-AJ-

I would agree. Personally, I would say anything below 47% is poor for a centreman, other than particularly young players. Once a centre is about 24 or so, I would expect him to have gotten at least to around 47% minimum to avoid being a detriment. Henrik Sedin, for example, was usually closer to being a mediocre face-off guy, averaging 48.7% from 2007-08 onwards, but during his prime, he was at 50.7%. I would especially expect a defensive forward to put significant work in his faceoffs and be at least at about 49% or higher on average. Notable Canuck examples would be Ryan Johnson (50.3%), Brandon Sutter (52.5%), Ryan Kesler (54.9%), Maxime Lapierre (51.3%), Manny Malhotra (60.6%), Jay Beagle (57.3%), and even Michael Chaput (53.6%). There are exceptions, but I think they limit their usefulness in a defensive role by not being great. Some poor examples would be Shawn Matthias (45.5%) and Nick Bonino (47.4%, though he's since improved). Markus Granlund (41.7%) was so bad at them that he was often used as a winger instead, thus lowering his versatility. Gaudette (41.1%) stuck out like a sore thumb, though he was young so it was more forgivable. Pettersson (41.7%) is also abhorrent, but he did make a big improvement this past year up to 45.0%, which is encouraging. I think both Dickinson and Lammikko are at roughly the age where players often take a big jump in their face-off percentages. Both have been trending upward--Lammikko is close to Petey's level and Dickinson just above that, though neither are very good now--hopefully that changes this year. Sorry for the long post, but I got caught up in the excitement of research.

OEL was at his peak in terms of Norris voting when he was 21 years old, and he finished 7th in Norris voting. He was 24 when he finished 9th in Norris voting. His most recent and third-highest placement was in 2019, when he was 27 years old and finished 11th in Norris voting. The twins didn't get serious trophy consideration until 2010 when they were 29 years old, so there is a notable difference. I am also excited about OEL, but I think less so than many fans. He's been better than I expected in the pre-season thus far, at least.

Literally spent about 3 hours today researching our draft history under Benning and only got through 2014 and 2015. If I ever get through the rest I'll get back to you.

Acquired in the trade of Olli Juolevi. It's almost a foregone conclusion that Juulsen will start in Abbotsford, so I'm putting him in the prospects section for now.

I'm okay with the return. Mostly Abbotsford depth, but Lammikko might have an outside chance.

I think Lammikko is the more interesting of the two pieces received in the Juolevi trade. Some things I found about him: - Although he's a RW, he actually takes faceoffs quite often, though isn't great at them. He's listed as a RW on HockeyDB and Hockey-Reference, but a C on NHL.com - Very defensive usage in his 84 NHL games (39.8% OZS) - Very low offensive output at the NHL level - Doesn't take too many penalties, but doesn't draw many either - Was an option on the 2nd PK unit for Florida last year (looks like he was often used on that unit, but sometimes maybe subbed out)

Received as part of the trade of Olli Juolevi.

I've never liked losing guys, but I do have a feeling that unlike last off-season, Benning is letting the right guys go, for the most part. Even if we get very little for Juolevi, it's probably the right decision. I don't feel like he's going to become anything more than a 5/6 guy at best now. His development has just been too slow. Haters will point out that we traded a #5 pick for a late rounder (if that's what the return is), but I'm just happy we have a GM who doesn't suffer from sunk cost fallacy and can sell when he needs to.

Didn't expect a trade, but guess this is another move to the alumni section.

Better than losing him on waivers I guess, if that was the alternative. I'm honestly not expecting much in return. Probably a 5th round pick or something. Sucks that he didn't turn out for us, but oh well.

Hamonic will get through, but it's an interesting development. A bit sad that Baertschi didn't make the Golden Knights.

Just waived. He'll get through I'm pretty sure.

I would say the source of the skepticism comes from recent trends. After a slow start, the Sedins only got better and better each year until the turn of the decade around 30 years old. OEL was very good in his early and mid 20s, but has tailed off in recent years, unlike the Sedins, who only started tailing off after they won their Art Ross Trophies. I do think he can bounce back, but I don't expect anything close to a Norris-candidate level performance. I'd be very happy with 0.5 points-per-game and solid defense.

I would disagree. I've seen many bad pre-seasons result in great regular seasons and vice versa.

It's the pre-season. Not even worth grading IMO.

Looks like Green is the staff scapegoat this year. Benning must be relieved.

Good push at the end, but we should have won this game. Punished badly for some very bad early mistakes. Not gonna freak out too much as it's just a pre-season game. Curious to see who starts the season on the team.

Personally, I don't think Miller as a 3C will go well. Don't mess with it if it 'aint broke I say. I think the Lotto Line should be reunited once Boeser is back.

What does that have to do with the play?

No idea how you can blame much of either of those goals on Demko.

Bad defense. Schenn with a bad pass and Rathbone with bad positioning.

As good as he looked, it was just one game. Holtby had some very good games with us too--his problem was consistency.

Interesting that some big boys for the Oilers aren't playing in their last pre-season game. Interested to see our roster, but if we do play a lot of NHL guys, we should be expected to win this one. Depends on who we ice.

Tons of money, but he's also a very very good player. Might actually be worth it. The Florida discount may be coming into effect here.

My guess is that our three alternates would be Myers, Sutter, and Miller, but maybe EP gets it instead of Miller. There's also a chance that OEL gets it, yes.