Rumor: AVS Proposals/Rumors/Free Agents & Roster Moves (related topics)

[RockLobster]

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[cgf]

I don't quite know how they are going to construct this D group going forward but I think it's more realistic to assume someone is going to remain in the role they've been in the entire season vs. someone else doing it. They probably do intend on keeping Holden on the bottom pair but that depends on how Beauch holds up, how both the kids develop and other things like Barrie's contract, EJ staying healthy. Plus that's bottom pair and not straight off the lineup. I just have a hard time seeing through their eyes 6 guys on the roster that are better AND they trust more than the guy who they trust more than EJ to handle critical defensive situations right now. If that happens and our D is that great then wonderful but I don't foresee that in the next 2 years anyway. Hell, I can see Holden with EJ when/if Beauch breaks down until they are ready to put Zadorov or Bigras up there.

The D will certainly be very interesting with questions about Holden being capable of holding up in a mid-pairing role, about when Beauchemin's play will fall off, and about when Zadorov is going to be ready to play in the NHL full time/in the top 4 full time. Thankfully I have no questions about Bigras; he's ready to play 17-18 minutes a night, and by the time we'd yank Beauch or Holden from the top 4 he'll be ready for that responsibility as well; but not everyone will share that confidence in him.

Until we have clearer ideas of what the answers to those will be, it's very hard to predict how our D will shape up. i.e. if Beauch falls off a cliff to finish this season but Holden holds up, or vice versa, then we'd be looking at Bigras playing with Tyson or EJ at some point next season, while the faller had to fight for PT on the third pairing with Zadorov. If Beauch Hejda's this year and Holden turns back into a pumpkin; then things get really iffy, cause even though I think both Zads and Bigras will be ready to play top 4 minutes at some point next season, having to start the season like that could be very rough...which is part of why I want to maximize Bigras' development this season with a partner that lets him get those ~17minutes every game.

I dont know much about Gryba. I just remember him from laying out Eller that one year. What makes him a better fit or not over Polak?

What hench said; nothing really, but I'm fine with Polak for that role to...as long as we give up a midround pick, at most, + a surplus prospect. For which role Redmond/Hishon seem like they could be fits that Toronto would have interest in if it's Polak; whereas if we're going after Gryba, then I'd imagine the Oilers would have more interest in Siemens/Gormley or maybe one of the euro-forwards?

I'd even say that is a substantial if.

Yep... just enough to help the team in the short-term, without handing out every pick.

Really about the same. Gryba might be a touch better small space skater and is bigger. Polak is meaner. Both are ideally 5/6D.

And Hench; I can certainly see them scratching Iggy before next season ends. But I have a very hard time seeing them not giving him a shot at bouncing back on the third line, and then giving him his current role for a long time before finally letting him eat nachoes more games than not. Sometime around mid-to-late January, maybe early February, is the first time I expect to see Iggy scratched if he's around next season and doesn't look rejuvenated.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Gryba would be an ok addition as well I think. I like Polak a bit more though. I think Polak is a faster skater. Neither will be winning any speed competitions but I think Polak has a faster first step. I also think Polak has a little more offensive ability. Again its not significant, but I watched a Leafs game this week(Cant remember which one) and I remember seeing Polak make a few nice breakout passes to his wingers that surprised me a bit. He can move the puck out decently well from his own zone and doesn't usually panic with it.



I dont know as much about Gryba, I dont watch the Oilers much at all. But I have watched a few games since McDavid came back. Gryba strikes me as one of those guys who's solid Defensively, but a complete black hole offensively. His goal the other night was his first goal in over 130 games or something, almost 2 years. He is a couple of years younger though, but along with that he's also now exactly the "veteran presence" that I feel would be the point of bringing in a 3rd Pairing Dman to begin with.



Both are decent #5/6's though, way better than Dumb and Dumber.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

This is a bit off topic, but its amazing that when we traded for Varlamov he was only 23 years old.


We got an absolute steal of a deal for him, only giving up a 1st and round pick for a Top tier #1G. Even when we traded for him he was in pretty high regard after a few solid performances in the playoffs and post season. I cant believe Washington gave up on him because of a couple freak injuries.


I stumbled upon this because I happened to notice that Schneider is turning 30 in a month or so which I found to be crazy as well. For some reason I though he was 2-3 years younger then Varly. Just goes to show how good of a trade that worked out to be for us.


We got a #1G for 10-12 years for a couple of draft picks.

 

[Hans Landaskog]

This is a bit off topic, but its amazing that when we traded for Varlamov he was only 23 years old.


We got an absolute steal of a deal for him, only giving up a 1st and round pick for a Top tier #1G. Even when we traded for him he was in pretty high regard after a few solid performances in the playoffs and post season. I cant believe Washington gave up on him because of a couple freak injuries.


I stumbled upon this because I happened to notice that Schneider is turning 30 in a month or so which I found to be crazy as well. For some reason I though he was 2-3 years younger then Varly. Just goes to show how good of a trade that worked out to be for us.


We got a #1G for 10-12 years for a couple of draft picks.

Caps could afford to move him because of that Holtby guy. They really messed up with getting rid of Forsberg though...

 

[JoemAvs]

This is a bit off topic, but its amazing that when we traded for Varlamov he was only 23 years old.


We got an absolute steal of a deal for him, only giving up a 1st and round pick for a Top tier #1G. Even when we traded for him he was in pretty high regard after a few solid performances in the playoffs and post season. I cant believe Washington gave up on him because of a couple freak injuries.


