Fateless

I honestly feel like they have complete hacks writing for NHL.com. There is zero analysis in any of their articles and they only ever rely on traditional metrics. Except when traditional metrics do not align with their already formed opinion at which point they just make stuff up.

Sutter >>> Beagle. Beagle isn't much better than Eriksson on this team right now. 

@canuktravella - Right.. so do you have any actual evidence for your assertion or are you just spouting opinion? And are you really comparing Virtanen's situation to Ovi? Just because one of the best players of all-time is still playing well at 31 does not mean Virtanen will continue to progress like Ovi did. Apples to oranges. Your argument does not hold water.\

@canuktravella - Got any evidence for your assertion on peak NHL age? Because I do: https://hockey-graphs.com/2017/03/23/a-new-look-at-aging-curves-for-nhl-skaters-part-1/

The first thing I'll note is that the above graphs are primarily focused on WAR which is more about cumulative effect of a player rather than individual stats, however, the fact remains that NHL players appear to plateau between 22 and 25 years of age. Forwards appear to peak slightly later than defenceman, but not by much. Peak age for NHL players on average is now 23 years of age. After that point they are relatively steady (with a marginal decline) until approximately 29 years of age when they drastically begin to deteriorate. Based on the average, Virtanen isn't going to get better, but this is who he is. Now I completely admit that the graph is based on averages which mean that there are players who do better than the average just as there are players who do worse than the average, but to think that Virtanen won't peak for years is unscientific. Miracles happen, but it doesn't make me a hater to point out that the statistical consensus is that Virtanen has already peaked.

@Tystick - Like I said, I could be wrong (and hope I'm wrong). But the math just doesn't support the scenario. I also certainly respect your opinion that he could pull it off, but respectfully disagree that it will occur. Time will tell and one of us can bring this back up in a few years. I'm sure we're both hoping that it turns out you were right.

@Tystick - Sure, but statistically he's already overachieving and we'll likely see regression in the latter half of the season. I anticipate he will break 20 this year, but not by much. You also have to consider his age and that he's likely already at his peak. Now even if you given him an extra year or two for the old "power forwards take longer to develop" mantra, odds are that he still doesn't reach 30. Now granted, there are always outliers to stats and I sincerely hope that Jake proves me and the stats wrong and continues to develop and pots 30-40 next year, or any year, but you're probably about as lucky to win the 50/50 at the Canucks game as you are to see Jake pot 30-40 goals in a campaign. 

As much as I have stood behind the Virtanen pick and continuing to develop him, thinking he's ever going to be a 30-40 goal scorer is a joke. Jake just doesn't have the toolbox to score at that pace. I honestly think he'll be an excellent depth player for us for a long time, but pretending he's ever going to score that many goals in a year is out of touch with reality.

For the record, I hope Jake proves me wrong. I'd be so extremely happy to say you were right. I just don't see a world in which that occurs.

I thought this was the new Seattle NHL team name when I saw it and got all giddy. Then realized its a Call of Duty team under the Canucks umbrella. RIP.

@Alflives - the version I always knew was about ants, not flies. What blasphemy is this.

@Pears - to his credit, he wasn't far off. Last season we were awful. That comment was also made without the knowledge that Pettersson would be a franchise center. I think it was a legitimate view for last season, despite it being negative.

@Baer. - Are you really that surprised he hasn't been offer sheeted? Its easy in theory to give away four 1st rounders for Marner, but I suspect that when you're the GM of a team which has the cap space and assets to actually pull the trigger, there is a lot of concern about negative feedback from multiple sources including other NHL GMs and your fanbase. Could you imagine the sh*tstorm that Benning would get if he traded away another four 1st round picks on this team? We wouldn't have a first round pick until 2025. All it takes is Marner getting injured or not playing as well as he has to date and you not only likely lose your job, but you've destroyed the team's future. The actual reality is that when it comes time for someone to pull the trigger on trading away four 1st rounders, it becomes extremely difficult to do so.

