. And on top of that, their goalie imploded. Not sure we win that series if they just let Allen play it. Vegas absolutely dominated us. Demko’s goaltending was in no way sustainable. As well as the team did in the bubble, it is becoming clear that it was lightning in a bottle. The team was falling out of a playoff spot when the pandemic hit, and is back to being a non-playoff team. I’m a big Canucks fan, and want to believe they are better than their record suggests, but the evidence suggests they’re just not a good hockey team...again.

I get the idea behind it, but that quotation is totally ridiculous. My wife and I didn’t really plan on having kids. But once we were going to have one, it was obvious that we should have a 2nd. Growing up with a brother or sister is far preferable to being an only child. This has only been amplified during the pandemic.

Doubt I’ll be able to watch, but if they release the audio on podcast I will definitely listen on a regular basis.

Ah, so you’re talking about the West division, not Pacific. I don’t think the top 4 (Vegas, Colorado, Minnesota, St. Louis) are worse than the Canadian top-4. In fact, I’m pretty sure Vegas is better than any teams in the North, maybe Colorado too. It’s easier to make the playoffs in the Canadian division than anywhere else, because there are 7 teams in it.

Comfortably? Who’s doing that math? LA and Arizona are just 2 points behind us, with 5 and 4 games in hand respectively. Not to mention we’re 4-0 vs Ottawa. Don’t think we’d have a better record playing them less. Canucks are almost out of it because they’ve played terrible hockey for long stretches. If Demko hadn’t stole some games (such as last night), they’d already be toast.

I’m all for using our extra expansion slot for acquiring a top-4 D-man. And I like Ekholm as a player. But he’s 30, and has only 1 year remaining on his contract. It stands to reason that he will make more on his next contract, and at his age likely regress during that contract. We have a young team, which won’t truly be ready to contend for a couple more years. We shouldn’t be spending quality assets like Gaudette and a 2nd/3rd to target just next season. Ekholm makes a lot more sense for a team that is contending this year and next. A better example of a player for us to spend assets on is Devon Toews in Colorado. After the playoffs, Colorado might be looking to move him prior to the expansion draft. He’s 27, and has 3 years remaining at good value ($4.1M per). His age and contract make a lot more sense for our team.

Tampa is not going to waste assets acquiring a fringe NHL D-man like Benn. Especially adding in dealing with quarantine.

I don’t move Motte for a 2nd either, especially a late one. But Tampa set the market last year for a quality bottom-6 player with over 1 year left on his contract, when they acquired Barclay Goodrow for a 1st rounder. So yeah, I love Motte... but if someone offers a 1st you gotta take that deal.

I can't believe that they haven't adjusted it so the short-side-high goal doesn't go in every time. I mean, how hard is it to make the goalie catch/block that once in a while? Almost every penalty shot in EASHL is an automatic goal. Of course, last year it was the same thing, only you skated across the goalie first...

I love Tyler Motte. However, if teams are interested in him now, then there will likely be larger offers for him when he is UFA. We might end up losing him for nothing at the end of next year anyways, or having to overpay him. He's proving to be injury-prone, so I would worry about giving him a lot of term - but he might get it from somewhere else. This year is done, so anything we turn down to trade Motte might be the price we pay for only 1 more year of him. I also really like Schmidt. After a slow start, he's really coming around. Not to mention, he waived to come here, turning around and flipping him so quickly might send a bad message to other players. The exception would be if he has approached management and said it's not working for him here he wants to go to a team that can win in the next few years.

You can dress it up however you like. But regardless, Benning has tried to fix the defence for nearly 7 years, and many of his attempts were failures. Lots of teams have turned it around faster. The post-Thornton Bruins turned it around very fast. As did the post-Lecavalier Lightning. Both won cups, and are still rolling. Chicago started their current rebuild later than us, and look like they’re going to pass us.