Trettioåtta

I'm excited to see Coho and Grigs play. These players sound to be pretty damn good. Leino - Grigs - Ott sounds like an awesome line, got the two vets helping the new guy and clearing space for him to move

Brian (Bryan?) Murray said he has been looking into acquiring a veteran D-man through trades but said the asking price is too high at the moment.

Bob Mckenzie described him as showing Norris trophy calibre play but not consistently, so I think the hype is justified at his age

My question was: Hi, where's the link to upgrade to Game Center Live if you already subscribe to the vault? Helpful agent Julio B. said: It will be 49.99 for the season. Packages will be available later today for purchase at http://gamecenterlive.nhl.com

Zemgus is injured. Possible concussion

Do the Amerks have enough bodies to fill the roster now?

At 18, this is probably the best time to suffer a concussion (physiologically), he is young enough that he could recover quickly and with almost no change to his game. But hopefully it is a facial fracture or something more bone related :/

I would rather have the better player, you cut some slack for prospects but not much. If Brennan can't beat an average NHL defeseman coming out of his prime, when he (Brennan) is coming into his prime, then he should be resigned to accepting that he is a 5/6-AHL level D-man. He has had 5 years of training camps to impress and make it to the NHL, he has been given his chance to impress and every year the same criticism was levelled at him - improve your defensive game. Either way, Leopold is a decent 3/4 pairing guy, so I would rather have him than Brennan as I think Brennan's ceiling is average defenseman with a good shot and I think Brennan would get more in a trade atm (at the deadline leopold would probably be more valuable)

Yeah, I'm not writing him off and I would prefer to see him play before we trade him (if we trade him). However, I don't think it would be a tragedy if we did trade him, DR/LR/scouting have seen him play, so if they do trade him I'm sure they know best. He is young enough to make it. But he has to play well this season, our defense is good, but it isn't stunning, if he can't leap frog Pardy/Weber/Sulzer to get that 6th spot, then i don't think he makes the NHL. If a prospect if good then they shouldn't struggle too much to crack the top 6 of an NHL team.

True, but it is unusual for a player to get his first taste of NHL life at 23, then go on to become a solid NHL talent. Most prospects have played more than 11 games in the NHL when they are nearly 24 (presuming they ever make it to the NHL). At the moment he is most comparable to Mancari - an old prospect before he saw the NHL who tore up the AHL

Firstly, why don't we see how Grigs plays before we hail him our savour. He might not be ready. Offensively he might be okay, but we also need a player who can play defense and not be a liability on the ice (hence why 3rd line and PP minutes is a good idea). Secondly, Luke Adam was ruined by Lindy, he was demoted off the top line because he sucked, he was demoted off the second line because he sucked, he was demoted off the third line because he sucked. These are guys my age we are talking about; LukeAdam still sucks in Rochester, i really struggle to see how 3 months with one coach can completely ruin you as a player/human. The fact of the matter is that Pommers and Vanek were amazing last season, a chimpanzee could be stuck between them and be leading all rookies in scoring. I will wait to see how Grigs plays before i yell at Lindy for ruining him. Also, Hecht was brought in because we currently have 12 non-injured forwards, including Grigs. He was brought in for reliability and depth. It is that simple. Brennan wasn't that amazing in the NHL last season - he wasn't that bad either, but he isn't exactly a top pairing. He is pretty old for a 'prospect' and it has taken him a while to even get into this position for pushing for a roster spot (5 years). I'd be shocked if we could get a first for him. Again, I'd like to see him play before i pass too much judgement, but to me he has always felt like Gragnani - everyone loves him because he can score, and everyone was saying he would be our next superstar, then people re-watch him play and realise his defence is dodge and actually he isn;t that amazing on offense. Now Brennan is better because he has a grittier edge to him, but I'd still like to wait a little while before we start yelling at Lindy for not giving him 25+ minutes a game

