Confirmed Trade: [CAR/WSH] Evgeny Kuznetsov (50% Retained) for 2025 3rd Round Pick

[bleedgreen]

Out of those 16 minutes 38 seconds how many, approximately, did you watch?

I think you know the answer to that one my friend.

It’s so hard not to but don’t feed the troll. Give it a nibble and it never goes away.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Out of those 16 minutes 38 seconds how many, approximately, did you watch?

Of the posts above yours, how many did you read? Because I did answer that already. But good job catching onto the big secret.

 

[CanesUltimate11]

Take it easy, we aren't making a Western here. I'm glad he played well to some degree but at the end of the day he has zeroes to show for after 2 games his team scored 11 goals in. The tone you are using reeks of continuous hopium which has made this trade happen in the first place.

Maybe he will break out, will be amazing again and Canes will look like geniuses. But so far it is what it is.

He's two games in with a new team after not playing for a few months and having one practice. There was always going to be an adjustment period and he's not actively hurting the team. He's fine so far.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

He looked really dangerous yesterday. He definitely has the potential to help put this Canes roster over the top.

 

[Svechhammer]

He looked really dangerous yesterday. He definitely has the potential to help put this Canes roster over the top.

You can see he has offensive talent that is just flatly better than anything the Canes have had up until now. And at least he's saying all the right things in regards to being motivated again and getting himself back into shape and focused.

I do have doubts that he will stay like this going forward, but at the same time its not like he's that far removed from being an incredibly productive player, and by no means would he be the first player to ever lose focus and see his play nosedive when his once competitive team turned to crap only to see it bounce right back up when he's back on another competitive team. Some players just can't handle being on losing teams.

 

[Midnight Judges]

You can see he has offensive talent that is just flatly better than anything the Canes have had up until now. And at least he's saying all the right things in regards to being motivated again and getting himself back into shape and focused.

I do have doubts that he will stay like this going forward, but at the same time its not like he's that far removed from being an incredibly productive player, and by no means would he be the first player to ever lose focus and see his play nosedive when his once competitive team turned to crap only to see it bounce right back up when he's back on another competitive team. Some players just can't handle being on losing teams.

That's all possible.

Then again, Albert Haynesworth said all the right things too. He was great in a presser.

JMO but I don't think Kuzy's gameday effort was the problem. He seemed to be trying hard on the ice for his 17 points in 43 games. He looked decent at times (not his top self as he has lost a step, but still a very good skater), except he wasn't scoring. His best contribution on Washington this season was actually on the PK.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

Doing lines is a habit that isn't easily kicked.

He was bold enough to put that white powder on Twitter a few years back.

 

[ZYXWVUT]

i have thought since the deal that he will surprise people & be a good contributor for the canes.

 

[Svechhammer]

That's all possible.

Then again, Albert Haynesworth said all the right things too. He was great in a presser.

JMO but I don't think Kuzy's gameday effort was the problem. He seemed to be trying hard on the ice for his 17 points in 43 games. He looked decent at times (not his top self as he has lost a step, but still a very good skater), except he wasn't scoring. His best contribution on Washington this season was actually on the PK.

Kuzy's problem is that he's out of shape. He wasn't putting in the effort away from the ice to make sure he was ready on Gameday. Its been obvious the last 2 games this is his issue, because he starts the games with his hair on fire and by the 3rd period he's clearly laboring out there.

Again, I could easily see this happening if he was mentally checked out because the team wasn't winning. Some players just mentally cannot handle being on a team that isn't as good as they expect to be, and that takes a toll everywhere. But if there is one coach who I trust to at the very least try and get him back to regular conditioning, its Brindy, so we'll see what happens when the playoffs roll around.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

He was bold enough to put that white powder on Twitter a few years back.

This never happened

 

[bleedgreen]

I don’t know that he’ll be the guy he was in the past while playing for the Canes. He doesn’t have to be, not for him to be a difference maker on the Canes. He just needs to be a good 2C and another high skill guy on the pp. He’s eons better than Drury or KK at that role so even if he struggles offensively compared to his past he can still be helping the Canes. Clicking with some of our younger forwards may bring a lot of growth out of them. They seem to look up to him and he’s had a really positive effect it seems on the bench. You can argue they’re struggling with the chemistry which happens when you add skill guys to the top six. As a Canes fan I’d argue back we didn’t have too much chemistry to worry about that.

 

[Svechhammer]

I don’t know that he’ll be the guy he was in the past while playing for the Canes. He doesn’t have to be, not for him to be a difference maker on the Canes. He just needs to be a good 2C and another high skill guy on the pp. He’s eons better than Drury or KK at that role so even if he struggles offensively compared to his past he can still be helping the Canes. Clicking with some of our younger forwards may bring a lot of growth out of them. They seem to look up to him and he’s had a really positive effect it seems on the bench. You can argue they’re struggling with the chemistry which happens when you add skill guys to the top six. As a Canes fan I’d argue back we didn’t have too much chemistry to worry about that.

I don’t know that he’ll be the guy he was for the Canes. He doesn’t have to be, not for him to be a difference maker on the Canes. He just needs to be a good 2C and another high skill guy on the pp. He’s eons better than Drury or KK at that role so even if he struggles offensively compared to his past he can still be helping the Canes. Clicking with some of our younger forwards may bring a lot of growth out of them. They seem to look up to him and he’s had a really positive effect it seems on the bench. You can argue they’re struggling with the chemistry which happens when you add skill guys to the top six. As a Canes fan I’d argue back we didn’t have enough chemistry to worry about that.

