GDT: ALL Vegas Expansion talk here -who do the Bruins protect

[LouJersey]

That was crazy ..... move by Florida.
Tallon said his biggest target is to improve scoring and he exposes 2 of his top6 wingers over Bjugstad/petrovic.
What a terrible terrible decision by them.

Yeah he could have still protected Bjugstad along with those two if he exposed Petrovic who no lie is probably the 30th best defenseman available in this thing.

 

[Seidenbergy]

6 games. Could have easily just been a favorable matchup.

Prior to that the team didn't see fit to play him more than 18 minutes a night this season.

I'm going with the 217 games prior to that that say yeah, we know exactly what he is.

LOL. What? He had 20 regular season games over 19 minutes. And the Bs were 13-3-4 in those games.

He played over 18 minutes in half the games. Same the year before.

We know exactly what he is? Yup. A GREAT bottom pairing guy that can play SIGNIFICANT top 4 minutes with regularity, including the playoffs.

Collin Miller? I keep hearing about his supposed high ceiling. All that means is he hasn't done squat.

 

[BiggioRainesHOF]

LOL. What? He had 20 regular season games over 19 minutes. And the Bs were 13-3-4 in those games.

He played over 18 minutes in half the games. Same the year before.

We know exactly what he is? Yup. A GREAT bottom pairing guy that can play SIGNIFICANT top 4 minutes with regularity, including the playoffs.

Collin Miller? I keep hearing about his supposed high ceiling. All that means is he hasn't done squat.

So you don't understand how averages or game effects work. Cool.

 

[bp13]

Nobody here is saying Colin Miller is the next great thing. But the guy is 24. You have no idea what he will be at 28. May be out of the league by then. May be a serviceable 4-6 guy. Hey maybe he turns into Justin Schultz. Remember Edmonton gave him away for a 6th?

People are making losing McQuaid or Miller out to be something it's not. We know what they are. Third pair guys. They aren't second pair guys. Their ceiling is 3rd pair, with 10-20 games missed with injuries. They are however great team guys, so I get that.

If I have two bags of plain mms and one of mm peanuts, I'm gonna give you your choice of which bag of plain mms you want.

Haha! I love this analogy, though I'm not sure if Colin is Peanut M&M's or a "bag of undetermined M&M's, maybe peanut, maybe jagged shards of glass M&M's".

To me this all comes down to what's the plan for this team? If they want to make a real run in the next 1-2 years, protecting Kevan over Colin seems defensible because he's both a better bet to help in that window AND they do have seemingly a glut of defensive prospects. So it's not like you gotta keep Colin in the name of the future. However, does this GM seem to be acting like a GM intent on contending in the next 1-2 years? I certainly don't see that. He's passive. He can talk about moving his 1st like he talked about trying to add a top 4 D last summer, but he doesn't close. So maybe he's willing to pay a "fair" price to improve this team, but that doesn't get it done. You might have to add the extra prospect or the extra pick to add the missing pieces to a "complete" roster, and to date he doesn't seem willing to do it.

So if the window is further out...if Sweeney somehow sold this ownership on a 6+ year plan, then why keep Kevan Miller over the "undetermined bag of M&M's"? If Sweeney really is playing the long game here and doesn't have a window in mind but is instead just hoping to steadily improve, then give me the lottery ticket any day.

 

[BB88]

Yeah he could have still protected Bjugstad along with those two if he exposed Petrovic who no lie is probably the 30th best defenseman available in this thing.

Bjugstad has dealt with a lot of injury problems and they have lots of C options so I would have understood Bjugstad being not protected.
But Marchessault& Smith makes zero sense. If they lose 1 of them their W depth is garbage.

 

[EverettMike]

LOL. What? He had 20 regular season games over 19 minutes. And the Bs were 13-3-4 in those games.

He played over 18 minutes in half the games. Same the year before.

We know exactly what he is? Yup. A GREAT bottom pairing guy that can play SIGNIFICANT top 4 minutes with regularity, including the playoffs.

Collin Miller? I keep hearing about his supposed high ceiling. All that means is he hasn't done squat.

You clearly know he meant average time of ice, which was 17:48 last season.

K. Miller's advanced stats were under water last year, and are under water for his career. This even though he got 55.6% of his zone starts in the offensive zone last season (53.5 for his career). That despite being thought of as a defensive defenseman.

I thought he had a good second half last year, but was a train wreck at the start. I think we know what he is at this point, good and bad. He's a guy you like having on the team, in a bottom pairing role. I don't like those guys under contract for 3 more years at 2.5.

 

[Seidenbergy]

Kevan Miller's first half struggles last year had nothing to do with his knee injury I'm sure.

