Around The League - 2021 offseason part III

[SJinNewJersey]

OK, let's talk about Sakic handling the goalie situation in Colorado.

Click to read more...

 

[Guttersniped]

OK, let's talk about Sakic handling the goalie situation in Colorado.

I just enjoy how the Coyotes saw Sakic’s predicament and jumped in with a helpful offer.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Will open this tomorrow. Let's let free agent frenzy cool off a bit first.

 

[The 29th Pick]

Minny signed Kulikov for 2 years 4.5m he did OK

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

I’d like to know what Seattle is doing. Yeah, be competitive but you got three great players coming out the next two years, don’t they want a shot at it? They had a chance to either stockpile picks or really go after it and they instead have a meh team. Pick a lane.

 

[Ripshot 43]

Minny signed Kulikov for 2 years 4.5m he did OK

Im still hoping for a little defensive insulation with an extra Kulikov/Murray signing to give us 7 good guys for nhl depth. This also allows the young up and comers some extra time to learn in the A.

 

[HBK27]

Latest from The Athletic on Taransenko:

The latest on the Blues and Vladimir Tarasenko: Source says trade value is decreasing — 'it’s time to move him'

So why hasn’t Tarasenko been traded?

The source said Armstrong has miscalculated the situation, asking for “too much” in return. There were once four teams interested in Tarasenko, and there are still at least two, but the options are dwindling after Wednesday’s signings around the league.

New Jersey and Carolina are two of the clubs that make the most sense.

New Jersey signed defenseman Dougie Hamilton to a seven-year, $63 million contract Wednesday, but the Devils still have $22.1 million in projected cap space, and GM Tom Fitzgerald has indicated that he’d like to add a top-six forward. They remain in the running for free-agent Brandon Saad, according to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.

Carolina, which needs scoring, is a tighter squeeze, cap-wise. The Hurricanes have about $15.4 million in space but still have to sign restricted free agent Andrei Svechnikov.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles, which has expressed interest in Tarasenko, signed Montreal center Phillip Danault to a six-year, $33 million free-agent contract Wednesday, and though Danault plays a different position, the Kings are now less than $2 million under the cap.

Vegas, another club that has sent out feelers on Tarasenko, traded for Ottawa’s Evgenii Dadonov on Wednesday. He’ll be entering the second year of a three-year contract with a $5 million cap hit, which put the Golden Knights about $2 million over the cap.

There’s a possibility — however small — that some clubs are monitoring Buffalo’s situation with Jack Eichel, who has requested a trade from the Sabres, and could wait for that to unfold before making their own push.

There was a report Wednesday by TSN’s Bob McKenzie that the Eichel talks were “dead quiet.” If all else fails, it makes you wonder if the Blues could include Tarasenko in a package to make a play for Eichel.

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

Latest from The Athletic on Taransenko:

The latest on the Blues and Vladimir Tarasenko: Source says trade value is decreasing — 'it’s time to move him'

So why hasn’t Tarasenko been traded?

The source said Armstrong has miscalculated the situation, asking for “too much” in return. There were once four teams interested in Tarasenko, and there are still at least two, but the options are dwindling after Wednesday’s signings around the league.

New Jersey and Carolina are two of the clubs that make the most sense.

New Jersey signed defenseman Dougie Hamilton to a seven-year, $63 million contract Wednesday, but the Devils still have $22.1 million in projected cap space, and GM Tom Fitzgerald has indicated that he’d like to add a top-six forward. They remain in the running for free-agent Brandon Saad, according to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.

Carolina, which needs scoring, is a tighter squeeze, cap-wise. The Hurricanes have about $15.4 million in space but still have to sign restricted free agent Andrei Svechnikov.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles, which has expressed interest in Tarasenko, signed Montreal center Phillip Danault to a six-year, $33 million free-agent contract Wednesday, and though Danault plays a different position, the Kings are now less than $2 million under the cap.

