Around The NHL Discussion 2018-2019

[TK 421]

I truly couldn’t care less what the National folks think about the Blues offseason. Everyone who’s actually familiar with the team are all very pleased with the changes. I think that says it all. The only thing I’m only mildly cautious about is the Maroon signing and that’s less about the actual signing itself but any potential extension. But until that actually happens, Army gets an A+ in my book.

The analysts opinions that are actually worth a **** all have the Blues as vastly improved.

I see Maroon as insurance in case Fabbri takes a while to get back up to speed.

 

[Dbrownss]

The analysts opinions that are actually worth a **** all have the Blues as vastly improved.

I see Maroon as insurance in case Fabbri takes a while to get back up to speed.

Right, this really is an outlier from someone who is usually high on Stl.

 

[TK 421]

If anyone suggests the Blues are anything other than vastly improved I can only give them a massive eye roll while reaching for my phone to text them a Google maps link directing them to the nearest bridge. It's ridiculous to suggest anything other than what should be apparent to anyone who follows the league. The Blues are about to upgrade on HALF their forward group. We'll see how it all shakes out, but no team can claim to have added that much in one off season.

 

[The Note]

If anyone suggests the Blues are anything other than vastly improved I can only give them a massive eye roll while reaching for my phone to text them a Google maps link directing them to the nearest bridge. It's ridiculous to suggest anything other than what should be apparent to anyone who follows the league. The Blues are about to upgrade on HALF their forward group. We'll see how it all shakes out, but no team can claim to have added that much in one off season.

Yeah it remains to be seen how it all shakes out but it should result in a better on-ice product. The team added two top-6 forwards (on of whom is among the best two-way centers in the league) a middle 6 C and a high end bottom 6 winger who can play up when needed. And the most valuable things the Blues gave up were cap space and a first, which they may be able to recoup.

 

[PiggySmalls]

Marty new Devil's VP of business development.

 

[tfriede2]

Marty new Devil's VP of business development.

Good for Brodeur. I think JR reported that Brodeur would be staying in St. Louis this year while he works for the Devils? That's kind of interesting, but I think it's because of his 9 year old kid.

 

[Ranksu]

Sergei Shumakov signed with Caps. Any notes on him?

 

[bluesfanforlife1992]

The power play on NHL network had the Blues season preview today. Yeo was on, nothing too crazy, sounds excited to have his new toys.

My god though......Boomer's take on he Blues offseason is mind numbing. Literally questioned every move and said they probably won't be better then they were last year. Yet the Avalanche are fine and dandy...even though their surge was due to MacKinnon scoring 30%+ more points....but sure, that's repeatable.

Yeah, he interviewed Andy Strickland on the radio one day and I listened to it. He just sounded like a salty clown. Just couldn't wrap his head around anything Andy was saying about why the moves made sense. He didn't make any good counter arguments either.

I mean if somebody legitimately thinks the Blues gave up too much for O'Reilly, then they simply haven't paid any attention to the Blues whatsoever. It's hilarious seeing them say "oh my god you gave up 5 assets!" Yeah, one of those "assets" is a 2nd round pick in 2021, literally 3 years away. Let's stop acting like that has any value. Let's also stop acting like Vladimir Sobotka who was in the KHL for 3 years is an asset. And if you can't realize that Berglund's 4-years left on his contract was a pure cap dump...I don't know how to help you.

The Blues gave up a 1st and Tage Thompson for a top center. A late 1st and an expendable prospect if you want to go even farther. I just get a kick out of anyone suggesting that deal is hurting us.

I wish I could provide a link to him of our trade proposals thread before the deal ever happened. Sobotka, Berglund and Thompson was literally what this forum was praying for. The fact that we didn't give up ANY of our top 7 assets (Thomas, Kyrou, Kostin, Dunn, Parayko, Edmundson, Fabbri) is almost a miracle.

This is the best part of all of this. We moved two steps forward by moving one step back in a way. I don’t see why this isn’t comprehended by some of the National media.

He doesnt think much of Oreilly I guess. I wasnt thrilled for him but that was when Buffalo fans were swooning over the idea of getting Thomas, Kyrou or Parayko. I actually suggested Thompson+Berglund+1st. I couldn't care less that Sobokta and the 2nd were added.

He makes such a big deal out of trading 1sts. He's not wrong but the Blues are a different beast. Sure it would be nice to have Frost+Farabee+whoever in 19.....but I'd rather have Schenn and Orielly who are under 30...who can augment the current core. That's better use of assets then sitting on some kids that may be 2-3yrs away from making an impact and the core is now in their 30s. He didnt even acknowledge the top farm team the Blues have....even of we disregard Pronmann, I've seen 1 or 2 others that have the Blues as a top 10 system.