I stumbled upon this because I happened to notice that Schneider is turning 30 in a month or so which I found to be crazy as well. For some reason I though he was 2-3 years younger then Varly. Just goes to show how good of a trade that worked out to be for us.


We got a #1G for 10-12 years for a couple of draft picks.

And we overpaid for him. Avs just picked at #2 and traded their unprotected 1st in 2012 for him. Aside from the Avs everyone thought that it was a good bet to be a top5 pick in 2012 that we are giving up (ironically that pick turned out to be Filip Forsberg at #11 who is a top5 player in that draft). That would be like Arizona trading their 1st before this season. That was a crazy gamble.

Varly also was a sure bet to go to the KHL if we hadn't swooped in. They had Neuvirth (who looked good back then), Holtby and Varlamov.

Varly wanted to be the unanimous starter and the caps did not want to promise him that with those other guys in line and his groin problems.

So yeah it turned out marvelous for the Avs. But a lot of things went right that we absolutely could not predict. It might look like a steal in hindsight but it really was not at that time.

In a way the Avs maybe saved his life,too. SKA and Lokomotiv Yarsolavl battled for his rights and we all know what happened two months later . Ruslan Salei, Karlis Skrastins, Pavol Demitra and all those others.....

RIP...

 

[Balthazar]

We got an absolute steal of a deal for him, only giving up a 1st and round pick for a Top tier #1G. Even when we traded for him he was in pretty high regard after a few solid performances in the playoffs and post season. I cant believe Washington gave up on him because of a couple freak injuries.

They didn't. They had to make room for Holtby who was already putting up better numbers when they traded Varlamov.

They had Neuvirth (who looked good back then), Holtby and Varlamov.

Their guy was Holtby (who just had a .934 sv% season as a rookie). He's the reason why they traded Varly.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

The Caps are more than happy with Holtby now anyway. Caps fans have even mostly gotten over losing Varly too. There's still Forsberg though, poor sods. That's the kind of trade that justifies finding another team to cheer for.

 

[AvsGuy]

The Caps are more than happy with Holtby now anyway. Caps fans have even mostly gotten over losing Varly too. There's still Forsberg though, poor sods. That's the kind of trade that justifies finding another team to cheer for.

Mmmm no. It was a bad trade, but Forsberg isn't that caliber of player. You're thinking of the Seguin trade.

 

[CobraAcesS]

Mmmm no. It was a bad trade, but Forsberg isn't that caliber of player. You're thinking of the Seguin trade.

How they deconstructed their defense, and traded Seguin in such a short time span is sad. For every good move they make like letting Iginla and Horton go, they come right over the top with a trade that makes you wonder what the hell they're thinking.

 

[AvsGuy]

How they deconstructed their defense, and traded Seguin in such a short time span is sad. For every good move they make like letting Iginla and Horton go, they come right over the top with a trade that makes you wonder what the hell they're thinking.

Yeah, I was wondering what Boston was up to ripping everything apart, and yet they're 4 points up on us in 3 less games, so go figure.

 

[Balthazar]

 

[tigervixxxen]

Do we really need to do this?

 

[Cousin Eddie]

From December-on I believe that to be true.

 

[ArWKo]

We definitely don't need to rehash O'Reilly AGAIN, but I did find the Briere quote interesting nonetheless.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Gee a tweet from Buffalo radio, might be missing a touch of context.

 

[Balthazar]

Gee a tweet from Buffalo radio, might be missing a touch of context.

They asked Briere about ROR and McGinn on a radio interview.

 

[tigervixxxen]

I think I could have figured that out, that's not what I mean about context.

 

[ArWKo]

Regardless of the source, Briere is a guy whose opinion I respect a lot so interesting to hear from him. Obviously there's a boat load of nuance that will never get touched on in a radio interview regardless of where it's happening.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Regardless of the source, Briere is a guy whose opinion I respect a lot so interesting to hear from him. Obviously there's a boat load of nuance that will never get touched on in a radio interview regardless of where it's happening.

We didn't "hear" anything, we read a tweet. This is the exact same thing that happens when Roy gets tweeted but nobody actually listens to the interview.

 

[Pokecheque]

Polak is a terrible D-man. He's good for a few hits but overall his game is about as good as Guenin's. Gryba wouldn't be a terrible pickup, but right now the Avs need to jettison d-men...they've got too many stopgap blueliners as is.

 

[Tweaky]

Yeah, I was wondering what Boston was up to ripping everything apart, and yet they're 4 points up on us in 3 less games, so go figure.

Comparing them to us is irrelevant. They are on pace for the same finish as last year...96pts. But this year, that projects to a top wildcard, when last year it was 2 points on the playing golf side of the cutoff. So they are at least as good as they were last year, and maybe slightly better given the fewer tanks in the league so far this year (lowest projected finish atm is 70 points...EDM).

They made a ton of moves, that totaled up to pretty much lateral movement. Maybe better down the line as those picks develop, but I dunno. Imagine if they had only done the good moves.

We, on the other hand, are on pace for 85 points, 5 worse than last year, and 3 out of the playoffs. We are ever so slightly better than last year (3 points out vice 9), or worse if you want to call it strictly based on point total. In line for the 11th pick for now.

 

[AvsRobin]

Call me crazy. But he would have helped our 3rd pair more than Bodnarchuk.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Call me crazy. But he would have helped our 3rd pair more than Bodnarchuk.

Yes he would. But so would Gormley and Zadorov. Ehrhoff has been terribad this year not enough of an upgrade on Redmond/Bodnarchuk.

 

[henchman21]

Ehrhoff is really, really bad this year... he isn't an upgrade on anybody. Teams were right to not go after him... he is done.