[Signing] Red Wings sign Troy Stecher

[theo5789]

19 minutes ago, Googlie said:

Said to be Juolevi's strongest suit.

 

From Patrick Johnson'sProvince article a few months ago .....

 

"At even strength, Cull and his coaching staff often had Juolevi deployed alongside Ashton Sautner, one of the Comets’ most reliable and rugged blue-liners, facing down the opposition’s top forwards.

It was a good challenge for Juolevi and one he did well enough in. He was also a solid penalty killer, something that could help him in his pursuit of a spot with the Canucks this season", Severston pointed out.

While OJ could be a feasible option on the PK in a secondary PK role, there's still a big hole on the right side.

[Provost]

1 minute ago, theo5789 said:

Unfortunately he was only wanted by one of the worst teams in the league at a discounted rate. I don't blame him for taking on the best offer presented to him because he probably saw what happened to Hutton who thought he could get more had he waited.

 

As much I love Stecher, we've always needed to upgrade him or use his minutes for a more sheltered role for one of our prospects to grow. We already have Benn currently as the vet that needs to be beat out by the prospects.

If you listened to the interview there were several suitors.

Stecher is an excellent 3rd pairing D and one of our best defensive guys on the team for some time.  He would have been cheaper than Benn and is significantly better.

[theo5789]

Just now, Provost said:

If you listened to the interview there were several suitors.

Stecher is an excellent 3rd pairing D and one of our best defensive guys on the team for some time.  He would have been cheaper than Benn and is significantly better.

Several suitors means nothing. Perhaps other teams offered even less or same with one year. Surely Detroit wasn't the best team he could go to, it had to be the best offer.

 

I don't disagree that Stecher may be better than Benn, but perhaps Stecher also doesn't want the #7 role. As I said, we need to upgrade the #6 spot that Stecher was taking regardless. He may be considered a bottom pairing guy, but his minutes truly reflected a #6 at best.

 

Stecher as a player will be replaceable. He's just the type of player you root for, which is why it's tough, but from a team's perspective, it had to be done regardless.

[Provost]

1 minute ago, theo5789 said:

Several suitors means nothing. Perhaps other teams offered even less or same with one year. Surely Detroit wasn't the best team he could go to, it had to be the best offer.

 

I don't disagree that Stecher may be better than Benn, but perhaps Stecher also doesn't want the #7 role. As I said, we need to upgrade the #6 spot that Stecher was taking regardless. He may be considered a bottom pairing guy, but his minutes truly reflected a #6 at best.

 

Stecher as a player will be replaceable. He's just the type of player you root for, which is why it's tough, but from a team's perspective, it had to be done regardless.

He has played around 19 minutes a night most seasons while here and at the same time he had the best shot suppression numbers of anyone on the team.... that objectively  isn't #6 "at best"

[theo5789]

5 minutes ago, Provost said:

He has played around 19 minutes a night most seasons while here and at the same time he had the best shot suppression numbers of anyone on the team.... that objectively  isn't #6 "at best"

He averaged just over 15 minutes a night last season. When Benn/Fantenberg were in the lineup, they averaged to have more minutes than Stecher this year.

 

When he got his 19 minutes, it was during the years when we were injury riddled and were one of the worst teams in the league. I'm not trying to downplay that he was good in his role, but his role is the most easily replaceable on the team and you can find budget players to do his job. You'd think there would be better options than Detroit if he was as coveted as he was here. He's going to get the playing time in Detroit to try and boost his value while staying in the league long enough to go past the flat cap and get a decent payout by the end of it. It makes sense for him and we needed to upgrade regardless in his spot so it makes sense for us to move on as well despite being a local favourite.

[HockeyHarry]

21 minutes ago, Googlie said:

Here's another take on OJs penalty killing acumen (Canucks army).....

 

Now I want to talk about the most impressive part of Olli Juolevi’s game.

 

His penalty killing.

 

I’ve talked about the quick decision making being a concern of mine with Juolevi. With structured defending that is correlated with penalty killing, Juolevi’s game flourishes.

He is excellent at shutting down options for the opposing puck possessor. A lot was said about Juolevi’s high hockey IQ leading up to his draft day, and without watching him play a lot you might just assume that people are talking about him making good passes and knowing when to take risks.

That’s not it. The high hockey IQ that was stamped from scouts hails from his structured defending. He understands passing lanes and is able to block them with quick lateral movements, it almost seems that he is able to anticipate the next pass as well. Similar to how we see Elias Pettersson do on the offensive side of things.

