GDT: Preseason Game #6 - Edm @ Seattle 8PM MST - Streaming on Oilers +

[K1984]

On what earth are we going to afford a better RD than Ceci and still have Ceci at $3.3M in the lineup?

Where are you guys coming up with the money? We have $<300K in cap space.

At the deadline, if we don't run into short term injuries, we'll have ~$1.2M... if we run into short term injuries we may have nothing.

In my opinion, the only play we had that could get us a better-than-Ceci RD was to trade another one of our ~$3M guys NOW and bank the coin for the deadline. That most likely meant icing three of Desharnais, Broberg, Neimelainen, Lavoie, Erne, Gagner, etc in the lineup every night.

The ONLY way to upgrade our middle pairing or 3C is to have our entire bottom pairing/4th line (and half of the third line) making $1M or less so that we can concentrate cap space up higher in the lineup. That means more of the Desharnais' of the world, not less.

I have no idea what our cap situation will be at the deadline, just stating an ideal.

Will someone hit LTIR? Who knows. Moving Ceci to make that trade happen may be necessary, but it may not be. I just am pretty sure that if a Top 4 RHD is a necessity at the deadline I'm sure we'll find a way to get one.

 

[Anarchism]

On what earth are we going to afford a better RD than Ceci and still have Ceci at $3.3M in the lineup?

Where are you guys coming up with the money? We have $<300K in cap space.

At the deadline, if we don't run into short term injuries, we'll have ~$1.2M... if we run into short term injuries we may have nothing.

In my opinion, the only play we had that could get us a better-than-Ceci RD was to trade another one of our ~$3M guys NOW and bank the coin for the deadline. That most likely meant icing three of Desharnais, Broberg, Neimelainen, Lavoie, Erne, Gagner, etc in the lineup every night.

The ONLY way to upgrade our middle pairing or 3C is to have our entire bottom pairing/4th line (and half of the third line) making $1M or less so that we can concentrate cap space up higher in the lineup. That means more of the Desharnais' of the world, not less.

There are a whole bunch of guys here talking this. They don't live in the real world.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I don't disagree with any of that. I was cringing when he was on the ice at times... but to me (and you may be saying the same thing) part of that was poor utilization. If the guy is an exceptional crease clearer, cycle breaker and PKer... and I really do mean he's exceptionally good at those things... then why the F does Woody need to have him out there getting exposed on the rush?

Have him get the puck out and skate to the bench, Broberg can handle the track meet shifts.

And again, having said all of that... I think he can be a valuable contributor to a contender. Yes, even as high as an 'elite role player' #6. You want your top four to play 80% of your 5v5 anyway.

His chronological age to me is irrelevant. This is a guy with nearly ZERO offense and below average skating who has managed to be a phenomenal outscorer at every level he's played, including his first 36 games at the NHL level. You don't do that unless you are a very heady defender who plays smart hockey within the limits of their physical skills.

You've gotta give him the benefit of the doubt/experience at the NHL level.

Teams like Vegas are capable of having multiple lines that can play rush offence. He was also being specifically targeted. A few of the media guys pointed that out. He is a guy when pressured starts to make mistakes, he crumbles under pressure, and his inability to make clean zone exits and move the puck magnifies it. He is very Kris Russell. Really bad at preventing the puck from entering the zone but is good at stopping the puck once in.

I would say he is a very good penalty killer, and really not big enough of a sample size to say either way.

Usage I think is a problem because Woodcroft thinks he is much better than he is so he puts him out way too often. Like that one playoff game where you could tell he was super off and super targeted in Vegas and Woodcroft kept throwing him out to the wolves.

Now if we keep him in super sheltered minutes and PK he should be fine, the issue is if there is an injury and he is in the top 4? I don’t think he could remotely handle that. You hope you at least have a guy that can fill in. I guess Kulak could always swap up.

My main thing is in the modern NHL you need 6 guys that can at least move the puck averagely and skate averagely. Desharnais is really bad at both.