Vegas, another club that has sent out feelers on Tarasenko, traded for Ottawa’s Evgenii Dadonov on Wednesday. He’ll be entering the second year of a three-year contract with a $5 million cap hit, which put the Golden Knights about $2 million over the cap.

There’s a possibility — however small — that some clubs are monitoring Buffalo’s situation with Jack Eichel, who has requested a trade from the Sabres, and could wait for that to unfold before making their own push.

There was a report Wednesday by TSN’s Bob McKenzie that the Eichel talks were “dead quiet.” If all else fails, it makes you wonder if the Blues could include Tarasenko in a package to make a play for Eichel.

As I said in the team thread I think Tanks agent may be doing more harm than good giving this info to Rutherford. It did not work when he did this a couple of weeks ago and I am not sure it will work this time. Army stated at a presser that he told Tanks agent to have him prepare to return to the Blues.

 

[Buck Dancer]

As I said in the team thread I think Tanks agent may be doing more harm than good giving this info to Rutherford. It did not work when he did this a couple of weeks ago and I am not sure it will work this time. Army stated at a presser that he told Tanks agent to have him prepare to return to the Blues.

I don’t think it would be wise for the Blues to force a guy back who doesn’t want to be there. It’s not just about his botched surgeries, he was also given a role last year that pissed him off, just adding more gas on the fire. Telling him to be the net front presence on their PP didn’t make any sense whatsoever when he never played that role, ever.

It’s basically a marriage that turned sour and both sides would benefit from parting ways but the Blues seem to think they can get the value he once had before all the issues I’ve pointed out took place, which is wishful thinking on their part.

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

I don’t think it would be wise for the Blues to force a guy back who doesn’t want to be there. It’s not just about his botched surgeries, he was also given a role last year that pissed him off, just adding more gas on the fire. Telling him to be the net front presence on their PP didn’t make any sense whatsoever when he never played that role, ever.

Army is a Cup winning GM. I am sure he takes forum posters opinions very seriously,

 

[Buck Dancer]

Army is a Cup winning GM. I am sure he takes forum posters opinions very seriously,

Who said Armstrong had to listen to any of us. I’m just voicing my opinion and stating the obvious buddy lol.

Who pissed in your cereals this morning?

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

Who said Armstrong had to listen to any of us. I’m just voicing my opinion and stating the obvious buddy lol.

Who pissed in your cereals this morning?

I am in a great mood - just having some fun with ya

Seriously it seems like Tanks agent is the one who is desperate to get him out. Why else does he keep giving Rutherford this info? I love the "it;s time to move him" comment. Gee, I had no idea Tanks agent wanted the Blues to trade him. As I commented before, he never mentions what the offers were for Tank. Obviously they were not much

 

[Guttersniped]

I’d like to know what Seattle is doing. Yeah, be competitive but you got three great players coming out the next two years, don’t they want a shot at it? They had a chance to either stockpile picks or really go after it and they instead have a meh team. Pick a lane.

They also are now spending 9.4m on goaltending and just signed a 29 year old goaltender to a six year deal. Grubauer is an excellent goalie but that’s the weirdest position to invest in big (and older) like that, particularly when you have strong defense and drafted a solid trio of goaltenders in the ED who didn’t cost very much and who were on the younger side. I guess he was the last big difference maker on the UFA market but… I just made that argument up because I’m struggling here.

Their defense is really strong and Giordano, who makes a 6.75m, could get them a great return at the TDL at 1/2 salary (and it can be reduced even more with a third team).

Schwartz is great two-way player, I’d like to have him but he’s 5’10” and 190 lb forward who plays a hard-nosed game that is catching up with him and he’s just not scoring goals like he used to. The “not scoring goals like used to” is a potential problem for the Kraken because there’s a real question of where the goals are coming from in this line-up. Passing up on JVR from Philly still seems like a mistake to me.

Schwartz and Eberle are both probably a little underrated (and streaky) potential linemates.

