Randall Flagg

My gram is cross-stitching it as we speak.

He will easily be one of this team's 8 most important players when they are winning a lot of hockey games again

Weed is so lame lol.

Also, point shots. We went on a 7 game streak where our only goals were on the PP or shot in from the point.

I'm struggling to meld these conflicts as well. I don't think we're playing GREAT hockey, but it's tough to take any of this at face value. I'd love to see someone do a film dive to try and explain it

This is a good GIF lol Waxed the car today with the game on the radio, and also noticed how good Rick was

They changed this within the past few seasons, loosening the net so the puck doesn't quickly spring out so often

Yes they can. Not saying we are bad, but I don't think we are "good" yet, and the tank Sabres beat excellent teams while playing with worse rosters than this on occasion.

How did Samuelsson look?

I think you got the weekend schedule mixed up - that was yesterday

Skinner brings some unique elements to Jack's line like you mention, but I don't think is quite the kind of guy tom is talking about, who I think could do wonders with those two. Reinhart is good there, but it'd be fun to watch a heavy guy with skill (Tom Wilson, whatever you think about him?) play on their right wing

Don't see why the Canucks would move Miller that easily.

Yep. There's little doubt how much Asplund's presence helps/complements Mittelstadt, and we've never really seen Eichel with a guy who can do that with some skill.

sauce on the bylsma/housley stuff? I've' heard that he was chosen by a bunch of players as a spokesman to take their Bylsma concerns to Tim. But I don't even remember if THAT was reported by someone worthwhile, or just whispered about on the internet. Never heard the Housley thing

I like the improvement of the kids too. We are still a last place team, and spend a lot of time getting shelled the way only last place teams do. So many of the projected lineups I see for next year have almost zero changes, and zero significant changes. We aren't that good quite yet

I was actually going to make a thread that made possible Eichel trades for each teams, but duda has done all the work here. If we could get anaheim to tack on Rakell, so Rakell, Zegras, Gibson, and Comtois I'd be okay with that one. For Eichel and sumn else. To be sure, i'd be willing to make that something else good.

I hope so...I don't want to imagine the alternative... Gotta see more of Dach before being okay with this one. I've heard good things, but I've also heard good things about Luke Adam

That's one I was very intrigued about until Florida went off this year, I was hoping they and Sasha would want a similar change of scenery to us/Eichel.

You're just playin with liger now right lol

Well you can always relay stuff you get and/or other assets into centers. I agree you aren't getting a franchise C this summer if you move Jack, (barring a weird Barkov swap), but if you don't think we could get Tkachuk and Lindholm for Jack, then I don't think we have any common ground for Jack's value in this discussion. We are playing without Jack right now and doing well, sure, but even that is only winning us 5 of 10 games in the most charitable bunch you can grab, and that's with regression to the statistical mean in a lot of categories - we are regularly getting severely out-chanced in these games and over the course of a full season would not win a lot of games even with the improvement in individuals within the team. Then you'd be furious at the GM for having the gall to not make big changes and stick with status quo, by the way. This conversation is probably pointless though if you really truly believe that we can't upgrade this current roster skeleton playing tomorrow in an appreciable way with an Eichel return. I have no idea why you're so down on that potential return

Also, juicy. Do you know of other teams who may have called?

You're telling me that we simply won't be able to improve a roster skeleton of Skinner - Cozens - Reinhart Asplund - Mitts - Thompson Olofsson - Ruotsalainen - Bjork Girgensons - Eakin - Okposo with return we are able to get by trading the single most valuable piece in our organization by an order of magnitude (multiple orders of magnitude ignoring Dahlin)??? He will simply poof into the void and our team won't be any better for it? It will be impossible to get NHL talent that isn't prospects in this deal? What? Just take this for example. Tkachuk and Lindholm wouldn't be a meaningful addition to that roster?

That's an interesting point, someone should go scope out which teams have the most good players left exposed. We could make their job easier!

No sir, there is no doubt that they've actually done something we always hoped they would - play really well in the face of real NHL minutes. It was fun and will continue to be fun. It'll just get smarter to assume that it will continue if they keep it up the rest of the way !

Well, since you're asking: Center: That is a very weak and inexperienced group of centers, and includes a career-winger who has played C for about 10 games. It would be more of the same relying on an entire slate of unproven players for no reason whatsoever. When these skaters are centering us into a playoff matchup with a great record and a great team, it will be okay. Until that point, while we are having fun competing in games as a last place team, we need to have a better group there. Goaltending: We have an often-injured goalie who is a UFA, wants to test the market, and has only played like a no-BS 1G for this very abbreviated season. Outside of that, we have garbage backups, and prospects who are 2+ years away, the best of whom has trash AHL numbers right now. Assuming anything about them is foolish. We need 2 good netminders locked up for next year, have none, and might only have a shot at one right now who is injured, this needs to change one way or another. Defense: Promising, but again, absolutely insane to assume we are fine riding with that group. Dahlin is playing well and has 1OA potential, Joki is looking good, Bryson is fun, and I like everyone else there. But acting like getting a defenseman in an Eichel-tier trade is unneccesary because of these names? My god. You'd think we are going to have home ice this year the way this post is reading. Wingers: entirely unremarkable. Playoff teams right now have wingers doing stuff that we hope and pray this group can give us when stuff actually matters, and help get us to winning hockey. I like the guys there, I do. I can totally understand not wanting to trade Eichel, but acting like we are set in all facets to the point that trading value as high as Eichel won't add anything meaningful to any of these groups, is one of the most insane things I've ever read here to be honest