Confirmed with Link: Connolly, Riley Stillman and Henrik Borgstrom plus a 7th Rd pick in exchange for Carlsson/Wallmark

[Eye of Ra]

Wallmark and the other dude are just ahl contracts at this point. Maybe Z is going for a big fish now or wouldn't surprise if this is just clearing cap for the future.

wallmark have not played in ahl for 3 seasons. his been a full time nhler with both carolina and blackhawks. did a good job in hurricanes.

 

[GrumpyKelly]

wallmark have not played in ahl for 3 seasons. his been a full time nhler with both carolina and blackhawks. did a good job in hurricanes.

They didn't re-sign him here and he was just on waivers without anyone making a claim. Maybe he'll see icetime here but probably straight to taxi.

 

[RogerRoger]

They didn't re-sign him here and he was just on waivers without anyone making a claim. Maybe he'll see icetime here but probably straight to taxi.

He might be better than Lammikko. Either way, it doesn't really move the needle.

 

[GrumpyKelly]

He might be better than Lammikko. Either way, it doesn't really move the needle.

him or Luostarinen who's struggled lately. I guess Wallmark could be take the 4C spot. But yeah, not moving the needle.

 

[scholl]

I’m the biggest Borg fan on this board and people are actually complaining about this? Lol. Zito did a great job begetting rid of Mr.3.5 useless mil. Borg had no place in this organization with Lundell. He’s a 24 year old who is starting to run out of time. We saved cap and we’re clearing our bad contracts. Zito is doing an amazing job.

Exactly, Lundell has been much better than Borgström this year and guys like Luostarinen can play as 2-way centers in bottom 6. So Niki wasn't needed and they let him go to try to make it somewhere else

 

[Prominence Problem]

I remember watching the games versus the Blackhawks this year and thinking this Walmart guy sucks. Didn't watch him a lot last year, but I watched him extra closely in those games this year. He did nothing!
I think a Chicago GDT recently I posted how little impact he's had versus the Panthers this year.

He might be better than Lammikko. Either way, it doesn't really move the needle.

Lammer has been better on the faceoffs. Especially better than Starboy.

 

[Pigge]

Wait, this Hall to Florida thing might happen? I was trying to be nice in my original post, but if this is actually happening I won't be as nice. Hall comes across as a bit of a cancer to any team he is on. Edmonton sucked with him, Arizona, he was useless, and Buffalo has been a terrible team and Hall hasn't done much to actually improve. The Cats have a strong enough core that Hall coming in to disrupt that might be more detrimental than it's worth.

Useless seems harsh when he led Arizona in P/60. I'm not sold on him, but he has a habit of being the most talented player on bad teams. I wouldn't want to lean on him to lead the team, but I'm sure he could be useful for some team playing Huberdeau's role (high-end offense, but a minus player). Especially if he could stay healthy for a bit.

 

[scholl]

Yep: Lundell and Luo made him irrelevant. I think he could have taken the step if he came back this year but he didn’t want to

He was injured and Nhl didn't start in fall. Actually he didn't play very well in the beginning of the season. Later he got better. I think because of that injury it was better for him to stay in Europe to get fit. Of course that doesn't mean that he will be successful in Chicago but at least he had one season time to get the body ready.

 

[scholl]

I say go for Hall. Best case is he comes in and is an asset that helps us in the playoffs. Worst case is he comes in and scores two goals the rest of the way and is unremarkable and we don't win the Cup, i.e. nothing really changes. Next year we get Ekblad back, Hall is a UFA and we move on.

Best case is that he creates buzz. Florida hasn't be in discussions for decades. Player like Hall are the ones that sell tickets and gets new fans for the team. You need big names in order to run a successful hockey organization.

 

[Prominence Problem]

He takes care of his one-on-one defensive assignments, keeping good gaps and not letting his man past. He joins the rush fairly often.

Lucas Carlsson
Lucas Carlsson at eliteprospects.com

 

[SoupyFIN]

wallmark have not played in ahl for 3 seasons. his been a full time nhler with both carolina and blackhawks. did a good job in hurricanes.

He got Connolly'd by Q towards the end last season, he'll be lucky to even play one game.

