dudacek

Why is Matthews nominated for the Selke? Serious question, not trying to ***** on him. He seems positionally sound and he’s obviously got the size and skill to match up well. But I’ve never really watched him and said *****, there’s Matthews breaking up another rush, blocking another shot, or taking away another puck. But I see him 5 or 10 times a year and can’t say I’ve ever focused on him on that side of the puck. Was there some serious analytics that he dropped this year?

I feel the same way about the money thing. Most of these guys grew up in well off families, and never went wanting in their lives for material things. They’ve never worried about security or lusted over a life of leisure, or saw hockey as a means to an end. That’s a relic borrowed from other sports, or from hockey books written in the ‘50s. What matters most about the money for these guys seems to be how it’s another way of keeping score. You can’t assume the range of behaviours you see in your own workplace are going to carry over because the professional hockey player has been molded in specific place based on a very specific routine, background and set of beliefs. Of course it’s not one-size-fits-all, and there is a range that exists within the fraternity, but a lazy hockey player is about as likely as a stupid doctor, or a timid marine.

The idea of the chill bro elite athlete is something I’m forever going to struggle with in this day and age. Entitled, self-centred, sure - the environment that spits these guys out can lead to all kinds of character flaws. But lazy self-satisfaction ain’t high on the list. That’s just not the modern amateur sports culture, where the best are pulled together at a very young age, programmed by well-trained coaches, and cutting-edge sports scientists to seek out every advantage, and constantly measured against and compared to their peers in a dogfight to reach the top. The days of slackers with elite natural physical gifts able to slide by in sports that get played 6 or 8 months a year by flabby smokers vanished with Ed Van Impe.

I find these things are more so the breathless comprehension issues of the reader than issues with writer, though. At least if you are reading credible sources and you have a good grasp of how the draft actually works. When someone says “Matt Savoie is small, fast, and competitive. He’s got great hands and is always moving and attacking and prowling for openings like a shark. He reminds me a little of Danny Briere.” I certainly don’t go “whoohoo, we’re going to add a Danny Briere to the lineup next year.” And I don’t think many around here do. It just tells me that’s the type of game he plays at his current level of competition.

You’re right. Looking at the comps, looks to me like that leverage gets used pretty consistently. Lot of goalies got decent money with some pretty skimpy track records. I’d even go as far to say that Levi gives Kevyn a better deterrent than some of the other GMs had available. Alex Nedelkjovic? Jaro Halak?

If people are thinking they are going to turn #11 and Isak Rosen into Brady Tkachuk, well they are chuds. But they can turn a package like that into a player that can nicely fill a need in their middle six

Max points for alliteration there, extra for the snow and cold reference and the originality. Anything bee-related kinda works for me in terms of state-related and originality.

The Islanders traded #13 to Montreal in 2022 for Romanov, who then flipped that pick to the Hawks for Kirby Dach. The Canucks traded #17 and a 2nd for Filip Hronek. The Sens traded #7, a 2nd and a 3rd for Debrincat, the Kings traded #19 and Brock Faber for Kevin Fiala.

Wheeler dropped his first mock and it has: 9 Iginla 10 Helenius 11 Yakemchuk 12 Catton 13 Eiserman Those all look like good additions to me. They also all look like prospects with the upside teams would interested in trading for.

Does he have the forechecking/takeaway/carry through traffic element Tuch has? If so, you've suddenly made me a lot more interested.

These have been excellent @LGR4GM. In terms of utility (as opposed to play style) are we projecting a Caufield/Debrincat type: a guy whose role is finisher, first and foremost?

Of winning? I think they’ve played this team something like 30 times in the past 2 years and are somewhere in the vicinity of .500. In this series they’ve won twice by one goal and lost twice by one goal. 3 of the 4 games have gone to OT. Flip a coin.

I am totally on board with your thing about the fallibility of scouting. Just look at that 2019 draft and the hit and miss of the way players went off the board. The Flyers being absolutely furious when Bobby Sanguinetti was snatched up the pick before their’s leaving a befuddled Bob Clarke unsure of who the next guy on their list was. After checking their notes, they took Claude Giroux. I think there’s an untold story about the Sabres busting their ***** to trade up for a defenceman last year, only to have it fall apart late. In the meantime another player fell into their laps in Benson, who will probably turn out to be a much better player than the guy they were trying to move up for. The Bruins didn’t pick Marchand in the 3rd round because they were smart. That same staff took Yuri Alexandro’s 34 picks earlier and Zach Hamill top 10 a year later. You can tilt your odds, but so much of the draft is a total crapshoot.

The Avs did say they figured at the time they signed him to his 2nd contract, they’d be trading him before he signed his 3rd. Would they have been better off bypassing him for the next best player on their list back in 2019? Maybe not if you think his presence was important to their cup in 2022 Certainly not if that player was Alex Turcotte. If that player was Dylan Cozens?