 

Confirmed: Juolevi is Pettersson.

 

I spoke with Utica Comets play by play broadcaster Joe Roberts, who has called every single one of Juolevi’s games with the Comets. I wanted to begin by asking him what he thought Juolevi’s best single skill was and we agreed that it was his ability on the penalty kill.

I am so surprised on a nightly basis how good he is at positioning his body and his stick in the right places when the team is settled into the defensive zone. He is such a valuable asset on the penalty kill, he logged a lot of time and swallowed a lot of pucks. I think that people need to take a look at these moments when they realize what his potential is as an NHL defenseman because he can really help slam the door.

A very good read on OJ, which i wasnt aware of. I like OJ even more after the read.

 

too bad its in the Stecher Redwings thread. 

[Provost]

1 minute ago, theo5789 said:

He averaged just over 15 minutes a night last season. When Benn/Fantenberg were in the lineup, they averaged to have more minutes than Stecher this year.

 

When he got his 19 minutes, it was during the years when we were injury riddled and were one of the worst teams in the league. I'm not trying to downplay that he was good in his role, but his role is the most easily replaceable on the team and you can find budget players to do his job. You'd think there would be better options than Detroit if he was as coveted as he was here. He's going to get the playing time in Detroit to try and boost his value while staying in the league long enough to go past the flat cap and get a decent payout by the end of it. It makes sense for him and we needed to upgrade regardless in his spot so it makes sense for us to move on as well despite being a local favourite.

You keep mentioning some imaginary upgrade.  We don't have the money to do that, and we don't have any sign of an upgrade.  That isn't the comparable to be had.

There is no sign that we will be getting two RD that are better than Stecher for any sort of upgrade at all, certainly not at the price he would have come in at.  Also take his 19 minutes per night from previous seasons and make that 23 minutes a night paired with Edler if he were signed here after Tanev was gone.  We are one of the worst teams in the league again if we don't find a way to get some actual NHL calibre D.

Benn was sitting on the bench most of the season while Stecher was playing, same as in the playoffs.  The fact they played more minutes but half the games is a function of filling in for injuries where everyone (including Stecher) played more minutes for those games.

We were in tough to replace Tanev, now we have to replace two of our top 6 and so far, no indication we will be able to do it.  Tanev and Stecher are much better than Benn and Chatfield/Rafferty
 

[-DLC-]

Aw damn.

 

Just got in....I know we "have" to upgrade on d....just hate losing a heart and soul local boy.   And so we're just getting rid of guys?....don't we need to get some back somehow?

[theo5789]

8 minutes ago, Provost said:

You keep mentioning some imaginary upgrade.  We don't have the money to do that, and we don't have any sign of an upgrade.  That isn't the comparable to be had.

There is no sign that we will be getting two RD that are better than Stecher for any sort of upgrade at all, certainly not at the price he would have come in at.  Also take his 19 minutes per night from previous seasons and make that 23 minutes a night paired with Edler if he were signed here after Tanev was gone.  We are one of the worst teams in the league again if we don't find a way to get some actual NHL calibre D.

Benn was sitting on the bench most of the season while Stecher was playing, same as in the playoffs.  The fact they played more minutes but half the games is a function of filling in for injuries where everyone (including Stecher) played more minutes for those games.

We were in tough to replace Tanev, now we have to replace two of our top 6 and so far, no indication we will be able to do it.  Tanev and Stecher are much better than Benn and Chatfield/Rafferty
 

And you keep mentioning the minutes that he doesn't play anymore as your argument. We were a much better team last season and without the injuries, he settled into what his normal minutes should be and we still felt no urgency to bring him back (an undersized #6 dman). An upgrade on Stecher doesn't have to cost more than Stecher, as there are likely plenty of budget options for a bottom pairing/#6 dman.

 

While I agree Tanev and Stecher is better than the current Benn and Chatfield/Rafferty, I can assure you that won't be what we are rolling into the season with, so that is a moot argument until we see how things play out rather than freak out on day 2 of free agency. There are plenty of teams that need to worry about money and cap while at the same time have to consider expansion as a concern.

 

The reality is Stecher is not a big loss. Tanev is for sure and we will see who we replace him with by the time the season starts before the annual whining and complaining about everything that the Canucks do.

[Ghostsof1915]

Thanks Troy. Steve Yzerman probably loves your work ethic. Good luck. 