You can say that again

 

[bleedgreen]

You can say that again

My phone hates hf hates hf…

 

[Folignos Helmet]

I think this will work out great for the Canes, I was hoping the Leafs would have grabbed him, but they would have needed double retention which would have been pricey with the extra year left.

 

[newsportsfan123]

2 goals in his last 3.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

There are buy-lows, and then there's this. Kuznetsov cratered so hard over the last couple of seasons that even a 3rd rounder with half retention was extremely risky for the Canes. I'm not sure if I would've done that myself, personally, but it seems to be greatly paying off at this current moment.

 

[Random schmoe]

This was always a very high risk very high reward type of deal for the Canes. Short term so far it looks like they're getting the positive side of that equation. And as a Caps fan I'm happy to see him doing well and seemingly happy.

 

[D Wakaluk]

These assholes did it. Kuzy looks reborn.

That being said; I can see him costing a goal or two in the playoffs with a creative play going wrong and haters bumping this thread.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

These assholes did it. Kuzy looks reborn.

That being said; I can see him costing a goal or two in the playoffs with a creative play going wrong and haters bumping this thread.

Exactly. I haven't been able to watch all of Kuzy's shifts. From what I have seen, he's like instantly our most creative offensive player. Holy hell he looks like Kucherov out there. His vision for finding seam passes is like Ron Francis levels of skill. He has a ton of patience with the puck. He enters the zone and then walks just down the line to wait for plays to read up.

He is the antithesis to everything we do. We're 100% dump, grind, and forecheck. Kuznetsov is all East-West creative passing plays. He has completely catalyzed our 2nd line. He so far has great chemistry with Necas, who for most of his Canes career has been underutilized.

On the downside, he's lousy defensively. He's so slow based on how he plays that he can sometimes gunk up a play, like on a 2-on-0 against Toronto that he completely goofed. Some of this is conditioning, and some of it is just warts you live with with a player so maddeningly talented.


But your quote is a very good one. For sure he will give us some big moments in the playoffs and he'll also get burned for odd-man rushes the other way. As a Canes fan we can live with it as we needed more skilled 50 foot players.

 

[Seanaconda]

These assholes did it. Kuzy looks reborn.

That being said; I can see him costing a goal or two in the playoffs with a creative play going wrong and haters bumping this thread.

I feel like if he's scoring they can cover for him. Haven't they just been stopped cuz they can't score every playoffs ? Idk

 

[bleedgreen]

I feel like if he's scoring they can cover for him. Haven't they just been stopped cuz they can't score every playoffs ? Idk

Pretty much. As the playoffs go along teams shut down the Aho line and don’t let Necas get anywhere with better defense and a lot of physicality. We haven’t had enough scoring depth to compensate. This year on top of Jake and Kuzy we have a developing Jarvis, a currently kind of healthy Svech and Necas has been crushing it again. Orlov is becoming Orlov. We are better offensively by a mile but we’ve also taken a hit defensively the last couple of games which is hopefully just an adjustment needed after changing the chemistry.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Top 7 Forwards is incredibly deep and balanced. Still probably lacking true star power like other teams but that’s never been Carolina’s game and having 3 players in Aho, Guentzel and Kuzy who are proven playoff performers helps spread things out a ton compared to previous years.

Guentzel - Aho - Jarvis/TT
Svech - Kuzy - Necas

You have a good mix of skill guys, physicality, speed, shooting, playmaking, two-way play.

Obviously not every player is perfect but if they can compliment each other this is feeling a lot like the depth and talent we had in 06

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Top 7 Forwards is incredibly deep and balanced. Still probably lacking true star power like other teams but that’s never been Carolina’s game and having 3 players in Aho, Guentzel and Kuzy who are proven playoff performers helps spread things out a ton compared to previous years.

Guentzel - Aho - Jarvis/TT
Svech - Kuzy - Necas

You have a good mix of skill guys, physicality, speed, shooting, playmaking, two-way play.

Obviously not every player is perfect but if they can compliment each other this is feeling a lot like the depth and talent we had in 06

Kuzy hasn’t shown up in the playoffs since 2018. His play was one of the reasons they lost in 2019 and he was absolutely the worst player on the ice during the bubble playoffs to the point where insiders shared reports that he told other players he didn’t want to be there. Unless Kuzy’s speed/creativity game is on point he’s useless in the playoffs since he’s awful on the defensive end.

I think it’s fair to assume he’ll have a better postseason with Carolina but he morphed into the best player on the planet for two months in 2018 and has never come close to reaching that level again so expectations should be tempered.

 

[Lempo]

These assholes did it.

We... prefer the jerks, please and thank you, if that's all the same to you.

 

[Chimaera]

Some revisionism in this thread. I think most Caps fans hope he does well. Also hope that he handles whatever off ice problems were the issue (whether it was the org, management, whatever... hope the best). That said, some of the reason he was in a losing situation is he was playing poorly. Both parties seem to have gotten the anchor unhooked, and maybe it's for the better.

I don't inherently want to see Carolina do well, but I don't have a problem if Kuznetsov saves his career either. Honeymoons are often short, so I wouldn't get too excited, but if he's motivated for a month or so, he's a difference maker.