I do think there’s truth in this, it least in terms of production. We’ve seen it on our team already, with people underrating Power compared to players like Seider because Seider has significantly more PP opportunities and therefore more points. Ive seen Avs fans who say that Byram’s production was hurt because he never got to play with Makar and McKinnon at all, never mind on the PP. Instead it was all Ross Colton and Jack Johnson. But the flip side of that is that if Byram was a better player, he wouldn’t have been taking a seat for Sam Girard, and that he didn’t have to play against the other team’s best either. So there’s a chicken and an egg thing there. Thing is, I don’t think Byram has to be a 60-point PP QB to be effective, he just has to be better than his opponent when he’s out there. Byram (and Power) don’t have to be the limited one-way guys some people on here seem to typecast them as. They have the tools to develop into complete defencemen the way Dahlin has. The way Pietrangelo, Theodore and Hanifin are for Vegas, To get there, they just need to get their reps. I checked even strength points for defencemen: Power had 26, Theodore 27 Pietrangelo 23, Seider 24. Ahead of them all, in 34th in the NHL with 28 was Bo Byram.

Ah OK. That was simply a reference to Byram’s value dipping this year because it was both his first full season, and his worst season. Prior to this year he had 41 points in 72 games sandwiched around a scintillating Stanley Cup win. Add his draft pedigree to what most defencemen are doing at that age and it fed the narrative of “imagine what he’ll be when he’s healthy and fills out.” His regression this year took some of the shine off that, enough for the Avalanche to conclude either “he ain’t gonna be all that,” or “we can’t afford to wait to find out.”

7 goalies make $6M or more. 17 make 5 $5M or more. Here’s a look at your recent 3rd contract RFA comparables. UPL: (2024) 5 years pro, 100 NHL games, 1 season of good numbers as a starter Matt Murray (2020) 4X6.25M 6 years pro, 199 NHL games, 4 seasons of good numbers as a starter, Stanley Cup Cal Petersen (2021) 3x$5M (signed extension a year before he would have become a UFA) 4 years pro, 54 NHL games, good numbers but no season as a full-time starter Thatcher Demko (2021) 5x$5M 5 years pro, 72 NHL games, good numbers, 1 abbreviated season as an NHL starter Ville Husso (2022) 3x4.75 6 years pro, 57 NHL games with good numbers, 1 abbreviated season as an NHL starter Filip Gustafson (2023) 3x3.75 5 years pro, 66 NHL games, 1 season with good numbers as an NHL starter Alexander Georgiev (2022) 3x3.4M 5 years pro, 129 NHL games with good numbers, none of them as a starter Vitek Vanecek (2022) 3x3.4M 6 years pro, 79 NHL games, 1 year with good numbers as a starter Stuart Skinner (2023) 3x2.6M (signed mid-way through 1st season as a starter) 5 years pro, 30ish NHL games, 1/2 year of good numbers as a starter You gotta think UPL is looking for a Demko deal, the Sabres a Gustafson.

I don’t remember the Byram comment you reference, but it may have been a reference to the fact that you don’t usually find the first defenceman taken in any draft available in a trade less than 5 years after he was picked. Or a defenceman picked in the top 10 even. But to your point, I don’t think you typically are forced to sell at a discount if you’ve got a logjam of a particular player type. The value is going to be determined partly by demand and mostly by how well your pick develops.

I think this is just a case of degrees. In practical terms, no matter which one I’d pick first in a vacuum, I’d take prime Mike Peca over prime Rene Robert at this time for this particular Buffalo Sabres team. They’re a similar level of player, so the fit matters more. However, I’m not taking prime Richard Smehlik over prime Rene Robert, no matter how many top 6 wingers I have with the defensive D cupboard entirely empty. The Peca scenario is likely true for the 2 players you are weighing at 11, so the discussion is mostly moot. Where it is not moot is where a guy you rank significantly higher somehow slips to your spot. That’s where I take the Benson over the Oliver Bonk every time. Especially because the draft pick isn’t for now, he’s for 5 years from now. 2 years after you overstocked on centres you might discover Mitts traded, Krebs sucking and Cozens playing better on the wing.

Couldn’t agree more. Draft the player you think will be the best. Trade for need.

Do the holiday pictures on the feeds of the kids in your personal circle contain shots of them enjoying good times in the sun? Are they all (presumably entitled and non-committed) chill bros? Will the existence and sharing of this picture have more or less impact on the hockey success of Tage Thompson than pictures of Rasmus Ristolainen flipping tires?

The league moved from a 20-year-old draft to an 18-year -old draft in 1979 due to the threat of lawsuits tied to the old WHA.

Sounded like Power was paired with Parayko. That’s one massive pair of humans. He’s scored a goal in each tuneup. Byram also scored yesterday. I believe he’s on pair #2 with Oleksiak (another massive human).

Good points, but I think the fervour is there without the media. Teams are rarely trading for the 11th pick because they’ve targeted a player. They’re trying to maximize value for a player who, for whatever reason, they feel that they have to trade. The fanbase is sick of the future, they want now.

Pick 11 is a valuable asset. We've also got a handful of recent picks that should have somewhat similar value depending on the beholder: Benson, Savoie, Östlund, Kulich and Rosen. It’s not dissimilar to the Levi/1st package the Sabres got for Sam Reinhart. Ideally I’m looking for a team that - through cap and/or contract - is going to have part ways with a forward in a similar career place to where Sam was 3 years ago and we make a similar trade. The Dubois trade last year, Ottawa giving up a high first for Debrincat. St. Louis acquiring Brayden Schenn for two firsts, or O’Reilly for a 1st and Thompson; Florida getting Bennett for 2 2nds, LA nabbing Fiala for a 1st and Faber, even the Sabres getting O’Reilly for Compher, Zadorov and Grigorenko. Its not usual for a deal like this to be available at the draft and we’ve got the pieces to make it happen.