Gourde missing the first few months due to shoulder surgery made their center depth terrifying, which explains the borderline ridiculous contract to Wennberg.

Wennberg has always fascinated me (yeah, I’m weird) because he’s sort of a super-charged Josefson. I loved our poor injury-riddled Jajo (I wore his jersey to plenty of games back in the day, stop judging) but he didn’t get the puck on the net very much and when he did he didn’t shoot it particularly well (I don’t know if there was a player who broke my heart more with his spazzy blown shots the few times he actually couldn’t force a pass because the net was open but I digress).

Wennberg’s ridiculous shooting percentage has been mentioned. It was ridiculous. He had 10 5v5 goals because his shooting % was 18.52% (it was 20.97% at even strength for 13 EV strength goals) and that’s how he got 17 goals in 56 games.

I started to type a more detailed description of Weenberg’s statistical history (god knows I’ll do this for no reason) but I’ll spare us both that. He barely shoots the puck and so he only gets goals from his ridiculous shooting % and if that goes away, oh boy, it gets ugly. He has shot really well other season to barely get a respectable number of goals but tragedy can strike. You don’t want to pay +4m for a forward who scores zero ES goals in 75 games, which happened in 2018-19, which is why Columbus bought his ass out.

Now he got 6 year/4.9m deal in 2017 because he had 59 points and 46 assists. He had trouble matching those numbers again because 21 of them were on scored on the 12th best power play (19.91%) while playing on the team 6th in goals (247 GF) in the NHL. (The Blue Jackets! It’s true!) The danger of paying for PP assists (see Butcher, Will)

Now the CBJ power play got worse and Wennberg’s numbers were hurt in Columbus because Dubois was a better 1C and he dropped in the line-up after often getting on Tortorella’s shit list.

I don’t know if this still qualifies as a truncated version of my thoughts on Wennberg but while people were interested in him as 3C, he’s more of a scoring center and Seattle needed that. He had one excellent year on the PP (and did well the year before on it) and can score some goals on it, so he’s probably going to help there because the Kraken don’t have much.

Francis didn’t sign bad players per se but it’s weird to improve just through UFA shopping. He has an extra 2022 2nd, 2022 4th and 2023 4th, which is nothing, after having no extra picks in 2021. He’s lucky he got Beniers, I get that Eklund or other forwards could have higher ceilings but he does need centers pronto.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

They also are now spending 9.4m on goaltending and just signed a 29 year old goaltender to a six year deal. Grubauer is an excellent goalie but that’s the weirdest position to invest in big (and older) like that, particularly when you have strong defense and drafted a solid trio of goaltenders in the ED who didn’t cost very much and who were on the younger side. I guess he was the last big difference maker on the UFA market but… I just made that argument up because I’m struggling here.

Their defense is really strong and Giordano, who makes a 6.75m, could get them a great return at the TDL at 1/2 salary (and it can be reduced even more with a third team).

Schwartz is great two-way player, I’d like to have him but he’s 5’10” and 190 lb forward who plays a hard-nosed game that is catching up with him and he’s just not scoring goals like he used to. The “not scoring goals like used to” is a potential problem for the Kraken because there’s a real question of where the goals are coming from in this line-up. Passing up on JVR from Philly still seems like a mistake to me.

Schwartz and Eberle are both probably a little underrated (and streaky) potential linemates.

Gourde missing the first few months due to shoulder surgery made their center depth terrifying, which explains the borderline ridiculous contract to Wennberg.

Wennberg has always fascinated me (yeah, I’m weird) because he’s sort of a super-charged Josefson. I loved our poor injury-riddled Jajo (I wore his jersey to plenty of games back in the day, stop judging) but he didn’t get the puck on the net very much and when he did he didn’t shoot it particularly well (I don’t know if there was a player who broke my heart more with his spazzy blown shots the few times he actually couldn’t force a pass because the net was open but I digress).

Wennberg’s ridiculous shooting percentage has been mentioned. It was ridiculous. He had 10 5v5 goals because his shooting % was 18.52% (it was 20.97% at even strength for 13 EV strength goals) and that’s how he got 17 goals in 56 games.

