Baggins

Think it was based on talent? But why, he was going to leave.... There's plenty of drafted Swedes that got ice time in the SHL. You just need to perform and make yourself the best option. Weird notion that.

Why the panic? Perhaps it was a discussion and it's what Mak preferred. Kid had a rough year after all. Maybe it's simply better for him to play in his own country, where he feels at home, than giving him the bums rush. Allowing another year of mental and physical maturity. The SHL is a better league to boot. Personally I think there's a tendency to rush young players which can cause more harm than good. We already have some forward depth here so there's no reason to rush him. Giving him a year in the SHL also puts his ELC clock on hold for a year. Isn't that a pretty good reason?

I'm an optimist. Can you actually say "traditionally" based on a handful of players this past season who were later draft picks with one undrafted? There are plenty of young drafted players that got high ice time in the SHL. I don't expect Mak to be dominant or believe he needs to be. He just needs to play well and earn his ice time like any other player. Hogs, did it. He was drafted higher than any of the players you listed and played top 6 in the SHL. But he had to work his way up to it. D-Petey started last season bottom pair with low ice time, that increased over the season, and was used in all situations, through solid play despite his age or being drafted. You get what you earn in the SHL. Do you honestly think Petey would have gotten first line time in the SHL if he wasn't performing, or that he'd get burried on the 4th line despite performing well because "he might leave"? I don't buy it. It's like you think SHL teams don't care about winning the championship, or on the other end of the spectrum, don't care about being bottom and relegated to the lower league.

I feel great! Thanks for asking.

Far closer to Petey than those others listed. Seriously, two of them weren't drafted their first year of elligibity and one of those two went the following year in the 7th round. The other gets his second shot this June. Do they compare to JL? My guess, like Petey, Hogs, and D-Petey, JL gets the ice time he earns. You're grasping at straws here.

Sjoholm - undrafted at 18 - available in this draft Stromgren - drafted 2nd round, 55th overall 2021 Stjernborg - drafted 4th round, 108th overall 2021 Robertsson - drafted 3rd round 71st overall 2021 Sjodin, also 20 - undrafted at 18, drafted 7th round 211th overall 2022 Lekkermaki - drafted 1st round 15th overall 2022. One of these is not like the others... Pettersson got ice time at 18 and broke records in the SHL. It seems to me ice time depends a great deal on performance. It didn't seem to hurt Hoglander staying an extra year in the SHL. D-Petey plans to play another year in Sweden as well despite having a good SHL season. Reports were as the season went on his ice time increased.

It certainly hurt Petey spending a year in the SHL. How about D-Petey? There's no reason to rush him after the tough season he had.

I like the patience route myself. He's had a good playoffs but his season wasn't good. SHL is better than AHL imo. Let him shoot for a good SHL season before dragging him off to a foreign country and start the clock ticking. There's no reason to rush him.

That's simply another decision to made. The plan is to "loan" him to the SHL. That can happen at any time, and has happened before after preseason. Meaning he could participate in the young guns tourney, attend main camp, and even play in preseason. But it's also tougher to adjust to the time change going back to Sweden with the season under way. Then of course he's also behind getting use to that team as well. If the plan is to play in Sweden for another season it's likely better to just let him be there from the start of the SHL camp and season. But the choice is there.

Well if it's any consolation, after Toc was hired, the team was 12th in goals for (119) and 15th in goals against (114) for the balance of the season. We already have a RHD upgrade for next season in Hronek. Add in a healthy Demko, Mikheyev, and OEL and I think the outlook is pretty good without any further improvements or surprises in preseason. Which there likely will be. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I can see this team competing for a playoff spot next season.

I was a father of two when Gretzky came in the league. Believe me, he got the "Whine" Gretzky nickname because he complained so much about getting hooked and grabbed. That was years before Mario was drafted.

Clutch and grab hockey goes way back. Gretzky complained about so much in the early 80's he got the nickname Whine Gretzky. What really changed in the late 90's was the rise in teams employing the trap. Add a lot of clutch and grab to the trap and it stifled offense. One thing that could get through it was speed. Bure had that in spades. Where you really saw the drop in high scoring was the 96/97 season with only 2 players putting up 100+. points down from 12 players the season before.

You don't think he's fully recovered four months from now? Can I borrow that crystal ball...

