GDT: 12/2/23 - 2:00PM EDT - Tampa Bay @ Dallas

[Todd1a]

I'm with you 100%. We're 25 games in and there's no improvement. If anything, we've gotten even worse since Vasy got back.

The problem is, we have three NHL defensemen. Perbix and Raddysh aren't getting the job done like they were last year and it might have been wishful thinking they kept up their play. There's a reason Raddysh was a career AHL'er until age 27. There's more potential for Perbix to regain his level but even that is questionable right now. de Haan just isn't an NHL defenseman and Fleury is a tweener at best. Should we give a guy like Lilleberg or Carlile a chance? Can they be any worse?

We got no cap space that’s why we just couldn’t add that defenseman we needed in the offseason. Only thing we could do is trade prospects and draft picks for a defenseman on a ELC contract much like we did drouin for serg back in 2018

 

[Stammertime91]

There’s other people I’d show the door before Cirelli, but remember when some people said that protecting him over Gourde was a no brainer?

Good times.

This. And people used the age difference. Gourde is a hell of a player at both ends and served a team need better than Cirelli. All we did was confuse the hell out of Stamkos by putting the most vanilla 6M center in the league on his line. Cirelli is a 3C getting paid a premium. Gourde was the cheaper and better option. We had plenty of time to find a 3C replacement by the time he aged. As it stands, I want a 2/3C replacement for Cirelli and this is year 1 out of 8.

The bottom six is a shitshow. We lack true wingers. Losing Killorn hurt a hell of a lot more than expected. No replacement for him has surfaced. Our defense is in the gutter.

25 games in. Still plenty of time to get it together, but the personnel just isn't it. Too many tweeners and reclamation projects.

 

[Rschmitz]

McD was always a likely casualty of the flat cap. Yes, JBB could've kept him one more year(last season), but then more than likely Tampa would've had to pay to move him. It was always going to come down to him or Sergachev, and JBB.wasnt about to lose the much younger player for a 34 year old that looked to be declining. Now the terrible overpay on Serg and his continued inconsistent play are another story, but keeping Serg over McD was never that hard of a decision for JBB imo.

I am objectively asking, if we are in a win now mode, why are we signing players to long term contracts they haven't yet earned instead of giving them bridge deals and saving cap space? This is what we did when TJ and Palat wanted long term extensions their first time around, but we bridged them and used the extra cap room to sign Carle. As much flack as Carle gets, he ate up a ton of minutes and it allowed Hedman to grow into the amazing defenseman he is today.

I think quite simply, JBB undervalued McDonagh. We didn't have to trade him to sign our guys, trading him just gave us the wiggle room to hand out the 8 year deals. It was a mistake IMO

 

[OffBy1]

I could live with JBB trading McD due to cap issues, but I feel like he wasted the cap space by over paying a 3C and 2D for the max number of years. He also kept Myers which hasn't worked out. So we lost McD and didn't get a lot for it.

 

[Master P]

Just watched Drouin take a penalty shot for the avs followed by Killorn take his penalty shot fort the ducks.

Shit was a trip.


Neither scored btw.

 

[JTBF81]

I am objectively asking, if we are in a win now mode, why are we signing players to long term contracts they haven't yet earned instead of giving them bridge deals and saving cap space? This is what we did when TJ and Palat wanted long term extensions their first time around, but we bridged them and used the extra cap room to sign Carle. As much flack as Carle gets, he ate up a ton of minutes and it allowed Hedman to grow into the amazing defenseman he is today.

I think quite simply, JBB undervalued McDonagh. We didn't have to trade him to sign our guys, trading him just gave us the wiggle room to hand out the 8 year deals. It was a mistake IMO

JBB is looking to balance the win now with also keeping who he perceives as the core long term. Cirelli, Serg and Cernak already had bridge deals, so it was not very likely they were getting bridged again. They were overpaid but not by enough to where they were going to be able to keep McD without losing one of them, which he wasn't going to do.

 

[JoVel]

If we don't turn things around quickly, 5th in the division and the 2nd wild card spot will be the best we can hope for, because even Detroit looks like they might be for real this season.

 

[Pierre Larouche]

Everything really went sideways after Blashill joined the coaching staff. I think the best place for some change is to start there.

Blashill is a cancer.

 

[Sky04]

Signing Bear would be admitting that he screwed up with Perbix and Raddysh and by trading Bogosian.

Speaking of Bogosian, a solid stay at home defenseman is exactly what this team needs right now.

What a stupid trade that was. At worst he splits time with Raddysh who shouldn't be in the lineup full time, they've been trying to push Bogo out for awhile so I assume they don't think he's a fit here and would rather go with more "mobile defenseman" for the supposedly new system but that's going great so far.

 

[FinnLightning26]

“We’re not happy, obviously, but I think we can watch game tape and take some positives away,” Lightning defenseman Calvin de Haan said.

He should get fired just for saying that.

 

[Stammertime91]

Interesting that CDH thought politics (not US politics) played a part in keeping him off the ice last year.

Nah my dude, it's your play...

 

[Maelmoor]

Signing Bear would be admitting that he screwed up with Perbix and Raddysh and by trading Bogosian.

Speaking of Bogosian, a solid stay at home defenseman is exactly what this team needs right now.

Bogo was most certainly not a solid defeseman since he returned..

 

[Rschmitz]

Bogo was most certainly not a solid defeseman since he returned..

I Don’t agree. He made safe/smart plays and played mistake free, we desperately need that right now

 

[Tampa22]

Bogo was most certainly not a solid defeseman since he returned..

Don't agree. Cooper never like him, in his time never had his job safe, scratched lot of nights and never playing bad like Raddysh, De Haan or Perbix, also compared to those 3 names he was solid using his body and protecting the crease. But what can we expect if the same happened to Schenn, for me he was a solid player, very strong and needed for any roster in the NHL but never a real chance here.

 

[Sky04]

Bogo was most certainly not a solid defeseman since he returned..

Yeah no the numbers say otherwise... his numbers on Minnisota are very good and they were a bottom 5 team in the league when they traded for him so can't just say he played for a good team. Just gifted Minny a defenseman who plays 12+mins a night with all positive defensive metrics, .9592 on ice save %. He didn't just magically became a solid defenseman.

With the regression of Perbix and the indept ability of CDH, Raddysh and Fleury to play a defensive/ physical game the Bogo trade makes even less sense.

 

[Renopucker]

Yeah no the numbers say otherwise... his numbers on Minnisota are very good and they were a bottom 5 team in the league when they traded for him so can't just say he played for a good team. Just gifted Minny a defenseman who plays 12+mins a night with all positive defensive metrics, .9592 on ice save %. He didn't just magically became a solid defenseman.

With the regression of Perbix and the indept ability of CDH, Raddysh and Fleury to play a defensive/ physical game the Bogo trade makes even less sense.

Gotta agree. I saw very little not to like when he was on the ice.

 

[Stammertime91]

Bogosian speed cost him his spot....


Then you look at what we have and how it ls going... lol