thewookie1

I believe he was listed as an emergency call-up

Pretty much this; hell we likely even policed it in our respective minds as well. The idea that our top skilled player, and what we tanked for, could possibly be the root of the problem was a thought to be terrified of. Hell, I'll tell you all a story. Back in the whole Eichel vs ROR year a family member of mine, who gave tennis lessons for a few big names in Buffalo (not the sports teams mind you) but people who had direct interaction with Eichel said he might be the problem. Supposedly he had some maturity problems and even wished he could play for Boston/Toronto. He didn't feel Buffalo was a big enough stage for his talent. He was good with Roswell however in spite of his persona he carried. I remember telling this family member they were wrong and that Eichel would grow up into a great captain because otherwise we were screwed. After all, many players start their careers with "holier than art thou" personas due to their entire life being the top of their peer group. This all being said I still assume Eichel will play well next year after having a full offseason to recuperate as he is a world class talent. However, rather or not he actually reaches his peak is entirely up to him. His drive to win and be as good as McDavid should make him improve yet for some reason he has never changed much as a player/person aside from brief points during the Covid year. I don't know if he's just been convinced that Evander Kane's approach was perfect or he just doesn't respect any vet deemed washed up at the present point as worthless? All I know is unless he has his equivalent to Ovi's "Play Defense" breakthrough; he'll never come close to living up to his potential.

I'd suggest tweeting Brian Duff and Biron about these questions; they tend to look into them for fans.

If anything we'd a deep dive on his analytics.

I don't believe he'll bounce back based on how bad he's been this year.

I've been told I offered to much lol I'm just hoping WPG does something stupid in an attempt to fix their roster.

As I mentioned in the Dman thread, Gudbranson wouldn't work well here due to his requirement of a heavily structured system like how Calgary does it under Sutter Here's my most recent idea https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/3216649

Gudbranson wouldn't fit in here; Friedman literally said on Rivet/Peter's Podcast that Gudbranson needs a heavily structured system like Darryl Sutter's to actually do well.

I’d rather acquire DeMelo from WPG Manson hasn’t looked good the last two or three years.

I wonder if we might be able to steal Thompson from under their noses like we did with Mogilny 🙂

It could also purely be the fact there aren't any goalies worth the 4 year commitment

Maybe we should go after Thompson in the off-season?

Huh? Besides a better goalie I’m unsure what you are referring to.

I probably wouldn't trade UPL, replacing 1 goalie prospect with a slightly older one doesn't make me feel any better about our situation.

That might be a tad rich for a mediocre goalie prospect

Low end yes

I only slightly disagree, develop your own stars but you can bring in one or two. You can’t however bring in all your stars. Chicago brought in Hossa, LA brought in Carter and Richards. The vital part is they mesh with your already existing stars. It’s not the upgrade part that is an issue; it’s the more the “upgrades” they made. When your team goes to the Cup Finals, it makes sense to try and get that piece that puts you over the edge. Vegas seems to be perpetually in that state but even more so cannibalizing their own base. Was Petroangelo an upgrade over Schmidt, yes but by what degree? Schmidt had stepped up over his time in Vegas and had grown into a great player while there. Then after signing an extension to stay there and having a solid season he was jettisoned for a slightly older but more generally viewed better Dman. Vegas didn’t push depth down, they effectively traded the homegrown guy for a new shiny object who was marginally better. Vegas has done that a few times already at this point and I’d guess players don’t exactly like that sort of “improvement.” Additionally there’s a degree of honor that comes with growing with a team. If you give your team everything you have; you feel entitled to at very least get some degree of loyalty in return. How they dealt with Fleury was appalling but even worse was the whole Dadanov situation. Vegas went into this season with a need for a 1C and needing to likely deal Fleury due to cap restrictions. So they dump Fleury, their Vezina winning goalie at the side of the road to get cap space. Everyone assumed it was to get Eichel. Then they deal a mid round pick for an expensive winger in Dadonov whom was a completely unnecessary move. If Vegas had depth anywhere it was at the wings. Just off the top of my head they had: Patches, Stone, Smith, Marsh, Tuch(injured), Carrier, Kolesar, Janmark, Reeves and Nosek. Some of which also played center but anyone with half a brain could see their weakness was center depth, especially Top 6 center depth. Trading for Dadonov made no sense and preceded to close the cap space Fleury’s departure created. From there they somehow never learned of his NTC and tried trading him after 50 games with the team. It doesn’t look good for a team to trade for a player and then within a year attempt to dump them with a literal bribe. Why go to Vegas with your family if you might be moving again within 8 months because a new shiny toy came available?

You need to find backups with potential, none of those three have any.

FU McKay

Mrazek, Pickard or Driedger...... Mrazek is a terrible goalie who has a snowball's chance in hell of ever playing well. His problems aren't ones that can be fixed; he loses his net constantly and looks to block pucks making him even more susceptible to being easily deked or passed around. Pickard, a career backup Driedger had 1 good year and then turned back into a pumpkin

He's playing through a back injury; plus Stone has no connection to Buffalo

Holy cow, the NHL website told me the game was over

Disappointed, we needed that win San Jose...

What is the best draft pick spots we can get with 2 wins? 10th? 15/16th for Vegas 28th for Florida?

Eichel I guess lol Technically Ristolainen last year and Taylor Hall for the handful of games he played under Granato.