 

[BiggioRainesHOF]

You clearly know he meant average time of ice, which was 17:48 last season.

K. Miller's advanced stats were under water last year, and are under water for his career. This even though he got 55.6% of his zone starts in the offensive zone last season (53.5 for his career). That despite being thought of as a defensive defenseman.

I thought he had a good second half last year, but was a train wreck at the start. I think we know what he is at this point, good and bad. He's a guy you like having on the team, in a bottom pairing role. I don't like those guys under contract for 3 more years at 2.5.

Pretty much nails it for me.

 

[BiggioRainesHOF]

Kevan Miller's first half struggles last year had nothing to do with his knee injury I'm sure.

Me personally? I wouldn't cite his injury history as a way to support him and the 3 more years of term we have on him.

 

[Seidenbergy]

Me personally? I wouldn't cite his injury history as a way to support him and the 3 more years of term we have on him.

So you don't understand how context works. Cool.

 

[EverettMike]

Kevan Miller's first half struggles last year had nothing to do with his knee injury I'm sure.

Well at least he's shown he can stay healthy otherwise....

 

[Fenian24]

You clearly know he meant average time of ice, which was 17:48 last season.

K. Miller's advanced stats were under water last year, and are under water for his career. This even though he got 55.6% of his zone starts in the offensive zone last season (53.5 for his career). That despite being thought of as a defensive defenseman.

I thought he had a good second half last year, but was a train wreck at the start. I think we know what he is at this point, good and bad. He's a guy you like having on the team, in a bottom pairing role. I don't like those guys under contract for 3 more years at 2.5.

I won't get into the analytics because we have very differing opinions on them but I will say that having Kevan/McQuaid under contract for 2/3 years isn't bad when you have 2 top 4 D on ELC's. Maybe if they had gotten Yandle or had another high ticket D besides Chara it would be an issue but this team isn't in cap trouble and they have far worse contracts than K.Miller's and McQuaid's.

 

[NDiesel]

Yeah cause third pair guys are easy to come by, especially ones with intangibles like McQuaid who can play top 4 minutes if needed. I like C.Millers skill set, including his physical game, maybe he puts it all together, for the sake of a player who seems like a nice kid I hope he does. I'm still keeping the established player over the shiny new toy that may not be what you think it is.

I also would save 30.00 bucks instead of buying a lottery ticket for a chance to win 10M. Take the sure thing, if you are Vegas it makes more sense to take Miller, you aren't going any where in the next couple year as and there is plenty of toughness at forward available to select. Bruins have virtually none and should have protected McQuaid. At least they protected the right Miller.

Oh and the HF hype machine has been alive and well discussing C.Miller.

Obviously having C. Miller become something good for the Bruins is ideal, but Kevan earned his protection this past postseason. Definitely makes losing Colin a little bit easier, although I really hope McQuaid is their target - too redundant with Kevan staying.

 

[LouJersey]

I won't get into the analytics because we have very differing opinions on them but I will say that having Kevan/McQuaid under contract for 2/3 years isn't bad when you have 2 top 4 D on ELC's. Maybe if they had gotten Yandle or had another high ticket D besides Chara it would be an issue but this team isn't in cap trouble and they have far worse contracts than K.Miller's and McQuaid's.

over-spending on your bottom tier defense, and bottom line players totally defeats the purpose of the benefit of those ELC.. You use that savings for a top 4 D or top 6 forward.

McQuaid at 2.75 and Miller at 2.5 as your #5 or #6 is not a great way to spend your cash, IMO of course.

It's like me paying my assistant three times her worth because he can bake some bomb ass chocolate chip cookies.

Is there any other team in the NHL that has 5mil plus earmarked for their bottom pair defense?

 

[DarrenBanks56]

6 games. Could have easily just been a favorable matchup.

Prior to that the team didn't see fit to play him more than 18 minutes a night this season.

I'm going with the 217 games prior to that that say yeah, we know exactly what he is.

Kmiller was our best defenseman the last half of the season. Not just playoffs.

CMiller wont get picked up anyway. Vegas wont waste a pick on him.

 

[LouJersey]

Kmiller was our best defenseman the last half of the season. Not just playoffs.

CMiller wont get picked up anyway. Vegas wont waste a pick on him.

Pretty sure they will either take a guy like Subban who they know will clear waivers, or McQuaid and deal him. No way they would take Miller and his contract IMO. He's a #6.

 

[DarrenBanks56]

Pretty sure they will either take a guy like Subban who they know will clear waivers, or McQuaid and deal him.

yup. you know for a fact they would take a guy like Kmiller. Well- at least I think they wouldve.

 

[JCRO]

I think that was the point? Every team makes mistakes.

Also, too early to call Backes a mistake imo.

