TrueBlueGED

Which, of course, is why teams employ statistical analysts. It's not like the coach is going to be personally doing this stuff on his own.

Thaaaaaaaank you. The human memory is freaking terrible.

I dunno. Maybe GPS would help Risto locate his man in the defensive zone. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the smart people can do with the forthcoming tracking data. So much potential.

When he ends up staying, I think you need to go back to the Matthews avatar.

I know you enjoy making these types of comments, but I thought my half-troll was reasonably obvious. On the half non-troll...the team had playoff aspirations and he thought it was sufficient to go into the season with some combination of Mittelstadt and Berglund in the 2C slot. His signature move of the offseason was for a winger (note: I'm not dismissing how good of an acquisition that was). He either didn't think it was that important to have quality NHL centers or he's completely inept at identifying what a quality NHL center is. Take your pick.

Well, the Flyers know center is important. We'll find out if Botterill does.

If you actively tried to be more bitter, do you think you could be?

I'm perfectly fine with trade protection up front. But I think it's pretty important to have flexibility on the back half of the contract.

The term and money are basically established at this point, as far as we know it'll be somewhere in the $9Mx8 ballpark. Give or take a few hundred thousand. What I'm really curious about is what kind of trade protection is included. If it's a movable contract that'd be swell.

Oh, it wouldn't prevent me from making the grade. I just want all things Toronto to suffer.

"It's not whether you score, it's where on the ice you score from" can only be seen as the natural evolution of "its not how much you score, but when you score" in the universe of bad hockey takes.

Agreed...but indirectly helping Toronto would irk me.

Who have we hit on in the last five years that would catapult us up the rankings? Anyway, basically every great team gets major contributions from unexpected places. Maybe not HoFers, but great players nonetheless. I think it's due to random luck more than any measure of GM skill, of course, but I do think it's a reality.

Lehner's save percentage under Bylsma was higher than Quick's career average.

It's amazing to me that anyone can say this was something other than a horrible trade based on what we know. What we know. Not what we think, or hope, or imagine, or conjecture. What we know is we gave up a Selke-caliber center for a big pile of garbage. Maybe something great emerges from that pile, but garbage is garbage until it isn't. And not a moment sooner.

To be fair, DOJ policy on not being able to indict a sitting president long predates Barr's arrival as AG. Anywho, I think the odds are really low, but greater than zero. Maybe 5%? Assuming a Democratic candidate replaces him, whether that's 2021 or 2025, I expect they'll be considerably more focused on reversing his policies than dealing with his obstruction of a closed investigation. That said, I'm sure there would be some interest among the fringe of the party to be out for blood. Obligatory "but her emails" snark.

This is key to me. I don't want to pay Skinner $9M per season for 8 years, but ultimately I'm okay with it as long as it doesn't care full trade protection for the life of the deal. I agree with your post, but this little bit seems bordering on wildly optimistic to me. I think he's a lock for 30 as long as he's on Jack's wing, but I'm not banking on 35+ for five straight years out of a player who has done it twice in 9 seasons. Sir. SIR! Patrice Bergeron's value is not accurately measured by goals. I think Marner is fantastic, but c'mon man. His first two seasons in the league he was a statistical twin of William Nylander. He didn't reach Jack's offensive stratosphere until he got paired with John freakin' Tavares.

I think this is right. The one thing I like about Sal is I generally think he knows what he's talking about, even if it has a positive skew to it. Which is considerably more than I can say for WGR's other beat reporter.

I didn't want to stop trolling after only one post!

Indeed! Yes, those who go down this road will be insulted by the very notion it's partisanship at work.

Oh, I think he is. Which is part of why I think offer sheeting him is a waste of time. Calgary matches.

You make a strong argument for Tkachuk. I'm not as convinced as you are he's simply the better player. It's possible, but I don't think it's obvious. Karlsson also plays the more valuable position. It's not an easy answer, but I think I'd offer Karlsson. Vegas is in considerably worse cap position than Calgary. I'm sure Calgary doesn't want to pay Tkachuk $9M, but they can. Vegas can't match a similar offer for Karlsson without a lot of work. In other words, I think offer sheeting Karlsson is much more likely to work.

Funny, I thought GMs valued generating more goals than the opponent. Guess not ? Assuming Risto is dealt, I'm genuinely curious on the return. I can see the argument you're making, but I also recall (Friedman, I believe) reporting that opinion around the league is trending in the analytics' direction. I can see it going either way. As for Miller, there's a reason I'm not willing to take on Callahan's contract to acquire him.

Today, Mitch McConnell said if a Supreme Court vacancy happens in 2020, the Senate will fill it. This is, of course, wholly unsurprising. What's going to be funny is watching everyone who twisted themselves into pretzels to make (really bad) arguments about why it's appropriate to hold a seat open during a presidential election year suddenly make arguments as to why a vacancy must be filled ASAP regardless of timing on the political calendar.

It's almost as if partisanship rules everything and incredibly few people have true ideological moorings, despite vigorous protestations to the contrary.