TrueBlueGED

This is the case for optimism. McDermott is who he is.

There is no better way to put it. Ugh.

I'd still take a chance on him. At the very least, think of the entertainment value! Nobody hates being right!

82-0.

Wait, what?

There's a good chance I give into my worst impulses and fully buy the Olofsson hype after this.

It's not unreasonable. The rosters as a whole are a wash, or very close to it, and neither coaching staff is inspiring. So it comes down to the QBs, and their respective rookie years, and those rookie seasons did nothing to really sway the pre-draft analysis. Meh. I just don't see why it bothers you so much. It's not like people are picking the Dolphins to be better.

I'm not sure why you're mad about them being a 3 point favorite at home. We're approximately equal teams with what we know right now, so the line seems right on to me.

Of course. It would the easiest decision Botterill has ever had to make.

I wouldn't have loved 4 years, but I think there's a better chance he ends up on LTIR than he's a healthy albatross like Scandella.

I'm confused about why we want Allen to be a bottom-10 starter in the league.

So is Mitch Trubisky. Just in the other sense of something.

I agree with your analysis. I don't think Laine will be cost prohibitive, be it the trade pieces or the contract. Hasn't there been reporting out of Winnipeg that he wants a bridge? I think he bets on himself in hopes of truly cashing in on the next deal.

All depends on the price. Risto and a reasonable bridge for Laine? Sign me up. Risto++ and Freeman's $8M bridge? I'm out.

Because you can't count on other GMs being as foolish with their best players as Botterill was last offseason. It'll happen here or there, sure, but it's not the norm. Edit: besides, this is more of a thought experiment about how valuable people think it is to fix the 2C hole. I don't think PA's intent was to get bogged down in the specifics.

Did you just propose Reinhart at center? I'd imagine Dudacek has flowers en route.

I agree with you on Barrie, I think he's going to be pretty great in Toronto. I just don't think he's meaningfully worse than Rielly defensively (a low bar, admittedly).

I have no problem believing there are 20-26 bad GMs in the NHL.

So you think Barrie is Gragnani-esque defensively? Because Rielly is baaaaaad in his own zone.

To be fair to Freeman, he's not one of those fans who only count points. He only counts goals ?

I'm not sure it's a bright side, but this is going to be true regardless.

I disagree. Sure, on face there are 31 teams and each of those has a center who leads them in ice time. But player quality has to matter, and I think the frame should take it into account. When fans talk about #1 centers, I'm reasonably confident what they actually mean is a center capable of getting top minutes on a team that can win in the playoffs.

I would add an addendum: on a winning team.

Thing is, context is key and talent is not distributed equally. When I say I think Risto is a 3rd pairing Dman, I'm implicitly saying that's where he'd slot on a good team. Of course he's top-4 on a bad team, but that's part of why that team is bad.

As long as that 2C is around 25 years old and not 30+, I'd do this without hesitation.