The only point I agreed on was cap managment but I think DA is done with bringing in guys. Gunnarsson and Boumeester will be off soon and Steen will be the only remaining bad contract. He needs to keep money available for guys getting a raise.


One last thing....he emphasized on the Blues getting nothing from their 3rd line, which was true. Then he kept complaining about Bozak and what role he'll play, Um...3c???????? Itll he nice to have a guy who can be relied on for 40+pts as the 3c. Blues can flank him with guys like Steen and Fabbri. Yes he's overpaid but he's on a short term.

Boomer is traditionally really positive when discussing the Blues. This summer he took a turn. I really think a lot of that is a pre-disposition he has for Bozak and ROR. I’m glad Jake Hahn wasn’t his co-host yesterday. I can’t stand him, such a yes man. At least Tyler Maderaz can see the light.

They were talking about Blues again last night after I got off work.

Boomer's take is ridiculous on the Blues. He basically said we gave too much for O'Reilly and trading those all important draft picks. The issue I have with that comment is this. Look at our team and the ages of current players along with some of our top prospects. ( I just picked a few players to get my point across)

Tarasenko 26 signed for 5 more years.
O'Reilly 27 signed for 5 more years.
Schwartz 26 signed for 3 more years.
Schenn 27 signed for 2 more years.
Fabbri 23 4 more of team control as RFA (If we chose to sign him & if I figured it right)
Barbashev 22 several years of team control
Thomas 19
Kyrou 20
Kostin 19
Bokk 18

But you get the point that is a very solid group to build a team around. I would have a lot more issues with trading away draft picks if we didn't have a very high end group of prospects or our core group wasn't great. If we only had say Thomas as top tier prospect, then yes I would understand more frustration with trading away picks. At some point, you have to either decide what prospect to keep and which one to get rid of, and we had 4 higher end prospects (well 5 once we drafted Bokk, but then traded Thompson afterwards). With the team drafting Bokk, it made Thompson more expendable. In reality that trade for O'Reilly costed us a lot, but the trade DIDN'T HURT OUR TEAM AT ALL. Still have top prospects and young players.

Again I don't see a huge deal of trading a 1st. We have had 4 1st picks in the last 3 years while making the playoffs, 3 of the 4 years. If we had traded all but 1 1st round pick away, then I could understand the complaining, but trading 1st round pick in 2019 when the last time you didn't pick in 1st round was 2015 is perfectly fine. You don't need to logjam your system with too many prospects like we had before we traded Thompson away.

Boomer had us in his ranking at 18 which is WAY TOO LOW for this team. I don't get why he doesn't like the team. O'Reilly & Bozak are going to be huge help on team. O'Reilly is one of the best in face-offs and Bozak isn't that bad (last 4 years 53,56,56,53). That is a huge boost, plus we have gotten a little help with getting some right hand players on the team with Perron, Bozak, & Thomas (should make the team). That should help out a little bit more on the PP and last minutes of game to have multiple players who are good at face-offs. This team has so much more depth this year than last.

Tyler Maderaz at least had good point with his ranking on us. He had us at 12th to start season (fair enough to me) because he was worried about Allen. Very reasonable for someone in national media. If Allen performs, he will move us up and he was making good points about our teams while Boomer just said how our 1st was more valuable than our trade and everything else.

 

[The Note in MI]

I don’t know who boomer is but he sounds like a dumbass. Glad I don’t have to listen to his drivel.

 

[TK 421]

"Too much" is hilarious because it suggests the Blues prospect pool was light on quality players and thus couldn't afford to lose those futures when in reality the pool is deep with quality players and could easily afford to part with they did.

That viewpoint operates on the premise that the Blues are like the average team and only have 1 or 2 quality prospects at any given time and giving one up is a "big deal". Sure maybe if the Blues were like other teams but they're not with their plethora of quality players and prospects so why are we treating them like that again? Oh yeah.. some guy doesn't know what the **** he's talking about so mystery solved.

 

[CoMoBlues]

"Too much" is hilarious because it suggests the Blues prospect pool was light on quality players and thus couldn't afford to lose those futures when in reality the pool is deep with quality players and could easily afford to part with they did

I couldn’t agree more. Pronman just gave the Blues a top 5 farm system ranking, so this dude’s opinion looks more like an outlier than the standard opinion which has the Blues as a contender this year. Not to mention we got rid of 2 redundant players off next seasons roster. So. I’ll take giving up the first rounder, a B level prospect, plus a second pick 2 years from now for O’ Reilly, and be quite happy with it.