Well, they would save actual money by trading him and retaining half his salary. However, they don't have to keep half of his salary - they can keep anywhere between 0 and 50%. But Shrader is right, if Pegula didn't mind spending 5.5 million for no reason, and Montreal wanted another buyout and cap space this season, and were willing to give up a good prospect/player for saving money/extra buyout/cap space then you trade for Gomez and the good player, tel Gomez to stay in his Montreal house (away from the Sabres) and move on. But i think they are happy enough to just sit him this year

His contract is 5.5 this season, but his cap hit is 7.5 - so, if i am right, if we traded for him, it would cost Pegula 2.75 for this year, it would cost Regier 3.7ish for the next two years (unless we used our buyout). It would be cheaper overall for the Canadiens to trade him for a 50:50 split, than to keep this season, because next year his contract is cheaper so it would be 50% of 10 mil (5 mil) rather than 5.5mil. But we would have to trade for him, now we could probably get him for 'future considerations' because we would save them money and they would get cap relief this year. However, it would also mean they had half his cap hit next year, when the cap is lower, (presuming we the team that traded for him don't buy him out) so overall it is more damaging for them to trade him. Now it comes to us, aside from the fact that he is a soft forward, something we have in surplus. He had 11 points in 38 games last season, Hecht had 8 points in 22 games. Hecht threw 14 checks in 22 games, Gomez threw 11 in 38 games. Hecht is known to be responsible defensively, Gomez is known to be an offensive forward with a little cheating on D. So to sum up: we would pay almost 4 times more to have a forward who was less physical, less offensive, less defensive, knew less of the team, has more off ice issues and would be a burden on our cap next year. I'll pass

Yes, but why would they trade him to us? He is also not as defensively sound as Hecht.

And the winner of the Sigmund Freud award 2013 is...

So Cam Barker is now a Nuck - does anyone know what's wrong with this guy? He was once an up and coming huge talent with the Hawks and seems to have been free falling since. Does he have off-ice problems?

Players get overpaid, every single one of them. However, they love playing and it is their profession He got offered the contract and accepted it, there was no way he was living up to the contract, but what did you expect him to do? If you were offered guaranteed double your salary at another company, would you reject it? Now he is in a position where he should just be cut and allowed to do whatever he wants, but is instead a prisoner in his contract. I'm not shedding any tears for the guy, but i know if i was forced to sit out 1 year of perhaps 4 remaining in the job i loved, i would be annoyed/angry/depressed

True, but this signing is cheap and gives us more depth at forward, and Hecht has never been a problem with his on ice performance, his issues have been a slightly bloated contract and medical problems. Both of these issues have now been solved. I don't want a team that blows up the core after every season, we made big moves last year, and removed Roy this year, and we have a young new core on the horizon with the old core becoming the vets of the team. Change is happening, it is just more subtle than the Rangers style

Bob has said apparently most teams are looking for D - including Det and Edm, this is good news for us!

This is great news. Dirt cheap contract and the team/players are clearly happy he is back.

The PA didn't want the buyout to kick in till the summer, incase the players couldn't find work within the training camp week, so would be out of work all year. Ironically this means that some players won't be allowed to play and seeing as in the first case they could have probably got to play over seas i worse came to worse this means the PA actually screwed some of its members (but probably saved more overall)

I feel really sorry for these guys. I'd be pissed off if i was near the tail end of my career and this happened to me

Arnott is older than Hecht, not as defensively responsible and has not played with this team for the last decade. I understand why people think this is like putting on an old comfortable jumper again, but if we are wanting a player to slot in and be a third line defensive presence for a year, i'd take that comfy sweater over a 'new' one. Not to mention Hecht has been tearing it up in Germany, whereas Arnott has been doing nothing. Older players take longer to get game ready and adjust to the speed

Better than his usual spot of the goalie's crest

Coho, Pommers and Vanek are better at playing against the top competition as they are more experienced and better defensively. That means weaker and more open ice time for the 2nd line. I want Helm, let's trade for him, please