Baggins

Sounds like a challenge. Anything is possible...

The last scouting report I saw said he plays an 'aggressive' 200 foot game. I've never seen a hits stat for the SHL.

Dammit! Just took a quick look for 'Linus'.

Over 500 faceoffs and sitting 14th win %

It does rather depend on how much that skating coach has helped. Needing to work on something doesn't rule a player out.

There have been trades made between non-playoff teams while the playoffs are happening. It's rare, but it has happened.

I honestly don't understand why anybody would keep Boeser over Garland. Garland is less expensive for four more years and is the better overall player.

Don't get me wrong Alf I do like Vancouver. Born and raised although I have lived across southern BC as an adult and have been back for almost 25 years now. My one knock is it's become too expensive to live here. Likely moving back to the interior sometime this year.

Going way back to when I was in my teens we had a very religious teammate whose father was a priest. He was constantly pushing religion, telling us he was praying for our souls, and that we needed to be saved. We had to really watch what we said or talked about otherwise we'd get a good preaching. Midseason his family moved back east and it was like a weight was lifted in the room. Honestly, we started played better and I believe it was because we were having fun rather than constantly walking on egg shells. Who knows what actually went on the the room. Maybe it started with him not showing up to start the season and being limited to domestic games when he did. He was expected to be in our top 4 after all and not being there while healthy, weakening the team, could piss some off.

Actually they said it was because Vancouver was close to their home.

You just never really know really know until they get here. Some excel at a level below the NHL but for whatever reason just can't make that next step. Just as some excellent juniors never even make an impact in the AHL. Scouts look for skills and traits but you just never know until they arrive at the next level. For some no amount of coaching will get them any further. Their ability just caps out. One thing I read about Karlsson that should help him advance is he plays an aggressive 200' game at C or wing and also plays both pp and pk. His SHL coach even plays him in the dying minutes holding a one goal lead. Those are good traits to increase his odds of making the jump. According to scouting reports I read he's increased his "expected ceiling" from bottom six in NHL when drafted to middle six now. But prospects don't come with any guarantees. I'm the 'wait and see' type, rather than the 'I expect him on the big club right away' type. I read McDonough is still not a great skater, although he did hire a skating coach this year, and still needs work on his defensive game. Gaudette at least came in a good skater. If McDonough is signed I expect him to start in Abby. Even if the reports on Karlsson are accurate I figure he's 50/50 at best whether he starts in the AHL or NHL. Hoglander certainly surprised me last year. Again, you just don't know until they arrive.

I'm not as sold on the KHL as most. They get more international players because they pay more. But do you remember Linden Vey failing in the NHL? He went to the KHL in 2017. Take a look at the top 10 scoring leaders, and their age, that season. Vey was one of the three over a ppg in the top 10.

I agree. I laughed quite a bit over the reaction to Motte getting traded. I liked Motte, but at the end of the day if he was asking too much you move him. The funny flipside is fans complained about Benning paying 4th liners too much as well. Although Benning didn't do anything different at the deadline than what the majority of GM's do imo. In the playoff picture you don't trade your pending ufa's. Out of the playoffs you try to. Key word there is 'try'.Something all GM's face, and fans love to ignore, is that ntc's can hinder, or even block deadline deals. Meaning some pending ufa's won't get moved. Two things have to happen with ntc ufa's, first they have to be willing to waive, and second the teams they're willing to go to need to actually have interest in acquiring them. If both of those conditions don't happen the player won't get moved. For example, Benning moved both Burrows and Hansen at the deadline because both were willing to go to teams that actually wanted them. The year before he tried to move Vrbata and Hamhuis. Vrbata gave a bogus list, several on his list out of the playoff, because he just didn't want to be moved. He even publicly admitted he did that. Hamhuis gave two teams, one (Chicago) wasn't interested and the other (Dallas) him as their second choice. Dallas got their first choice from calgary and then offered peanuts for Hamhuis. Benning, understanably, flipped them the bird. Washington made an offer for Hamhuis but he refused to go there. Benning did exeactly the same thing at both deadlines. He just had different results in each because of ntc's. Fans were mad at Benning for Hamhuis and Vrbata walking when they should have actually been mad at the players for tying his hands.

