Rumor: 2020-21 Trade Rumours and FA thread
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UncleRisto
Not Great, Bob!
Well, they need someone for marketing to their key target audience, 40-year-old women.
- Feb 24, 2012
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Nashville is loading up. Will be interesting to see if they can climb back to being contenders this year as that window is about closed.
UncleRisto
Not Great, Bob!
Northern Avs Fan
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- May 27, 2019
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Unfortunately for Nashville they’re in Tampa’s division, so their season is pretty much over before it starts.
hockeyfish
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- Feb 24, 2012
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That division looks like it will be a bloodbath for the top teams. Columbus is always a difficult out. Dallas proved in the playoffs that they can contend. Nashville looks like a better team on paper and improved in the offseason. Carolina has been great the last few seasons. Chicago may not be good, but are dangerous with some young talent coming in. Then Tampa to top it off... clearly the best team on paper if healthy. Detroit is the only doormat.
dahrougem2
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Chicago is going to get ****ing annihilated this season and are my pick to finish dead last in the league. That goaltending is next-level bad.
shadow1
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- Nov 29, 2008
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I personally think Nashville is in trouble.
They had trouble scoring last year and did shuffle some forwards (Bonino, Smith, Turris, Watson -> Cousins, Haula, Kunin, Richardson), but ultimately it'll come down to whether or not Duchene and Johansen can come close to living up to the $16.0M combined they're being paid.
My money is on the under after those two combined for a whopping 27 goals last season (Calvert and Donskoi combined for 28). But 2021 is a short season, so maybe the Preds get hot and I look like a fool.
They had trouble scoring last year and did shuffle some forwards (Bonino, Smith, Turris, Watson -> Cousins, Haula, Kunin, Richardson), but ultimately it'll come down to whether or not Duchene and Johansen can come close to living up to the $16.0M combined they're being paid.
My money is on the under after those two combined for a whopping 27 goals last season (Calvert and Donskoi combined for 28). But 2021 is a short season, so maybe the Preds get hot and I look like a fool.
Avs_19
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- Jun 28, 2007
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Typical Preds. Loading up with third liners when that has never been the issue.
- Feb 24, 2012
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Yeah they probably will not finish with a good record, but I think a good part of that will be the division they are in. It is brutal. I still think Detroit will be the worst team in the league.
I'm actually really curious about Delia. I think people underrate how good he's been in the AHL because the numbers aren't top end. He's really athletic and battles... just has been incredibly inconsistent. If they can stabilize his game, he could be an adequate starter.
dahrougem2
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Maybe he's got it in him, but the Blackhawks didn't look good with Crawford/Lehner in net, and those two are much better than anyone they've currently got in the organization, especially at the NHL level.
AvsCOL
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- Jul 16, 2013
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Yeah Nashville is screwed. For years they had the benefit of an all star D core getting paid pennies, and they used that money to sign mediocre forwards to long term, big money contracts. Johansen and Duchene both make $8mil, and now Josi is getting $9 mil until he's 38 years old.
If Saros falters even a bit, they're screwed. Unless Askarov is NHL ready, then they have nothing there.
- Feb 24, 2012
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I think the whole team there will be better than they were. Boqvist was starting to click at the end of last season. Maata is addition by subtraction, especially since as much as I don't think highly of Z, he's a huge upgrade over Maata. Plus Ian Mitchell should be a real nice injection to the defense. Up front, Dach should improve off his rookie season and Wallmark was a sneaky good depth addition. Beyond them Kurashev, Barrett, and Suter (who is a real gem of a player) could all make the team and improve their forwards. I don't think they are going to be good this year, but they have some pieces that could improve the depth and quality of the team compared to last year. And that team made the playoffs.
dahrougem2
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Well let's be fair here, they won a play-in format when in a normal season, they were nowhere near the playoffs with two legitimate goaltenders.
Again, maybe they'll be improved but with a Delia/Subban tandem in goal, I can't see them finishing any higher than 31st in the league in goals against.