Yup. Thanks.

 

[LouJersey]

yup. you know for a fact they would take a guy like Kmiller. Well- at least I think they wouldve.

I don't. He's an expensive #6. Three years / 7.5 mil is a lot..McQuaid only has two years left. Toronto and Edmonton will want him, watch.

McQuaid on MON or TOR would possibly kill me.

 

[neelynugs]

You clearly know he meant average time of ice, which was 17:48 last season.

K. Miller's advanced stats were under water last year, and are under water for his career. This even though he got 55.6% of his zone starts in the offensive zone last season (53.5 for his career). That despite being thought of as a defensive defenseman.

I thought he had a good second half last year, but was a train wreck at the start. I think we know what he is at this point, good and bad. He's a guy you like having on the team, in a bottom pairing role. I don't like those guys under contract for 3 more years at 2.5.

let's veer away from your stats and talk about what we see colin miller do on the ice. great skater, great shot. appears to have no clue how to get that shot on net (i think he had like 80 shots on goal on 300 attempts - there's some stats for you). appears to do well at leading the rush sometimes, but seems to skate himself into trouble a lot which tells me his hockey sense is lacking, to be kind.

he's a youngish guy and some of his defensive issues will improve by natural maturity, but i don't see his hockey sense improving. boychuk is maybe the only guy i can recall whose hockey sense improved a lot from what he was in providence. i think mcphee takes mcquaid personally. the bigger argument to me was why weren't we able to get a better #3 than kevan miller over the last few days?

 

[Tampbear]

You clearly know he meant average time of ice, which was 17:48 last season.

K. Miller's advanced stats were under water last year, and are under water for his career. This even though he got 55.6% of his zone starts in the offensive zone last season (53.5 for his career). That despite being thought of as a defensive defenseman.

I thought he had a good second half last year, but was a train wreck at the start. I think we know what he is at this point, good and bad. He's a guy you like having on the team, in a bottom pairing role. I don't like those guys under contract for 3 more years at 2.5.

Just adding a bit of context, he was playing his offside with Colin as his partner most of the year and still had a couple more minutes average ice time per game than Colin. I think his low TOI is at least somewhat due to his partner getting zero trust in the defensive end.

 

[patty59]

let's veer away from your stats and talk about what we see colin miller do on the ice. great skater, great shot. appears to have no clue how to get that shot on net (i think he had like 80 shots on goal on 300 attempts - there's some stats for you). appears to do well at leading the rush sometimes, but seems to skate himself into trouble a lot which tells me his hockey sense is lacking, to be kind.

he's a youngish guy and some of his defensive issues will improve by natural maturity, but i don't see his hockey sense improving. boychuk is maybe the only guy i can recall whose hockey sense improved a lot from what he was in providence. i think mcphee takes mcquaid personally. the bigger argument to me was why weren't we able to get a better #3 than kevan miller over the last few days?

Get better players? Haven't you seen the laundry list of prospects that will be making the jump next year?

 

[neelynugs]

Get better players? Haven't you seen the laundry list of prospects that will be making the jump next year?

yes, ROG is gonna be our #1 next year (i do like him though, and he's a slam dunk 5/6 at least for me)

 

[Jean_Jacket41]

Would have protected C.Miller or McQuaid over K.Miller.

Would have traded something of value to Vegas for them to take Beleskey and his 3y at 3.8M off the Cap.

Let's see how it shakes out.

 

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

over-spending on your bottom tier defense, and bottom line players totally defeats the purpose of the benefit of those ELC.. You use that savings for a top 4 D or top 6 forward.

McQuaid at 2.75 and Miller at 2.5 as your #5 or #6 is not a great way to spend your cash, IMO of course.

It's like me paying my assistant three times her worth because he can bake some bomb ass chocolate chip cookies.

Is there any other team in the NHL that has 5mil plus earmarked for their bottom pair defense?

This is my biggest problem with the whole thing. McQuaid and K. Miller are redundant. Sure, they are great at their role, but they serve the same purpose. On a healthy defense, only one of them should be dressed. McQuaid's already hurt now, so it's more than likely C. Miller is gone by the end of the week.

This move is because K. Miller was better last season. But the game of management is getting the players that are going to be better the next game. I think C. Miller surpasses both McQuaid and K. Miller in less than a season, and the Bruin's will look silly having a #5 and #7 defenseman being paid over 5 million together (yes, I know some other teams have it worse, and I know we'll have 2 guys in the top 4 on ELC's), but this draft was a way to shed one of K. Miller or Adam McQuaid's SALARY, and unless Sweeney has a magic trick (ie. dumping Beleskey or Hayes for Vegas to take C. Miller), I'm a bit disappointed.