I started to type a more detailed description of Weenberg’s statistical history (god knows I’ll do this for no reason) but I’ll spare us both that. He barely shoots the puck and so he only gets goals from his ridiculous shooting % and if that goes away, oh boy, it gets ugly. He has shot really well other season to barely get a respectable number of goals but tragedy can strike. You don’t want to pay +4m for a forward who scores zero ES goals in 75 games, which happened in 2018-19, which is why Columbus bought his ass out.

Now he got 6 year/4.9m deal in 2017 because he had 59 points and 46 assists. He had trouble matching those numbers again because 21 of them were on scored on the 12th best power play (19.91%) while playing on the team 6th in goals (247 GF) in the NHL. (The Blue Jackets! It’s true!) The danger of paying for PP assists (see Butcher, Will)

Now the CBJ power play got worse and Wennberg’s numbers were hurt in Columbus because Dubois was a better 1C and he dropped in the line-up after often getting on Tortorella’s shit list.

I don’t know if this still qualifies as a truncated version of my thoughts on Wennberg but while people were interested in him as 3C, he’s more of a scoring center and Seattle needed that. He had one excellent year on the PP (and did well the year before on it) and can score some goals on it, so he’s probably going to help there because the Kraken don’t have much.

Francis didn’t sign bad players per se but it’s weird to improve just through UFA shopping. He has an extra 2022 2nd, 2022 4th and 2023 4th, which is nothing, after having no extra picks in 2021. He’s lucky he got Beniers, I get that Eklund or other forwards could have higher ceilings but he does need centers pronto.

As usual, very good points all around. The goalie spree one is weird. Cornering the market for goalie assets since it’s a hot commodity? Who knows. But they’re starting to look and feel like those mediocre Minny teams that did squat and drafted squat.

Edit: but with better goaltending than most of Minny’s years.

 

[Hisch13r]

I understand not wanting to suck right out the gate for an expansion team and wanting to at least be competitive. From a hockey standpoint though Arizona has been making the type of moves Seattle should be

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Seattle is seemingly building a team that will be competitive out the gate with an incredibly boring play style, and with a limited farm when these guys age out of the league over the next few years. Seems like an awful decision for an expansion team, but maybe they make the finals in year one and everyone gets embarrassed all over again.

 

[Hisch13r]

This has to sting for Habs fans. Perry realized he couldn’t handle losing in the SCF to them for a 3rd straight year

 

[Goptor]

As usual, very good points all around. The goalie spree one is weird. Cornering the market for goalie assets since it’s a hot commodity? Who knows. But they’re starting to look and feel like those mediocre Minny teams that did squat and drafted squat.

Edit: but with better goaltending than most of Minny’s years.

Hakstol is significantly worse than Lemaire

 

[The 29th Pick]

This has to sting for Habs fans

2 years?

 

[Buck Dancer]

This has to sting for Habs fans. Perry realized he couldn’t handle losing in the SCF to them for a 3rd straight year

Habs are losing heart and soul players left and right.

I don’t see them making the playoffs at all next year.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Their defense is really strong and Giordano, who makes a 6.75m, could get them a great return at the TDL at 1/2 salary (and it can be reduced even more with a third team).

If you ask me today I'd guess Seattle is challenging for a playoff spot at the trade deadline and Francis doesn't move Giordano.

 

[OmNomNom]

Habs are losing heart and soul players left and right.

I don’t see them making the playoffs at all next year.

wonder if the relationship w them and price has soured a bit, i'd have to imagine it did

 

[Hisch13r]

Habs are losing heart and soul players left and right.

I don’t see them making the playoffs at all next year.

No Weber and Price coming off of yet another surgery. They also haven’t been a good regular season team at all. Caufield’s a good add to the roster but I could very easily see them missing

 

[ScottyK]

 

[TrufleShufle]

They would.