Around the NHL 2021-22

[PredsV82]

Things, as they say, are heating up.

1. Montreal is looking like they are going to clean out the front office.
2. You have Vancouver as a ticking time bomb that will likely explode in the next couple of weeks.
3. The Stars rumored to be dealing Klinkberg.
4. Avs have kicked the tires on just about ever big name available player you can name.
5. Rumors of Fiala making enemies in the MIN locker room.

Dominos are gonna start falling here shortly. I'm here for it.

Fiala, a problem child? You dont say...

 

[triggrman]

17th in the nhl
5 teams “behind” us can leap frog us using their games in hand.
San Jose and Dallas can pass us by winning their next game. La can tie us by winning the next game but we have ROW tie breaker.

That’s still competitive

 

[BigFatCat999]

Things, as they say, are heating up.

1. Montreal is looking like they are going to clean out the front office

Dominos are gonna start falling here shortly. I'm here for it.

Bergivin fired, Jeff Horton in.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Evander Kane on waivers.

 

[PredsV82]

Wow, I had no idea that Tinordi and McCarron were both former Montreal 1st round picks.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Wow, I had no idea that Tinordi and McCarron were both former Montreal 1st round picks.

Just wow.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Just wow.

Their drafting and development has largely been trash. Also wasted #3 overalls on both Galchenyuk and Kotkaniemi, who they didn't develop well and off-loaded/lost. The best player they've drafted in more recent years (Sergachev - we'll see how Caufield actually pans out) was traded for an underachieving headcase in Drouin.

 

[Armourboy]

Only reason he didn't get fired at the end of last season was because of the playoff run. That whole organiztion has needed an overhaul in its thought process for a while.

 

[hido]

So does this mean we won the trade?

 

[101st_fan]

17th in the nhl
5 teams “behind” us can leap frog us using their games in hand.
San Jose and Dallas can pass us by winning their next game. La can tie us by winning the next game but we have ROW tie breaker.

17th in the NHL doesn't matter as playoffs aren't shared between conferences. 10th in the west in pts % which normalizes for differences in games played. It's a one point difference to 8th right now ... two points to 5th (both based on the teams currently in those positions having played an identical 21 games along with the Preds). Nobody is clearly in right now ... nobody is clearly out. 1/4 of the way into the season, the team is in contention. We're talking the difference of one in conference game with 3/4 of the season remaining.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Evander Kane on waivers.

Somebody must have said this already: Bergevin was fired just in time to avoid this temptation?

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

The Islanders are also an interesting story for this thread. They are struggling big time after being considered sort of contenders? I wouldn't think Trotz is in any danger, though. But still, 5-10-2 and a 32-52 goal differential is not pretty. Now the the second Covid-outbreak shut down team too.

 

[Kat Predator]

Bergevin. Didn't see that one coming.

OK, I lied. He served himself on a silver platter. The only question was when he would be fired.

 

[herzausstein]

Notable Montreal 1st round picks since 2005
Price
Patches (traded)
McDonagh (never played a single game for mtl)
Galchenyuk
JK
Caufield (maybe)

That’s still competitive

When 56% of the teams make the playoffs it’s hard not to be “competitive”. Making the playoffs just to be swatted aside in the first round isn’t really competitive to me

 

[101st_fan]

Notable Montreal 1st round picks since 2005
Price
Patches (traded)
McDonagh (never played a single game for mtl)
Galchenyuk
JK
Caufield (maybe)




When 56% of the teams make the playoffs it’s hard not to be “competitive”. Making the playoffs just to be swatted aside in the first round isn’t really competitive to me

AH ... the pivot when logic intervenes and the post doesn't hold up. You've gone from "we look more and more like we aren’t going to make the playoffs " to an projection that they'll get "swatted aside" although across the last five seasons the lowest seeded team to make the playoffs made it to the SCF twice ... a team third in their division made it to the SCF another two times ... and the Preds currently sit two points behind the Blues with an equal number of games played making it one head to head game between the Preds and 3rd place in the division right now. Based on record and actual play in individual games, this team is competitive. Whether or not that translates into making the playoffs, and if so, success in the post season remains an unknown.

 

[herzausstein]

AH ... the pivot when logic intervenes and the post doesn't hold up. You've gone from "we look more and more like we aren’t going to make the playoffs " to an projection that they'll get "swatted aside" although across the last five seasons the lowest seeded team to make the playoffs made it to the SCF twice ... a team third in their division made it to the SCF another two times ... and the Preds currently sit two points behind the Blues with an equal number of games played making it one head to head game between the Preds and 3rd place in the division right now. Based on record and actual play in individual games, this team is competitive. Whether or not that translates into making the playoffs, and if so, success in the post season remains an unknown.

Your comment was about being in a competitive rebuild. To me we are better off getting a high pick then barely making the playoffs and getting 1st round out. That’s just a difference of opinion.

Indeed anything can happen once you make the playoffs but we haven’t been near consistent enough to give me any hope that we can do anything beyond show up and get knocked out. Still early but we will have to make a call on Forsberg and the other ufas to be sooner or later. Is this a team you look at and think is good enough to take on the leagues top teams? If Forsberg hasn’t been extended, do you take the risk of losing him for nothing?

as far as the Blues go, yeah we are two point behind them. They’re also just as likely to get pushed out of the bubble by Dallas and Colorado as we are. It’s currently a couple points separating bubble from bottom of the conference. It’ll open up some as time goes by and we have to face more teams in our division. We’ve done pretty decent in division so maybe we will hang in.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Your comment was about being in a competitive rebuild. To me we are better off getting a high pick then barely making the playoffs and getting 1st round out. That’s just a difference of opinion.