The team bleeds shots against. Now there's no Lehner or Crawford (even with Crawford's poor regular season) to stop those shots.
tigervixxxen
Optimism=Delusional
I can see Chicago setting up for some last gasp of sorts but that goaltending tho. Goalies can pull an above average season out of nowhere but they absolutely need it.
shadow1
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- Nov 29, 2008
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Chicago projects to be bad, and their goaltending on paper is the worst tandem in the NHL.
But unlike Nashville, at least their team has some mystique. Boqvist could excel in a big role, Dach could explode, Nylander could break out, etc, etc.
All of those things could happen, or none of them could happen. But the bottom line is there is a healthy collection of young players that could step up, as opposed to trying to rely on highly paid veterans to turn things around (which was pretty much their game plan the last few seasons).
EDIT: Alex Nylander potentially out for the season after knee surgery. New projection: 9-46-1.
But unlike Nashville, at least their team has some mystique. Boqvist could excel in a big role, Dach could explode, Nylander could break out, etc, etc.
All of those things could happen, or none of them could happen. But the bottom line is there is a healthy collection of young players that could step up, as opposed to trying to rely on highly paid veterans to turn things around (which was pretty much their game plan the last few seasons).
EDIT: Alex Nylander potentially out for the season after knee surgery. New projection: 9-46-1.
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- Feb 24, 2012
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They won that against a team that many felt would do well in the playoffs. They had a brutal start to the season through mid December. Then after that they cleaned up their play and did a lot better. From Dec 19-on they were 19-14-4. That isn't world beating, but a low to mid 90s pace.
dahrougem2
Registered User
After that they cleaned up their play, sure, but they still had Lehner/Crawford in goal.
The only reason they beat the Oilers in the playoffs is because Smith/Koskinen were the only two goaltenders in the entire playoffs that happened to be worse than Crawford. The Hawks were not good in that play-in; the Oilers were just worse with even worse goaltending. Now you've taken two legitimate NHL caliber goaltenders away from them.
They were dead last in the league in shots allowed, scoring chances against, and second-last in high danger chances against.
I've got no reason to believe that's going to get better, and now they've got two unknowns with not-so-great potential being asked to stop those shots.
- Apr 25, 2006
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dahrougem2
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Lmao.How about these two?
Let me re-phrase: only two in the play-in that were worse.
- Jan 18, 2016
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Hutch didn’t do that bad honestly. His game 7 wasn’t great but it was better than Smith/Koskinen that’s for sure.
Yeah, Chicago was one of the worst defensive teams in hockey last year, and now they don't have the goaltending to bail them out. It would take a crazy Tim Thomas-like resurgence from Collin Delia to keep them from tanking it. And Bowman has all but admitted that they're tankin' it this year.
Nashville doesn't scare me. They'll be okay, but not much more than that. Remember, John Hynes is their coach, and I think it'd take a monumentally great coach to turn that club's disparate parts into a contender. He most certainly isn't that. The Haula pickup was probably a good idea, but I question whether or not he's still got it. Right after his incredible season in Nashville he suffered a super-bad knee injury that he still doesn't seem to have recovered from.
It's a 56-game season so we're going to see some crazy fluke runs both good and bad, so anything's possible, but if we're trying to project based on the information we have, Chicago should be truly awful. Nashville will be decent, but I think their contention window has officially closed. They're relying on Matt Duchene to be a game-breaking franchise player and, much as I believe him to be a very skilled top forward, I don't think he's ever been that.
Nashville doesn't scare me. They'll be okay, but not much more than that. Remember, John Hynes is their coach, and I think it'd take a monumentally great coach to turn that club's disparate parts into a contender. He most certainly isn't that. The Haula pickup was probably a good idea, but I question whether or not he's still got it. Right after his incredible season in Nashville he suffered a super-bad knee injury that he still doesn't seem to have recovered from.
It's a 56-game season so we're going to see some crazy fluke runs both good and bad, so anything's possible, but if we're trying to project based on the information we have, Chicago should be truly awful. Nashville will be decent, but I think their contention window has officially closed. They're relying on Matt Duchene to be a game-breaking franchise player and, much as I believe him to be a very skilled top forward, I don't think he's ever been that.
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