Everybody seemed to love him when the team was winning. You know, when he spent money without a second thought. Like upgrading the workout and dressing rooms, a chamber to speed up injury recovery, a sports psycologist, sleep, doctor, nutritionist. Burying one way contracts in the minors, buying out contracts, and even green lighting cap circumvention (Luongo) that put team salary above the cap limit. He still seems to spend money without a thought. Spending to the cap, buyouts, sending one way contracts to the AHL. That gets ignored and he's called cheap for wanting to make the playoffs. I don't think he "interferes" nearly as much as some like to claim. The real issue is he didn't green light what some fans wanted - a full on tanking of the team. When a team isn't winning fans need somebody to point fingers at.

Character issues? Problems with Kuz? Clutching at straws? They added Kus and Mik in the offseason. Definite forward upgrades. They added Bear in October, early into the season. Also a definite upgrade. So how exactly did these upgrades setup Bouda to fail?

Rathbone is far more likely to be claimed than Woo, and Hoglander would be claimed without a doubt. Waiver elligibilty certainly doesn't guarantee any of them will be gifted a roster spot next season. It does mean Boner and Hogs will be shopped if they clearly aren't the best option though. Woo likely won't be shopped as he'd very likely clear.

A bold claim considering Woo hasn't played a single NHL game and has mediocre AHL numbers.

Personally I think it really comes down to how confident they are in Hoglander. He's waiver elligible next season. If they do have confidence in him, Garland becomes expendable as I doubt they want to load up on smaller players. Beauvillier is the easy one to single out to move. Boeser certainly did improve his play down the stretch, but given his price I still wouldn't be opposed to moving him. I do expect Myers to be moved and any one of those three being moved opens more than 10m cap space. I doubt Mik gets moved. Ultimately, as much as I like what he brings, if Garland won't be in the top six they may as well move him. He's too expensive for 3rd line. Moving Boeser or Beau does create better opportunity for him though. Boeser's play down the stretch has made him far more moveable now imo. Boeser has the highest potential production but is pretty average in all other aspects. Beau is the most physical of the three and the least expensive. He was on pare with Garland in production but also got 1st unit PP time and averaged more ice time per game. In the end I think you could toss a coin on who stays and who goes among the three. Garland isn't particularly physical but he is quite aggressive. He more than doubles both Beau and Brock in penalties drawn because he's so shifty and aggressive. There's a case to be made to keep, or trade, any of the the three. I think it may come down to the return (addressing a need) who goes among them. We do have some depth at forward and more in the pipeline. It's moving and replacing Myers that is the biggest need. I'm still hopeful Schenn re-signs here on a reasonable deal for two years. Buying time to develop younger guys. Moving Myers and one costly forward addresses the cap for next year. They could wait on the 3C to see if somebody steps up from within next season if they wanted to.

It's a what have you done lately league. So it's .74 ppg this season for Boeser. Which is pretty close to a 60 pt pace and that's despite his hand injury.

Inge Hammarström talking about Pettersson led to Benning sending Delorme over. Do you honestly think they select a player without more than one person checking them out? If you think he only checked ouit one player while in Sweden you're delussional. He also spent time with Gradin checking out SHL players.

Yes, and Delorme was sent over to check the kid out and reported back to Benning. It started when Pettersson was 15. That's been reported several times. But it says nothing about Bracket needing to "pound his fists", or anybody else for that matter, to convince Benning. Pettersson was the most heavily scouted forward by the Canucks since the Sedins. Now Gradin virtually had to "pound his fists" to get Burke to go after both Sedins. After the world juniors Burke was leaning towards trading his first in that draft rather than adding one to get the Sedins.

I don't buy it. Here's the thing, somebody says, "I think", or "I believe" and then mutiple blog sites jump on with "sources say" like it's a fact to get their clicks. I've heard those Tucker Carlson radio guys, that know negativity is better for ratings, blab things like fact after seeing right here from some poster speculating. I've seen it happen time and time again. Most is just attention seeking bull.

Actual sources or the typical Tucker Carlson media types? How about some links....

Actually it was Delorme that came back from a trip to Sweden who said "we need to keep an eye on this kid" when Petey was 15. Canucks scouts had him under a microscope ever since then. I don't believe for a second Bracket had to "hammer his fists" to get Petey drafted. I've never seen that from any legit source. It's just Benning hate/Bracket god nonsense.