Randall Flagg

FWIW, all of those comments/situations occurred under the current GM (and most non-coaching front office positions as far as I know)

Tage did actively bad things every shift to create metrics that describe him as a bottom 5-10 skater to touch NHL ice all season. these things included direct-assisting to opponents goals via multiple avenues, including ridiculous toe-drag attempts and being completely overwhelmed mentally with the speed of the game (a panic throw back on an odd man rush that give WPG a two on one goal, for example). Alex didn't actively do a lot of positive things, but he brought nothing like this, er, ability, to the table, and scored goals roughly twice as often per unit ice time given (of course, small sample size, but I know you like goals and traditional counting stats, so I'm just showing that alex torches tage here as well as the other stuff) Alex was objectively and in every possible manner better at NHL hockey than Tage Thompson in the 2018-19 season, in his 12 games and Tage's 65. Largely as a function of just how awful Tage truly was. If only these two were worth breaking out the camera again to get into even more detail

Yep. I'd be perfectly happy to add to try and get Horvat, but he's all I want (under the assumption that Hughes/Boeser/Pettersson are untouchable) and they ain't doin it

Nylander's comments (which really aren't all that bad) aren't the first time a player has given a vibe that things are 'off' in a way, here. The same hint of a whiff of a smell was there with both ROR and Berglund. Nobody outright saying "clown organization," of course.

Meritocracy works in all directions. Tage was sub-NHL level and allowed to stay for 90% of the season, despite it quickly being obvious. Nylander wasn't an AHL superstar, but everything I read at the time indicated it'd be completely reasonable for him to be if not the first, the second guy called up (and Mitts being bad didn't help there). And when he got here, if you value hockey that happens in between goals every 10 games, it is quite clear that one was notably better than the other in that role, and it's not the one that got it all year long. That method would look so much better if it didn't come in the form of submarining the NHL lineup and the confidence of the obstacle, who was a key piece in an important trade.

I wouldn't say anything if I were him, but he's not wrong to be frustrated that we skirted meritocracy between him and Tage as far as right-handed prospects go. He was objectively better in his time here and they should have been swapped (perhaps several times during the season) far earlier than when he finally got up here.

Is Vancouver less likely of a trade partner now that they've signed Myers? They have Myers, Tanev, Stecher down the right side. Obviously not ideal, but Risto doesn't make it better in a meaningful way (he's not going to drag their defense from not-playoff-caliber to playoff-caliber by himself)

Expected? I don't think they expect that from anyone at this point. It's possible he (and others like Borgen) can develop into that role, sure.

We had Girgensons, Grigorenko, Hodgson at one point too. Hindsight can cloud just as much as it can reveal - 2C is not solved until it's SOLVED, ya know?

I think that's a pretty stupid thing. I was going to say "whatever, i got choked out by a drunk friend a few years ago and it's fine" then I realized I haven't seen or spoken to him since

But Okposo is better at hockey AND, to my eye, plays a more physical brand of hockey. Lucic had a whopping two fights last year. Okposo had one. Are you sure you know what you're getting bringing in Milan?

If some team is going to maximize what Alex Nylander can do in the NHL, it's probably Chicago.

Lucic is a floating zombie from what I've seen and Okposo is far more willing to lower his shoulder and grind on the boards than most of his teammates. That's not to say that he's good at hockey, but neither is the guy who had like one goal in about 50 straight games with McDavid a couple seasons ago

If Risto isn't gone by July 13th I will personally send him a sternly worded email which will go to the spam box just like the 300 other ones I've sent

I can't imagine that Florida would be okay with this. Was that really a rumor? I've only seeen a handful of Oilers games in the last two seasons, but I feel comfortable saying that current Okposo is just as physical as current Lucic

Hmmmm. Dawkins + Risto + ??? for Bakhtiari ha ha ha im so funny

Doesn't that guy have like a full blown NTC? I'd also be thrilled do do something around Rakell.

I only know of Jokiharju's name and general status as young, puck-moving Chicago defender. This seems like a solid move though. I too am excited for the fireworks it HAS to represent. Unless we're converting to 3 forward lines and 5 d-pairs (but even in that fantasy land we just have forwards to move instead)

It's tampa, and we're getting Cirelli baby

His ice gets thinner with each passing day

Last summer I tried doing a "zone exit" and "zone entries allowed" project. I expected Ristolainen to be terrible at exiting the zone. He did far better than I expected in the ~8-10 games I counted, and was our best defenseman numerically at connecting on short, crisp transition passes (again, in these few games). I was floored. This happened because I separated instances where Ristolainen makes the decision to move the puck up the ice, either by himself or to his teammates, versus when he's content to flip it out to center ice. Zone exit stats don't make this distinction, and thus muddle up something that's a lot harder to piece together in reality. It's certainly a problem that Ristolainen is so content to revert to Nolan-era transition strategies, but the key point is that he did this far more when paired with our bad defensemen (after long shifts of being hemmed in) than with our good ones (like when he was with Pilut this year). The nature of these shifts did tangibly change his decision making and thus surface level exit stats. That's what people mean when they suggest that usage could improve Ristolainen. Not just reduction of minutes in a vacuum, but changing as much as possible about his on-ice situations. It's not just zone exit stats - the Risto trade thread had the word Corsi in the title. If you removed two of the worst skaters in the NHL from Ristolainen's usage this year, Sobotka and Scandella, he posted the following "fancystats": 890 minutes (~65% of his ice time at 5v5), 50.75 CF%, 52.95 xGF%, 53.31 HDCF% This includes playing with all other players, some good, some not. For each Jack Eichel, there's a Mitts or a Thompson. His most common partner was McCabe, not Dahlin or anything, and people like jumping on McCabe too. Between corsi and expected goals, taking out usage with just two players that shouldn't have been playing NHL ice time this season erases the primary fancy stat worries about Risto. This would appear to fly in the face of "but the reason those shifts were spent hemmed in was because he was out there in the first place." Apparently, that's not what happens as long as he is given NHL teammates. I'm not saying Risto is great, or isn't flawed, but that's not nothing. Further, when he got hurt and Brandon Montour, who is a very nice player, took his spot, he got his face caved in as well, completely unable to handle high-twenties minutes against top players. Even better, Montours addition and presence on the power play, and Dahlin taking Risto off the top power play, gave Montour a scoring rate eerily similar to Risto's while here, while Risto's scoring kinda dried up (I remember seeing 5 points in his last 16 games or so - two of them in the game Detroit ran for the bus). I don't think it's quite as simple as Risto is a dumb lunk who will always have negative team-level on ice effects. That doesn't mean I don't want to use him to address the spot in our roster we were worst in the league at, since there are supposedly teams that see him as a top pairing defenseman. But while it's not as simple as "give Risto 21 instead of 25 minutes" it's also not as simple as "Risto is inherently bad at all the things, and stupid, and that's why his metrics are yucky"

That team is probably an ~82 point team assuming reasonable improvement from the kids. Above-expectation improvement from several can flirt with the playoffs. We need more from Jason. Oh, and we need a returned-to-form Scandella. Last year's Scandella in this year's top six is bad news, and not one of the 7 or 8 best skaters we have back there when all are healthy.

Sorta. It was in retaliation to Risto shoving his jock strap in Scott's face while he was taping his sticks in the stick room. Scott wasn't trying to hurt him but basically knocked him unconscious and panicked since it was the prized first round pick he was choking out. "was all fun and games until..." I think he said.

I'd definitely prefer Bonino to Turris if we're going that route. I hope we go bigger.