 

[The Note]

The only piece I was really sad to see go in the ROR trade was the first but that’s the cost of doing business. Berglund/Sobotka were redundant and overpaid, the second is whatever, and I don’t think Thompson will be much of anything. It was a great trade when it happened and it’s a great trade today.

 

[542365]

Any negative reaction to the ROR trade are simply people who don’t know the Blues well. I don’t think I’ve seen a die hard Blues fan that has anything negative to say about it. That’s a pretty good measuring stick as we generally have a better feel for the team than most national reporters. In a vacuum it looks like we gave up a lot: 2 roster players, good prospect, 1st, 2nd. In reality the Sabres did us a favor taking Soby and Berglund. They cleared a log jam of third liners and are paying their entire salary. That alone is valuable to us. They’re not pure cap dumps as they’re still NHL caliber players, but they’re players we needed to move to clear some roster space for younger, more talented players. After that we gave 1st, 2nd and a prospect for a great center. Not a steep price considering our farm system.

 

[Spektre]

Berglund eager to mentor Dahlin with Sabres


Well, Dahlin's career is over before it began.

 

[Dbrownss]

They were talking about Blues again last night after I got off work.

Boomer's take is ridiculous on the Blues. He basically said we gave too much for O'Reilly and trading those all important draft picks. The issue I have with that comment is this. Look at our team and the ages of current players along with some of our top prospects. ( I just picked a few players to get my point across)

Tarasenko 26 signed for 5 more years.
O'Reilly 27 signed for 5 more years.
Schwartz 26 signed for 3 more years.
Schenn 27 signed for 2 more years.
Fabbri 23 4 more of team control as RFA (If we chose to sign him & if I figured it right)
Barbashev 22 several years of team control
Thomas 19
Kyrou 20
Kostin 19
Bokk 18

But you get the point that is a very solid group to build a team around. I would have a lot more issues with trading away draft picks if we didn't have a very high end group of prospects or our core group wasn't great. If we only had say Thomas as top tier prospect, then yes I would understand more frustration with trading away picks. At some point, you have to either decide what prospect to keep and which one to get rid of, and we had 4 higher end prospects (well 5 once we drafted Bokk, but then traded Thompson afterwards). With the team drafting Bokk, it made Thompson more expendable. In reality that trade for O'Reilly costed us a lot, but the trade DIDN'T HURT OUR TEAM AT ALL. Still have top prospects and young players.

Again I don't see a huge deal of trading a 1st. We have had 4 1st picks in the last 3 years while making the playoffs, 3 of the 4 years. If we had traded all but 1 1st round pick away, then I could understand the complaining, but trading 1st round pick in 2019 when the last time you didn't pick in 1st round was 2015 is perfectly fine. You don't need to logjam your system with too many prospects like we had before we traded Thompson away.

Boomer had us in his ranking at 18 which is WAY TOO LOW for this team. I don't get why he doesn't like the team. O'Reilly & Bozak are going to be huge help on team. O'Reilly is one of the best in face-offs and Bozak isn't that bad (last 4 years 53,56,56,53). That is a huge boost, plus we have gotten a little help with getting some right hand players on the team with Perron, Bozak, & Thomas (should make the team). That should help out a little bit more on the PP and last minutes of game to have multiple players who are good at face-offs. This team has so much more depth this year than last.

Tyler Maderaz at least had good point with his ranking on us. He had us at 12th to start season (fair enough to me) because he was worried about Allen. Very reasonable for someone in national media. If Allen performs, he will move us up and he was making good points about our teams while Boomer just said how our 1st was more valuable than our trade and everything else.

Boomer is just flat out wrong. I'd call in if my job wasnt too loud to be on the phone. He's not active in social media either. There is a simple question to ask Him, what's more helpful to stl.

A handful of prospects that may not help for 3+yrs.

Or

Brayden Schenn and Orielly, a couple guys capable of 60+pts RIGHT NOW.

What augments the current team? This current core is the cup window, not the prospects+a few other picks.

Stl is in a unique position to trade 1sts without hurting the system

 

[Mike Liut]

Acquiring the 1sts for Stastny, Shatty and Reaves easily made up for trading the 1sts for Schenn and ROR

 

[Mike Liut]

Who gives a rats arse what people think. The game is played on the ice, not on peoples opinions. The Blues have a history of being a failure. Until we win something, nothing will change. This current team has all the pieces to do something special. It’s time to prove the skeptics wrong. Hell, this team is set up to be great for quite a few years, which will help in re-signing Petro and Schenn too. They’ll want to be a part of this team after it steam rolls this year

 

[Dbrownss]

Who gives a rats arse what people think. The game is played on the ice, not on peoples opinions. The Blues have a history of being a failure. Until we win something, nothing will change. This current team has all the pieces to do something special. It’s time to prove the skeptics wrong. Hell, this team is set up to be great for quite a few years, which will help in re-signing Petro and Schenn too. They’ll want to be a part of this team after it steam rolls this year

It's odd, Boomer is usually a fan of the Blues. He just has some fascination with no trading 1sts, no matter what. Which is odd given the Stanley cup winners are done just that.

