Drag0nDan

I think you set a realistic timeline with cozens. You can earn your spot, but you're guaranteed nothing - unlike what they did with casey. If he starts in the AHL, i expect him to center the best line there for 30-40 games, and to essentially play his way onto the big club. I see Tage making the team outright as a big forward who can shoot. There's a need for a guy like this on the PP as well. If he can play a bit more physical, backcheck a bit more, play more responsibly, he should be fine. Mittelstadts the one who was looking lost last year and I see him as likely to start in the AHL - the goal being if cozens gets called up, he's now on that top line playing top o-zone minutes. He may also benefit from a shift in position, which will need time at the AHL level. His game needs a lot of seasoning, he was struggling at pretty much everything - struggling with the speed, the physicality, transition, faceoffs, backchecking.

I look at blue collar like - difficult to play against, and hard working. I don't think you need to have more than 1 or 2 guys who are hard hitters, just emphasis on being a tough team to play against.

Could always move montour and mitts or thompson if you want to hang onto the 1st (and i think they should)

Yeah - Colorado loads up that top line with Landeskong, mckinnon, rantanen. If johansson is with olofsson and kahun - that basically becomes line 2. Okposo would play on more of that shutdown line with lazar and larsson or possibly asplund? I assume that is the group starting in the defensive zone the most. That leaves you with - cozens mitts asplund thompson. I think there needs to be either a player via trade/fa there because thats a lot of youth on 1 line.

knew i was forgetting something.

Wouldve been nice to lose him for a pick, or as a throw-in on a trade though...

With a static or downward sloping cap you can try to look at contracts on a scale of cap hit%. I wonder if there will be more players taking shorter term deals to try and cash in on an upward slope instead. I do think there's risk in that - especially going to a team like buffalo who hasn't had much success. If he's centering reinhart and skinner/oloffson then it might sound a bit more interesting as a player. This season will be very youth dependent though - what contributions does the team get from casey, tage, cozens and where do they fit? Casey's tough to put on a 3rd line since he doesn't backcheck or play defense well, and isn't strong on the dot. Do we want him starting in the defensive zone? Probably not. If we get the Tage/Casey of the past 2 years too, you can't really put them on jack's line either without essentially making it worse. Cozens with tage and johansson might work? Again, it can get very draw dependent. If lazar is their d-zone guy, is that line with okposo and larsson/asplund? Where does asplund even fit in? If he's not getting regular ice time he should probably be in the minors rather than being an extra skater here. Basically if you move reinhart off of eichel's line, who is playing in that spot?

Yeah - which makes me think CM gets packaged with a montour to try and get a player.

Agree on Hall... we already have 2 massively overpaid wingers, including skinners that will cost 9 mil well past his prime. And defensemen who will be coming up on pay-days. Regarding your lineups, I'd really try and get skinner and reinhart together. Put them on PP2 as well. Eichel with Olofsson and kahun should help both of them - if not you always have someone like Tage who could be ready to make a next step. I just look at it like the 2nd PP unit was such garbage, and those 2 anchoring it could help. I'm hoping both Tage and Casey realize its time to step up and earn their time this year. JB coddled both a bit, and he's gone... so if you want to have a career its kind of on them at this point.

And was it JB? Or his 4 years playing pro hockey in sweden from age 19-22?

This is how i look at it. Spending money on AHL wins doesn't help grow the mittelstadts of the world. Ideally you want someone like mittelstadt to have like half a season at the AHL level before he comes up. Maybe a full season if he doesn't do well right away. If JB promised him NHL time, that was a big mistake. If getting rid of RoR was to make way for Mittelstadt, that's a criminal mistake. But at the end of the day - Nylander was a failure. Mittelstadt looks like he'll be a failure. Same with Thompson. Their failure falls on JB, but also on the AHL coaches. Were the scouts all that off on the talent? Or did the coaching staff/development staff fail? Accountability falls on players, but these guys are like 19 and this organization was lacking in leadership. Cozens seems destined for the same thing as mittelstadt - and I don't see any route where he doesn't end up starting at C. I'm all for him doing it, but he should have to earn it, not get handed a 2/3C spot day 1 out of Juniors.