I honestly didn't expect much of anything if anything at all. We didn't have much of any value when it came to pending ufa's. The rest, under contract past this season, there was no reason to move them unless the offer blew them away. The only surprise, and I was happy with it, was trading away a Hamonic and getting a younger d-man.

Fair enough. I think the odds are against all three making the team next year.

SHL is a 52 game season. So 24 in 52 converts to 39 goals in 82 games. The SHL is a well coached league imo.

I'm not so sure about that. The KHL does attract more internation players because it pays better than the SHL. But Linden Vey went over after failing in the NHL and finished third in KHL points. That makes me think it's only a little better than the AHL. Several former Canuck projects are playing well in the KHL.

I suspect you're at least half a mill too low. Karlsson will likely get the rookie max after breaking Pettersson's SHL rookie goal record. $925k + 92.5k + bonuses Lockwood's QO is 787k - call it 800k at best McDonaugh tied 2nd in NCAA goals. I doubt he'll be far behind Karlsson For comparison Gaudette had a $916,667 cap hit 5 years ago after winning the Hobey Baker

My point was actually bothe had much better starting points than Benning. But I think Allvin is in as good or possibly abetter position than Gillis was. Hughes, Pettersson, and Demko, are younger than the Sedins and Luongo were. Allvin has younger high end talent to work with that could create a longer window. Gillis inherited a better overall D, and Allvin a better forward group. It's pretty comaprable.

Gillis did walk into a good situation to build around. Allvin has walked into a good situation with two major pieces still very young. I've never seen a GM walk into a situation as ugly as Benning did.

Well, if it's any consolation, Allvin has a much, much better starting point than Benning had. There are some decent prospects in the pool already, there's more than one player on the roster under 27 worth keeping, and he has a young established world class goalie.

The thing is plans are fluid. A good GM is constantly adapting to current circumstance. Which means not every move will be to the letter of what was previously said. When Rutherford said that he likely would have liked to retain Motte. Well, Motte wanted more that Rutherford was willing to pay so he was moved. His adaption to circumstance was to move Motte and replace him with a free bandaid for the final 18 games. That doesn't mean his plan has changed or that he lied. He simply adapted to a current circumstance that doesn't affect or change the long term plan at all. I agree like or not caring is unnecessary. It doesn't mean that's not a big influencer on fan opinion though.

I felt Lockwood outplayed both Gadjovich and MacEwen last pre-season. He did need some defensive improvement though. We'll see if that happened this AHL season, but I am optimistic about him.

One thing about him really makes me smile is drawing an opponent into a penalty. He'll get knocked down and get crosschecked or roughed up and doesn't respond. Then he gets up and skates to the bench with a huge grin on his face. The kid is a gamer.

Actually I've seen move Highmore posts. That line was two pending RFA's and a pending UFA. The difference is Lammiko is a good story going from fringe here to securing a solid role. Fans like good stories. Motte went from disappointing return to virtually instantly liked for his motor and effort. Thus when talking about the line it is liked, liked, meh. Highmore is a very similar player to Motte. High motor, aggressive, similar shot blocking (slight advantage Highmore), Motte hits more, has a very slight advantage in ppg, and gets more pk time. So really, some are willing to pay more for Motte in the role simply because he's established as liked. I like Motte, but I also like Highmore. RFA's Lammiko and Highmore might cost about the same combined as Motte would have cost. Pure speculation here, I think Motte would have been extended if he was asking for less than 2m. I think Lammiko and Highmore will be extended around Motte's current 1.2m with Lam getting a little more as a C. They are RFA's and neither has a great deal of clout. But being liked, meh, or disliked by fans here plays a huge role in who should stay or go for them. Liked often overrules logic. One other thing is fans complain about a player being in the coaches doghouse. The toughest doghouse to get out of is the fan doghouse. Highmore had the disadvantage of instant 'dislike' status and in the fan doghouse because he's what we got for the 'liked' Gaudette and he's barely managed to achieve meh status for many despite his good play.