Weave

He's reading Sabrespace.

I think I've read excepts from that book. Pretty sure, in fact.

I saw 2 tank years.

The Manning portion specifically.

Unbunch your Garanimals. That's exactly what I mean. He's got alot of growing as a player to do, and before he gets there we need another center.

We're all blocking you.

I'm not sure that would be a good thing if his head is on straight.

In defense of Edmonton, reportedly McDavid signed off on the trade before it was finalized. There shouldn't be hard feelings.

Center needs to be the priority in trade talks. Otherwise we're looking at center depth in 3-5 years. Hopefully Casey has it turned around before then.....

Last time I read an article on this was at least a year ago, so I may not be remembering properly, but my recolection is the exact opposite. Starters everywhere in the 1st round and into the 2nd, so there is terrific value in collecting those extra picks to move down. Quite the opposite of the NHL draft.

Well, that changes everything. And if Eichel doesn't go, my interest in the game goes with him. What a hot mess that would be.

There has been a lot of interesting analysis on this. The consensus is that the NFL draft is almost always rich enough that trading down is nearly always the better play.

Maybe he gets in over Ellie, but I think you're most likely right. he's a warm body in case someone can't go, hence the last minute call up.

Savage.

And I hope he wouldn't. He's still an improvement over the alternative at the moment. Overpaid, but better than our other options. Yeah, yeah, what about X kid in Rochester..... they aren't going to do any better with the centers we have.

He's not a 4th line player. But he hasn't been productive either. He needs a center. I suppose PH is looking to build a line that isn't so dependent on a center. Good luck with that.

No, it can’t be framed a success in that circumstance. I don’t think we’ll end up having that discussion, fortunately.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Some of this is fallout from Berglund leaving the team. Ellie doesn't sniff the ice with Berglund on the roster. The best shutdown line we've had in almost a decade takes all of the hard minutes so Mitts and TT can be even further sheltered if Berglund is still on the roster. We've been forced to use a couple of less able or less developed players in roles they shouldn't have because Berglund skipped out for whatever reason.

I completely agree that Casey is in over his head right now, but he most definitely has shown flashes that he’ll become a serviceable center in the NHL. Most of those flashes were early in the season. The games have tightened up though and he’s no longer showing that potential. Sam never showed those flashes. At all. I’d love for Nylander or Olofsson to be a fix, but unless they can provide competent 2C performance they will languish as well. As we saw post 2007, the team goes as center performance goes. Unless our wings are Patrick Kane or Alex Ovechkin, they’ll need better center play than the rostercan provide. This was the concern that Blue, myself, and a couple others voiced after the ROR trade.

Rearranging deck chairs. Noone is improving scoring with Mittlestadt and Sobotka centering them. The need to get another NHL center in the lineup or nothing changes except the numbers on the jerseys.

Mittlestadt has shown more potential at center already than Sam ever did. With mediocre wingers. Sam just isn't a center. He's not improving secondary scoring if we shift him to pivot.

The biggest issue I saw is that this team is no longer playing at the pace they were playing with earlier in the season. Boston can't keep with that pace, but we don't use it anymore. Why? The second biggest is that we have way too much talent for the powerplay to be going so poorly. Their entries are dead slow and the passing too deliberate. They aren't forcing the short handed team to move with speed. And I really need to see Jack back more on that winning goal. He needs O'Reilly's work ethic when the puck turns over. And one more item. JBott, get us a second line center before Mitts is ruined.

Not just simpler, but addresses the most pressing need, 2C. Our wings are fine. They just need more than one center on the team.

That's better.