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

1 hour ago, theo5789 said:

Unfortunately he was only wanted by one of the worst teams in the league at a discounted rate. I don't blame him for taking on the best offer presented to him because he probably saw what happened to Hutton who thought he could get more had he waited.

 

As much I love Stecher, we've always needed to upgrade him or use his minutes for a more sheltered role for one of our prospects to grow. We already have Benn currently as the vet that needs to be beat out by the prospects.

We don't have money to make those types of upgrades.  If we want to re-sign Toffoli we run out of cap room quickly.  Troy Stecher is a fine NHL defenseman and we know he can be trusted on the ice.  At the price he signed for, it makes no sense how we lost him.  If you as a GM on any team can sign a reliable bottom-pairing d-man with a right-handed shot for less than 2 million... wouldn't you take it?  If Stecher plays as well as he did, this is going to be a great deal for Detroit and a stupid loss for Vancouver.

[BertaNuck]

[Ghostsof1915]

^ I call BS Rick. 

[theo5789]

2 minutes ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

^ I call BS Rick. 

Look at the name lol

[Ghostsof1915]

1 minute ago, theo5789 said:

Look at the name lol

LOL good catch. 

[Googlie]

Still is hilarious though

[Googlie]

45 minutes ago, HockeyHarry said:

A very good read on OJ, which i wasnt aware of. I like OJ even more after the read.

 

too bad its in the Stecher Redwings thread. 

Was second part of a 2 part article.  I'll post the links in the OJ thread

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

11 minutes ago, theo5789 said:

And you keep mentioning the minutes that he doesn't play anymore as your argument. We were a much better team last season and without the injuries, he settled into what his normal minutes should be and we still felt no urgency to bring him back (an undersized #6 dman). An upgrade on Stecher doesn't have to cost more than Stecher, as there are likely plenty of budget options for a bottom pairing/#6 dman.

 

While I agree Tanev and Stecher is better than the current Benn and Chatfield/Rafferty, I can assure you that won't be what we are rolling into the season with, so that is a moot argument until we see how things play out rather than freak out on day 2 of free agency. There are plenty of teams that need to worry about money and cap while at the same time have to consider expansion as a concern.

 

The reality is Stecher is not a big loss. Tanev is for sure and we will see who we replace him with by the time the season starts before the annual whining and complaining about everything that the Canucks do.

Because of the dead cap space in our bottom six, the team doesn't have enough money to make upgrades across the board.  Benning can chase after Pietrangelo but we will run out of money and lose Toffoli.  If we re-sign Toffoli, we will run out of room to sign free agents and be forced to gamble with our Comet d-men.  And if we try to make a trade, we will have to give up significant assets to acquire a top-4 RD.  Either way, we will also have a cap situation next year when we have to re-sign #6, #40 and #43.  This year showed what the Canucks are capable of, but we need more to become a legitimate contender.

 

Stecher was worth every penny he earned here.  He was a valuable to the team and was on a pretty cheap contract too.  Because of our cap deadweight, he is worth more to us than normal.  This headache could've been prevented if we brought back Stecher for something like a 3 year, $6M contract.  Now we've got multiple holes and not enough fingers to plug all of them.

[Ilya Mikheyev]

17 minutes ago, Filthy McNasty said:

fake acct

[theo5789]

6 minutes ago, Bob.Loblaw said:

Because of the dead cap space in our bottom six, the team doesn't have enough money to make upgrades across the board.  Benning can chase after Pietrangelo but we will run out of money and lose Toffoli.  If we re-sign Toffoli, we will run out of room to sign free agents and be forced to gamble with our Comet d-men.  And if we try to make a trade, we will have to give up significant assets to acquire a top-4 RD.  Either way, we will also have a cap situation next year when we have to re-sign #6, #40 and #43.  This year showed what the Canucks are capable of, but we need more to become a legitimate contender.

 

Stecher was worth every penny he earned here.  He was a valuable to the team and was on a pretty cheap contract too.  Because of our cap deadweight, he is worth more to us than normal.  This headache could've been prevented if we brought back Stecher for something like a 3 year, $6M contract.  Now we've got multiple holes and not enough fingers to plug all of them.

If for example we did get Pietrangelo, is that not already an upgrade to both Tanev and Stecher (could plug in a Fantenberg type player that is cheap in the bottom pair)?

 

Boeser doesn't need to be signed next year.

 

An upgrade to a bottom pairing/#6 dman doesn't have to require a more expensive player. I've always expected us to upgrade on Stecher anyway (I expected us to sign Tanev though) no matter what happened.