Thorny

I mean overall roster construction has been by far the biggest issue we’ve had We’ve yet to assemble a roster that’s reflected by a standings finish higher than 20th in 13 years There is a chasm between the leafs and us. Yes, just assembling a deeper, more balanced group of players is worth a lot on its own - unless someone is one of those “only the cup matters” guys and all other result is equal failure until you do… then ya sure there isn’t much that can bridge that conversational gap

Exactly. As to Eichel in Vegas. The issue wasn’t the player not fitting, the issue was that we didn’t build a team where good players fit. cause we didn’t have enough good players

Just don’t pull another “Kevyn Adams”. Even sports teams close by are catching the stench:

There was so much “room” for Casey on the roster it’s not even funny. Purely smoke. Purely talent evaluation. Trade being good or bad will purely be based on who’s the better player straight up

I do like how the Hall of Famer is the one with the apparent negative connotation lol

For having arguably the 2 best skaters in the game the oilers sure are PP fiends. Brutal penalty call after none all game gets them on the board the best days of the playoffs are when the Canadian teams lose

Not over yet and I don’t want to jinx it, and I was wrong about Hellebuyck apparently (yeesh) but: It’s really their D AND offence that has let them down. They seem ill-equipped for playoff puck

I’m the focus on pr / messaging guy too, but for the record I agree with you

Personally, I’d take a stretch of multiple enjoyable regular seasons leading to playoff berths ultimately ending in disappointment than I would multiple terrible regular seasons to the tune of the worst run of all time in professional sports followed by coming in even lower by expectations than the Leafs because we can’t finish higher than 22nd any single season but that’s just me He’s so damn good

Ya I was being sort of tongue in cheek

Blue Jays really struggling to start off..who would have thought the run-it-back, rely exclusively on internal improvement from everyone all at once strategy instituted during the offseason could backfire?? - - - It’s funny cause just now Buck Martinez picked a good time to explain the Dodgers are so successful specifically because they block all the prospects with competent roster players 😭

So are you looking to give Krebs first crack at 3C this year? He’s your guy for game 1? Byram wasn’t even CLOSE to as good as Power was, I don’t think we’ll be able to see eye to eye on evaluation here “Move the extras for a top 4 D” yes, our scraps that we don’t want will fetch a player as good or better than our 1C did…doesn’t seem very realistic tbh

Maybe a 40-50 game trial for Krebs next year on the menu? He should get a development year in the role (On a side, more straightforward note: before the Mittelstadt trade we needed a top 4 D man. If after trading our leading centre on the roster and biggest trade chip we come away still needing a top 4 D, on a roster that already had Dahlin and Power before said trade: the trade failed)

Ya I mean if this is the do or die year for Adams, playoffs or canning, might as well let him have the coach he wants the most and that’s Lindy. We should get to see his full intended plan That Lindy is the coach it turns out I also really wanted is a nice plus

Things change fast when you lead your team in scoring an are your team’s best centre demonstrably, which he hadn’t been before. The biggest thing is the piece we dealt him for. It looks odd at first and the early returns were very poor. It’s worryingly looks like another potential “hindsight need not apply” blunder. We didn’t really need another second pair left shot D. I understand Adams doesn’t care about handedness and probably doesn’t think he’s a second pair D, but those aren’t my evaluations, personally

C. Mittelstadt up top there seems like a guy in the mold of the centre we should be targeting this offseason imo

There’s definitely a mental transition from earlier years where we were conditioned to think we needed to flood the system with prospects to emerge victorious by quantity. Once the system is more established the mindset necessarily shifts to utilizing said pool as currency The better you are at drafting the easier it gets over time. We don’t really need any more prospects yet we get a free 7 every year. With less holes to fill, that puts us in a much better spot than a few years ago once/IF we get the main club up to par and it’s getting closer

Good post. I think I agree with the conclusion of your “weird thing” at the end, too

Is this just a goals thing though? It’s impressive regardless, and im not going to check them all, but we seem to be cherry picking a bit as im not sure I’d call, say, Point’s season similar. He only had 4 more goals, sure, but he also had 55% more assists Aho had 83 points. JJ had 50. There’s a sizeable gap there Tho, I’d imagine JJ probably played on an inferior squad

Jeez I feel like my memory starts with RJ

Hopefully without the egregious diving McDavid and Draisaitl were sort of PP fiends eh

And I feel like Benson is primarily a playmaker Edit - I see this has been covered But he is Ben Affleck I stand by that part

Sorry, quote from Role Models. doesn’t mean anything

This is the most I can ever remember the board being so nearly unanimously in favour of moving picks and prospects even the good ones. Definitely saying something.

So some good players there and Ristolainen.. not bad