Yeah, but ward won the conn smythe that year so... its hard to say he wasn't considered at least reasonably hot.

Hot goalies are big too. Cant remember a team going on a run without solid goaltending.

Killorn's is a M-NTC, but something tells me buffalos on the NO list ?

Because he's giving up UFA years where he may get 8-9 on an open market in his prime. So factoring that in on the average it tends to go up. Depends on the cap though - as i assume they'd do it as a function of cap. In any case, with Dahlin and Jokiharju coming up for raises, and being stuck with skinner and okposo's 15 mil combined, how much do you invest in keeping him? Will he help you win a cup in the next couple of years?

Agreed - the lack of depth scoring was and is still a problem.

He's going to ask for something in the 7-8 range if you want to lock him up for more than like 3-4 years. If that's the case you'd have to at least consider it right?

This is my thoughts on gutting it. Eichel could fetch the most in a trade, but he's by far the best player we've had here in a very long time. I dont need to look at jersey sales to say that he's #1 by a long shot. Skinner's value is super low... so why move him for pennies on the dollar. Dahlin and Joki are on ELCs, I wouldn't move them when i can likely add years of team control after next year. If they're smart they lock up oloffson for like a 5ish mil cap hit, thats fairly palatable. Everyone else? I'm listening to offers. Reinhart, Montour, Risto are the big 3. It's probably a bit early to give up on mittelstadt and Thompson - but you can't also go into a season fully expecting them to contribute more than they have. If packaging them in gets you a better return, I'm for it. But this team has like no forward prospects, so its hard to consider moving the ones they do have. I just have no idea who's ready to come up from AHL, because so few players have come up in the last several years that i just assume they'll suck when they're here. Can Borgen play at the NHL? He's played 2 years at AHL- when else does he get a shot? What about Bryson? 3 year starter in college, played real well last year. Hickey? 4 years. Do we have any forwards who can play?

The team had ROR Kane and Lehner and they stunk. They had eichel and ROR and finished dead last. Both GMs (GMTM, and JB) 1 -mismanaged the cap 2 - they mismanaged young talent 3- they mismanaged trade assets 4 - both hired the wrong coaches. That to me, is why they were fired. And if you look at that, its justifiable. The scandella trade was a disaster (the blues traded a 2nd for him and extended him by the end of the year... we got to watch michael frolik play hockey). Neither GM was ever able to lock up a quality player at a below-market deal in their entire terms. IE David Pastrnak is 6.6 million for 3 more years. Everyones at or above market rate. The core is too expensive, and its not good. Its sad to say, but i'd blow this whole thing up if i could. Reinhart, Risto, Montour would all be out. I'm reluctant to extend a mittelstadt or Thompson beyond a qualifying offer, since neither has proven worth on the ice. Either could also be packaged in a trade at this point. I'm not even saying tank. Just need to re-evaluate what this team is, and whether under its current construction it can be successful.

So post-season i was thinking about this... what does this look like? FWD-Eichel, Reinhart, Skinner (NMC, must be protected), Olofsson, Mittelstadt, Thompson, Okposo D-Dahlin, Jokiharju, Montour/Risto (still holding out hope they trade one), McCabe, Borgen, Miller G-Ullmark The protected forwards are probably not even on the roster, and it doesn't make sense to protect 8 skaters unless they still have both montour and risto - or borgen shows some usefulness. I don't think it matters either way as i think this team will be reshaped a bit before 2020-2021 anyway.

Skinner's got a NMC with a bad contract. Finding a taker for the contract will be hard enough, let alone making sure he wants to go there. May as well include him in the untouchables... he'll have to be added to the list of protected for the seattle expansion too.

Yeah - gonna be tough to find a trade partner for one of the worst goalies in the NHL at a 2.75 mil cap hit... especially with a likely lowered salary cap. Holtby played like crap last year, i wonder what his market looks like.

Like - did you even ask him if something was wrong? If the eye thing was an issue you could have maybe put him on IR. Eyes are KIND OF IMPORTANT to play goalie... Not that we had much of a backup plan with Ullmark getting hurt