On top of all that he way overrates San Jose and Colorado. People just dismiss the massive jump in production MacKinnon had. Guess it's more easy for him to repeat that 30% increase the it is for Stl to win a few more games. Which is insane when you look at players that left vs the ones coming in

ROR > Stastny
Perron > Berglund
Bozak > Sobokta
Maroon > whoever he displaces
Thomas > whoever he displaces
Johnson < Hutton

 

[BlueDream]

I'm reading the main board thread where everybody is posting their team's projected lines. Buffalo fans don't even have Thompson on the roster. They have a lot of wingers so it's unlikely he'd start anywhere above the 4th line even if he made it.

Haha. Hope you don't get pigeon-holed again, Tage.

His comments after the trade made it sound like he was going to get guaranteed playing time in Buffalo. Hope he learns something from this.

 

[Beauterham]

I'm reading the main board thread where everybody is posting their team's projected lines. Buffalo fans don't even have Thompson on the roster. They have a lot of wingers so it's unlikely he'd start anywhere above the 4th line even if he made it.

Haha. Hope you don't get pigeon-holed again, Tage.

His comments after the trade made it sound like he was going to get guaranteed playing time in Buffalo. Hope he learns something from this.

A lot of Buffalo fans weren't happy with the O'Reilly trade and I think this reflects on how they see Tage. They probably expected Thomas or Kyrou and only got Tage.
I think he will start out in Rochester, which isn't necesarily a bad thing; I think his development will probably benefit more from playing full time in the AHL than on a sheltered 3rd line role next to Berglund and Sobotka. Untill he is able to actually claim a spot on either Eichel or Mittlestadt's wing, that is...

 

[BlueDream]

A lot of Buffalo fans weren't happy with the O'Reilly trade and I think this reflects on how they see Tage. They probably expected Thomas or Kyrou and only got Tage.
I think he will start out in Rochester, which isn't necesarily a bad thing; I think his development will probably benefit more from playing full time in the AHL than on a sheltered 3rd line role next to Berglund and Sobotka. Untill he is able to actually claim a spot on either Eichel or Mittlestadt's wing, that is...

I agree, that's probably for the best.

I don't think Tage is a bad guy, I think his comments just showed his youth more than anything else.

Just found it kind of amusing how he talked about finding a spot in Buffalo's top 6 after the trade. You've scored 3 NHL goals, slow your roll a little bit kid.

 

[Dbrownss]

I agree, that's probably for the best.

I don't think Tage is a bad guy, I think his comments just showed his youth more than anything else.

Just found it kind of amusing how he talked about finding a spot in Buffalo's top 6 after the trade. You've scored 3 NHL goals, slow your roll a little bit kid.

Did you listen to the audio of what he said? The quote really made him sound more jaded then he was. I took offense to it but it was played on NHL radio, and it wasnt nearly has whiney sounding oddly enough

 

[The Note]

Jets extend Wheeler 5 years for 8.25 AAV. Fine deal now as Wheeler is a very good player but it could hurt the last 2 years or so.

 

[Em etah Eh]

Boomer is just flat out wrong. I'd call in if my job wasnt too loud to be on the phone. He's not active in social media either. There is a simple question to ask Him, what's more helpful to stl.

A handful of prospects that may not help for 3+yrs.

Or

Brayden Schenn and Orielly, a couple guys capable of 60+pts RIGHT NOW.

What augments the current team? This current core is the cup window, not the prospects+a few other picks.

Stl is in a unique position to trade 1sts without hurting the system

I generally like listening to their show on my ride home but when they did the rankings I was like "Really?". I was trying to remember where he had DAL, and I could be mixing them up with somebody else. MIN stands out as a WTF if I'm remembering their ranking correctly.

CHI 20th
STL 18th
COL 14th
MIN 11th
WIN&NSH both in top 5

Do you remember the central rankings?

 

[BlueDream]

Did you listen to the audio of what he said? The quote really made him sound more jaded then he was. I took offense to it but it was played on NHL radio, and it wasnt nearly has whiney sounding oddly enough

Admittedly, I did not. But I'm not surprised, that's what I figured. Like I said, he didn't seem like a guy with a bad attitude or anything so I assumed his quote was just a young guy trying to find the right way to answer a question. So that's good to hear.