Indeed anything can happen once you make the playoffs but we haven’t been near consistent enough to give me any hope that we can do anything beyond show up and get knocked out. Still early but we will have to make a call on Forsberg and the other ufas to be sooner or later. Is this a team you look at and think is good enough to take on the leagues top teams? If Forsberg hasn’t been extended, do you take the risk of losing him for nothing?

as far as the Blues go, yeah we are two point behind them. They’re also just as likely to get pushed out of the bubble by Dallas and Colorado as we are. It’s currently a couple points separating bubble from bottom of the conference. It’ll open up some as time goes by and we have to face more teams in our division. We’ve done pretty decent in division so maybe we will hang in.

I think we are better off barely making the playoffs and getting 1st round out. Draft picks are highly overrated, the impact of a single player is minimal in hockey, aside from mega-stars like McDavid etc. It's a team game. Look at the Rangers. Lafreniere and Kakko are great high picks... but they aren't doing any better than Tomasino picked later, and the Rangers have turned things around... but not because of those high picks, instead because of good drafting and development and other moves up and down the roster. We don't need a high pick to continue to climb towards contention. We just need our players to keep playing and competing and developing properly, and for the franchise to continue to be perceived as a good destination for free agents, etc. Making the playoffs is a better way to accomplish that.

 

[hockey diva]

Ownership needs the revenue from a playoff appearance.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Ownership needs the revenue from a playoff appearance.

I would like to think they don't actually NEED it... but of course they will certainly WANT it very much. 2 or 3 extra home gates is real money, it has been estimated on the order of a bit under $2M per game, so that certainly helps, but it better not be an absolute NEED for any team in the middle regions of the league.

 

[Kat Predator]

I think we are better off barely making the playoffs and getting 1st round out. Draft picks are highly overrated, the impact of a single player is minimal in hockey, aside from mega-stars like McDavid etc. It's a team game. Look at the Rangers. Lafreniere and Kakko are great high picks... but they aren't doing any better than Tomasino picked later, and the Rangers have turned things around... but not because of those high picks, instead because of good drafting and development and other moves up and down the roster. We don't need a high pick to continue to climb towards contention. We just need our players to keep playing and competing and developing properly, and for the franchise to continue to be perceived as a good destination for free agents, etc. Making the playoffs is a better way to accomplish that.

Buffalo drafted Ristolainen, Reinhart, Eichel, Nylander, Mittelstadt, and Dahlin with top picks over 6 years and picked up Taylor Hall as well. Look how all those top picks turned that ship around.

Oh wait...

Well, there's always Cozens, Quinn, and Power in the newest series of top picks. They'll be winning the Cup soon for sure.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Buffalo drafted Ristolainen, Reinhart, Eichel, Nylander, Mittelstadt, and Dahlin with top picks over 6 years and picked up Taylor Hall as well. Look how all those top picks turned that ship around.

Oh wait...

Well, there's always Cozens, Quinn, and Power in the newest series of top picks. They'll be winning the Cup soon for sure.

This is a straw man. For every Buffalo or Edmonton, there is a Washington, Pittsburgh or Winnipeg.

Regardless, the Preds are better than expected this year, we should probably just be happy with that and roll with it. But this idea getting high draft picks and rebuilding = failure is wrong, misguided and frankly dangerous if you are running a sports franchise.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

This is a straw man. For every Buffalo or Edmonton, there is a Washington, Pittsburgh or Winnipeg.

Regardless, the Preds are better than expected this year, we should probably just be happy with that and roll with it. But this idea getting high draft picks and rebuilding = failure is wrong, misguided and frankly dangerous if you are running a sports franchise.

Once a franchise is established anyway, some years after expansion, then high draft picks just reward ineptitude. You should never aspire to be that inept. And if you are that inept, well... odds are high draft picks won't be enough to help overcome that ineptitude.

 

[LCPreds]

Ownership needs the revenue from a playoff appearance.

I don't know if they do or not. I do know my ticket prices didn't go down when they opted to spend well under the cap this season. But hey, at least they're selling Hot Dogs and Popcorn on the cheap to STH through December!

 

[herzausstein]

Once a franchise is established anyway, some years after expansion, then high draft picks just reward ineptitude. You should never aspire to be that inept. And if you are that inept, well... odds are high draft picks won't be enough to help overcome that ineptitude.

I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification. Buffalo, Ottawa, Edmonton, Arizona have been bad for so long due to other issues outside of drafting ineptitude. Edmonton has neglected goaltending and defense. Ottawa runs as cheap as possible. Buffalo and Arizona has been run by idiots. A well run organization can take a bad year or two and turn it into Some good seasons (Pittsburgh/Chicago) or some teams are just good at finding gold in the later rounds (Tampa).

 

[Legionnaire11]

The only difference between Washington and the Preds is exactly TWO wins in the SCF.

Pittsburgh is an unrealistic example because they didn't just suck into high picks, they sucked into the #1 pick to grab a franchise goalie (which we have that already) and won a one-off unique post lockout lottery for a generational talent. That type of player isn't projected to be available in the next few years and even if you want the Preds to get higher picks, do you really want them to be Buffalo and Arizona levels of bad?

There is so much going for us right now, lots of good prospects in the pipeline and more to come, while still being a bubble team. It's the best of both worlds but we have to be patient and let the process play out. If you're upset with how this season is going, you would lose your mind if the team tanked hard enough to draft in the top three.