 Tomato. Tomato.

@I.Am.Ironman - If the pick given up is actually between 17-31OA, then I have no problem with this deal. The problem is that if we miss the playoffs next year and the year after, there is always a chance that we lose a lottery pick in 2021. That is a big risk, particularly since this team has not yet shown it is playoff ready. Hopefully Miller helps us get there, but until it happens, this is a very risky deal.

@I.Am.Ironman - Both sides are not hurt. Tampa had to get ride of Miller anyways due to cap restrictions. They were prepared to lose him as their hand was forced. The fact they picked up a 1st and a 3rd for him? That's highway robbery. I agree with many commentators in saying that I love the Miller pick-up, but hate the price we paid. 

That is the same list I have, although I'm less keen on Boldy myself. My order of preference is Zegras > Caulfield > Krebs > Boldy of that group. 

If true, that basically means that Karlsson is heading to New York.

Karlsson basically said goodbye to San Jose already. Tampa Bay is only a front runner because Karlsson wants to end up there, but there is realistically no way Tampa Bay can afford Karlsson, leaving Vancouver and New York. Karlsson wants to end up on the East Coast which means New York wins the toss up.

Gotta make sure to continue favoring San Jose by giving their players a chance to heal prior to... WAIT. NOT EVEN THE NHL COULD SAVE SAN JOSE.

@King Heffy - You did cheer for cancer before the Bruins if you were cheering for the Leafs. 

@Tre Mac - We were watching on the official HBO channel through Shaw and basically couldn't see $&!# for the first 45 minutes until the fight moved into Winterfell itself. Basically everything outside of the walls and in the sky were a black screen with torches and dragonbreath spewing across it. I don't know why you had such a different experience, but it was pretty brutal to watch. I checked out a few streams of it today to see if it was a TV issue, and the streams were worse. I couldn't even tell who was undead and who was alive in the episode until they moved indoors. Again, I can understand how that may sound like a neat idea when writing the episode, but as a viewer it sucked.

@DonaldBrashear - I agree that perhaps my expectations were too high, but I honestly thought this episode was below even the Battle of the Bastards episode as far as cinematography goes. It wasn't even the storyline itself which was my biggest gripe with last night's episode, but rather the lack of brightness. Sure, I have a few gripes with the story and would have liked to see more deaths, but I'll reserve final judgement on that until the rest of the season plays out.

Who is actually down on Markstrom? I see more Demko trade proposals than Markstrom trade proposals which is a huge boon to Markstrom considering how expendable people viewed him this time last year. And now when Marky is included in a trade proposal, he's typically the key piece rather than a pot sweetener.

@luckylager - what makes you think he'll be gone by 10? Almost every major scouting list released has him being taken after 10th. Most have him ranked around 15-20. 

@Jimmy McGill - I really don't think Soderstrom is the BPA at 10OA. I believe he's closer to the 12-15 range. I'd rather us take one of the forwards anticipated to go in the top 10 unless we want to trade up for Byram.

@I.Am.Ironman - Episode 1 and 2 of this season are each an hour, whereas episodes 3 - 6 are ~80 minutes each.

I actually agree. Was pretty unimpressed, although I suppose its only natural it would be a slow episode since they had to bring everyone together and do the reunion thing and set the stage for the big battles to come. 

I'm always for selling high in the right circumstances, but you're taking it way too far. 

1) Markstrom is not worth a 1st plus a decent prospect. He's not a top ten goaltender in the league and goaltenders have not had significant value in trades for quite some time. 

2) Demko has played 10 NHL games. That is WAY too early to determine if Demko is ready to be an NHL starter. And I say this as someone who has a lot of confidence that Demko will be our future started and be a top ten goaltender in the league. He's just not there yet. 

3) This team went through a ridiculous goaltender problem this year where we literally did not have enough goaltenders in our system to play for the Canucks and Utica. We're not really in a position to further weaken our goaltender depth unless you plan on adding another NHL ready goaltender in free agency.