Rumor: Rumor & Proposals: Is this real life or is this fantasy

[OilerFan4Life]

Could have been with his agent. I bet you his agent left a robotic voice on the phone when an NHL team calls him saying something like this:

"Hello, you have reached "So-and-so", If you are calling about Milan Lucic, press 1"

*Presses 1*

"Hi there, we understand you are interested in Milan Lucic but he has made his mind up. He's going to Edmonton. If you would like to talk about another player, press 0"

*click*

For the record, his agent lives in Edmonton.

 

[Spawn]

Right because 23 year old Cs cannot possibly improve...

Take a look at Ryan Johansen. He turned it around at age 23.

Brayden Schenn had his best season last year at 24.

Did Nuge steal your girl or something?

No, he's just disappointed me for too long. Tired of the ludicrous hype this player gets. He's a glorified Mike Ribiero with worse production. So tired of being proven right year after year on him only to have to have the exact same arguments with his fanboys.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Today is the calm before the storm

 

[OilerFan4Life]

No, he's just disappointed me for too long. Tired of the ludicrous hype this player gets. He's a glorified Mike Ribiero with worse production. So tired of being proven right year after year on him only to have to have the exact same arguments with his fanboys.

Considering how little you value him, I guess you'd move for almost anything.

Dumba it is then. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

 

[Tw0Shoes]

Most of us have accepted his offensive ceiling has lowered to that, but being a 55 point player puts you at 30th in NHL for Centers and he is known for being an excellent defensive player too. If you score at 1-2C levels but are also excellent defensively, I'd argue you are a low end 1C and not a 2C.

That holds value especially when without that our 2C is a sophomore who went cold for half the season after a hot stretch (not saying Drai isn't amazing, just that it's not smart to bank everything on him).

I've personally given up hope on Nuge's offensive explosion but that doesn't mean he isn't still massively valuable. I just don't think it's smart to trade him.

Patrick Kane's best year was his 3rd year in the league, 88pts, he then stagnated from there, and never put up anything close to 88pts, or the 30 goals he got that year.

 

[doulos]

Whats wrong with keeping a 60pt 2way centre?

Well, he's never produced 60 points for starters?

In all seriousness I think Nuge has another gear yet, but he's been around a long time so it's not unreasonable to suggest he's about hit his peak.

 

[guymez]

Except Petry fans recognized what he was. A good #3 d-man. Nuge fans can't seem to comprehend the notion that he's a 55 point 2nd line center. They still hold the delusional belief that this player is going to get better when he never has.

Interesting that you used the Petry comparison. Petry struggled in Edmonon because he never had the luxury of playing behind a strong minute munching damn like Subban in Montreal. He was asked to do too much.

Dont you think the same logic applies to a 23 year old centre like RNH?

 

[Spawn]

Whats wrong with keeping a 60pt 2way centre?

Not a 60 point player. Not a 2-way player.

 

[Hopelesslucicfan]

There's a tweet from yesterday saying he's visiting four teams and getting phone calls from 6 more or something like that, I could try and find it but I'm on my phone so its kinda difficult haha

Lebrun tweeted yesterday after he left that these were likely his only two stops unless he can squeeze another in before July 1, which is contrary to what I read a couple days earlier, but I trust Lebrun, maybe he decided not to waste his time anywhere else

 

[Jet Walters]

So many posters assume there's this crazy untapped potential in Nuge but I just don't see it. He's consistently hit mid-50 points his entire career and I don't see how he's just gonna skyrocket to the 70-80pt range.

It's almost like posters purposely want to downplay what Hall has accomplished to pump Nuge with his "potential"

He does have 70 point potential if he gets #1 PP time on the half wall and you run your PP through him. That ship sailed here as soon as we drafted McDavid though. Here he is running the 2nd unit PP and probably a 45-55 point player. Still valuable no doubt, but not as valuable as he would be to another team.

I keep coming back to Ottawa in an RNH trade. They have a ton of right shooting snipers and could really use a left handed distributer for their PP. RNH feeding the likes of Karlsson, Stone, Turris, Ryan etc. would allow him to actually reach his potential.

If Hall goes for a defenseman what would people think of something around RNH for Zibanejad and Lazar? I've been pushing that proposal for almost a year.

 

[Aceboogie]

The bold is a fabrication created by Oiler fans to justify his mediocre offensive production. Nuge sucks in the defensive zone. Too weak, and blows coverage all the time.

I mean yeah if you completely divorce yourself from reality and ignore all the stats then yes hes bad defensively

 

[Spawn]

Considering how little you value him, I guess you'd move for almost anything.

Dumba it is then. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

No. I said I'd move him for Dumba ahead of Hall for a d-man like Larsson. I was trying to imply that the gap between Hall and Nuge is greater than the gap between Larsson and Dumba.

 

[Aerrol]

I mean yeah if you completely divorce yourself from reality and ignore all the stats then yes hes bad defensively

I was hoping someone would be less lazy than me and actually dig up the numbers. I knew I'd seen them before.

It seems to me like Spawn is over-reacting in annoyance to the extreme boosting some fans give RNH. We're fans, we all have our favourites. I'm not sure why the RNH fans in particular bug him so much.

 

[Mr Positive]

No, he's just disappointed me for too long. Tired of the ludicrous hype this player gets. He's a glorified Mike Ribiero with worse production. So tired of being proven right year after year on him only to have to have the exact same arguments with his fanboys.