 

[Anarchism]

Whats the point in discussing...

Brobust or Desi skate at me fast.?
Your going to get a steady diet of both.

Kulak must be tired of babysitting. He should ask for a trade.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

There are a whole bunch of guys here talking this. They don't live in the real world.

Says the guy who wants to trade broberg to kovacevic.

 

[Anarchism]

Says the guy who wants to trade broberg to kovacevic.

1) Its no longer an option as montreals pro scouts either have seen what Broberg is or will and Kovy has taken a fair step forward.
and
2) Who needs 6 mil on 3rd pair defense.? Where is the money coming from to upgrade a top 4 guy.

 

[Duke74]

Teams like Vegas are capable of having multiple lines that can play rush offence. He was also being specifically targeted. A few of the media guys pointed that out. He is a guy when pressured starts to make mistakes, he crumbles under pressure, and his inability to make clean zone exits and move the puck magnifies it. He is very Kris Russell. Really bad at preventing the puck from entering the zone but is good at stopping the puck once in.

I would say he is a very good penalty killer, and really not big enough of a sample size to say either way.

Usage I think is a problem because Woodcroft thinks he is much better than he is so he puts him out way too often. Like that one playoff game where you could tell he was super off and super targeted in Vegas and Woodcroft kept throwing him out to the wolves.

Now if we keep him in super sheltered minutes and PK he should be fine, the issue is if there is an injury and he is in the top 4? I don’t think he could remotely handle that. You hope you at least have a guy that can fill in. I guess Kulak could always swap up.

My main thing is in the modern NHL you need 6 guys that can at least move the puck averagely and skate averagely. Desharnais is really bad at both.

Desharnais makes Kris Russell look like Bobby Orr.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Desharnais makes Kris Russell look like Bobby Orr.

Russell was underrated offensively in WHL and early NHL. Desharnais has never shown anything close.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

McDavid's goal. I assume the GDT person is on my ignore list

 

[McBooya42]

Del please - wrong thread!

 

[bucks_oil]

I have no idea what our cap situation will be at the deadline, just stating an ideal.

Will someone hit LTIR? Who knows. Moving Ceci to make that trade happen may be necessary, but it may not be. I just am pretty sure that if a Top 4 RHD is a necessity at the deadline I'm sure we'll find a way to get one.

I'm not sure if your post is optimism (we will find a way) or pessimism (it means someone is on LTIR), but I like the attitude!

Having said that, from a practical perspective, unless you have other creative ideas, we will NOT have enough space to add anyone significant at the deadline unless one of these things is true:

1) One of these guys is traded, or is injured badly enough to be on LTIR for the remainder of the season (since we need the cap space back to activate them if they recover before playoffs):
* McDavid, Draisaitl, Nurse, Nuge, Kane, Hyman, Campbell
* And note if the name moved/injured is not a defenseman, then we need to factor in the cap hit of the cap space replacing them

2) Two of these ~$3M guys are traded at deadline, or on LTIR through the end of season
* Kulak, Ceci, Foegele

3) We trade one of list #2 NOW (and replace with someone $1M or less), since cap accumulates

4) We somehow find a better D-man available in trade/deadline that makes significantly less than list #2... very low probability unless the D-man is still ELC or just emerging on their bridge contract... and then why would team X make that trade?

Anyway, you can say "lots can happen" between now and the deadline, but given our cap it's actually not that true... any injuries or trades of anyone else on our roster don't move the needle, since every other player makes close to league minimum and would need to be replaced with someone making the same.

TLDR: we actually DON'T have a lot of options because we've already concentrated our cap space in 11 guys across two tiers. If we want an upgrade, someone expensive needs to be shipped out.

 

[bucks_oil]

Desharnais makes Kris Russell look like Bobby Orr.

Kris Russell makes Desharnais look like Chara.

Am I playing the rediculous comparison game right?

 

[ZJuice]

McDavid's goal. I assume the GDT person is on my ignore list

New season, new ignore list!
Except the main board ignore list, those should never be cleared.