So does his youth not matter at all to you? It would be one thing if he was turning 27 and people were clinging to some vague hope that he could put it together. Your disappointment is pretty much due to a couple of rough years for a player just off is ELC. In that time, his production has not grown but he's shown growth in his two-way game and faceoffs. He continues to grow and develop even now, both physically and with hockey skill.

 

[Aceboogie]

No. I said I'd move him for Dumba ahead of Hall for a d-man like Larsson. I was trying to imply that the gap between Hall and Nuge is greater than the gap between Larsson and Dumba.

A said day when this is actually a accurate quote

Hall for Larsson is terribly, horribly, embarrassingly bad. NH for Dumba is terribly, horribly bad

 

[FunkyChicken]

If I'm selling players for cents on the dollars, it's not going to be any of my core players.

If I'm signing Lucic and Demers to contracts and can't get nothing more than Hall for Hamonic or RNH for Brodin, I keep them and running with the following:

Lucic-McDavid-Eberle
Hall-Draisailt-Pulj
Maroon-RNH-XXXX
XXXX-Letestu-XXXX

Sekera-Fayne
Klefbom-Demers
Davidson-XXXX

I'd rather sell cheap on Yak, Pouliot, Hendricks than the core players to free up salary.
Replace the XXXX with cheaper UFAs (<$1M).
And hope another right D kicks loose at the start of the season for draft picks.

 

[Spawn]

I mean yeah if you completely divorce yourself from reality and ignore all the stats then yes hes bad defensively

I talked about this with you yesterday with Hall too I believe. But using a players stats relative to his teammates when his team is garbage and than trying to compare him to good players on good teams is worthless. Of course RNH has great relative stats compared to the rest of the team. The majority of his career he's played with centers like Horcoff/Gagner/Belanger/Gordon.

 

[alcolol]

Stauffer's radio show starts at 12pm right?

 

[Spawn]

So does his youth not matter at all to you? It would be one thing if he was turning 27 and people were clinging to some vague hope that he could put it together. Your disappointment is pretty much due to a couple of rough years for a player just off is ELC. In that time, his production has not grown but he's shown growth in his two-way game and faceoffs. He continues to grow and develop even now, both physically and with hockey skill.

No it doesn't and I disagree that he's grown or developed in any way. I mean... maybe he's 15 pounds heavier? Hasn't done him any good though.

 

[Joey Moss]

stauffer's radio show starts at 12pm right?

12 mt

 

[Aerrol]

I keep coming back to Ottawa in an RNH trade. They have a ton of right shooting snipers and could really use a left handed distributer for their PP. RNH feeding the likes of Karlsson, Stone, Turris, Ryan etc. would allow him to actually reach his potential.

If Hall goes for a defenseman what would people think of something around RNH for Zibanejad and Lazar? I've been pushing that proposal for almost a year.

I'd prefer someone more experienced than Zibanejad coming back. Ideally, we want to keep RNH around to shelter McDavid and Drai some more and take the tough draws. I don't think Lazar or Zibby can fill that function particularly well for us right now.

 

[Digger12]

I can't/am too lazy to provide a source for this, so take it with a grain of salt, but I recall hearing things from around the league of other players and coaches praising his defensive game lots in recent years.

Hitchcock I think is one example last season, calling him one of the best centers in the NHL because of his defensive game if I recall correctly.

Are these the same guys who still think the Oilers have the best ice in the NHL?

Sometimes a guy's reputation can build momentum and take on a life of its own and trump reality for a while.

The thing when I think about Nuge's defensive game is other than the occasional neutral zone takeaway that makes everyone break out the "Hiss hiss" thing, is he really that good defensively in his own end? He is still physically challenged to go head to head against the bigger centers in the west, and his faceoff ability is still below average which definitely hurts his reliability in his own end.

In my opinion at this stage in his career he's no better then average defensively. There's no reason why that can't improve by a lot as he matures, but right now I'd consider Draisaitl every bit as good defensively in his own end of the ice. Neutral zone I'd still give a slight nod to Nuge due to his superior mobility.

 

[Aceboogie]

I talked about this with you yesterday with Hall too I believe. But using a players stats relative to his teammates when his team is garbage and than trying to compare him to good players on good teams is worthless. Of course RNH has great relative stats compared to the rest of the team. The majority of his career he's played with centers like Horcoff/Gagner/Belanger/Gordon.

So how would you explain Kopitar. And your reasoning is a bit of a stretch. Being players on better teams also have better players with them on ice at same time, and then yes better players on ice without them on

RNH had bad line mates with him and without him

So for example, Kings GF with Kopitar could be 60% and without him 52%. Oilers could be 50% with RNH and 42% without him. Both have similar impacts

Your theory is only right if good player on good team is played with bad linemates, and then good teammates are played when hes not on ice. however this is nearly never the answer. Like for example if Kopitars most common linemate is NOT Doughty, and then Doughty plays majority of game away from Kopitar. Which doesnt happen, best players play with best players on top lines. Kopitars most common line mates are Doughty, Muzzin and Lucic

 

[guymez]

No it doesn't and I disagree that he's grown or developed in any way. I mean... maybe he's 15 pounds heavier? Hasn't done him any good though.

Still waiting for a response to my question posted above. Surely you see the parallels between Petrys situation and RNH's situation?

 

[alcolol]

12 mt

Is Edmonton not in the PST zone?