 

[Eye of Ra]

He got Connolly'd by Q towards the end last season, he'll be lucky to even play one game.

he is just 25 and i dont see why he would not find his hurriance-form again.

 

[Mogo]

Is it true Borgstrom is eligible for expansion draft? As in has to be protected if you dont want to expose him. If so. This deal is great

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

Connolly - top9 forward, fell out of favour here because of the new guys coming in, rather have someone else on the 4th line.

Borgstrom - mystery box, good Liiga season, but little to no development in the two years prior to that. Also potentially bridges burned with FLA management.

Stillman - depth d-man, maybe solid 3rd pairing guy if things work out. I'm not loosing sleep over this.

Carlsson and Wallmark, thrown in to make the contracts work. I doubt either plays, especially Wallmark.

A lot depends how Borgstrom turns out, but I guess this was the price to get rid of Connolly. Fair trade IMO

I wasn't impressed with Connolly even when he was scoring a bunch in a Cats jersey. You could see that he benefited a lot that other linemates were doing the heavy lifting for him when he was with the Caps and his sole purpose was to find some open space for him to shoot pucks at the net. Prime Kuznetsov and Eller are better than what the Cats have in Wenn and LuStar. And then you probably have discrepancies in coaching styles: Trotz vs. Q.

Borgy is still a talented forward but I wouldn't say that he burned bridges with the FLA mgmt since that mgmt you're talking about isn't here anymore. It's just that he provided too little, too late, and it's water under the bridge whether it was Borgy's fault or how he was handled by the Cats' mgmt and coaching staff.

Overall this is a good trade on the contingency that newly found cap space is used to bring a high end talent into this team. Otherwise this ends up looking like Zito is finessing the cap structure and appeasing to the ownership by saving a buck here 'n there.

All of the other pieces are really inconsequential considering the quantity and quality of the Cats' prospect pool.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Masterful job by your GM to dump Connolly on Hawks without giving up anything of value

Carlsson has upside to become a regular 3rd pairing defender so there is potential for him in longrun (Or he simply becomes Kraken pick in expansion draft)

 

[Ghoste]

-ghoste

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

-ghoste

Bowman also loved Alex Nylander and Malcolm Subban

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

Bowman also loved Alex Nylander and Malcolm Subban

If Borgstrom has ditched his perimeter style of play, he should be a good one for yo. If not, then...

 

[BabyBennettov]

Still don’t know what to think about this deal...

If we don’t make another significant deal, I don’t understand how we couldn’t wait the off-season to dump Connolly...

If we make another deal, I think I won’t like the return and I won’t like what we give up.

Not a fan of Stillman, but giving him AND Borgstrom to dump Brett ? Ridiculous IMO.

Don’t know about Carlsson though, maybe Zito view him as much better than Stillman ?

Still, not sure about that one... I was one of the big Borgstrom believers !

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

Still don’t know what to think about this deal...

If we don’t make another significant deal, I don’t understand how we couldn’t wait the off-season to dump Connolly...

If we make another deal, I think I won’t like the return and I won’t like what we give up.

Not a fan of Stillman, but giving him AND Borgstrom to dump Brett ? Ridiculous IMO.

Don’t know about Carlsson though, maybe Zito view him as much better than Stillman ?

Still, not sure about that one... I was one of the big Borgstrom believers !

You could look it as Zito being able to unload $7mil from the books without giving up on any guaranteed roster players and/or a 1st round pick. From Zito's point of view it's a good deal if he think he can put that extra cap space into work, and from Bowman's point of view he thinks he can add more future pieces with Borgstrom for the time when their next wave of top players are in their prime.

 

[violaswallet]

You could look it as Zito being able to unload $7mil from the books without giving up on any guaranteed roster players and/or a 1st round pick. From Zito's point of view it's a good deal if he think he can put that extra cap space into work, and from Bowman's point of view he thinks he can add more future pieces with Borgstrom for the time when their next wave of top players are in their prime.

EVEN ZITO RECOGNIZES LUNDELL'S GREATNESS BTW, APOSTATE!

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

EVEN ZITO RECOGNIZES LUNDELL'S GREATNESS BTW, APOSTATE!

btw Eichel gonna look great in a Cats jeysey.

 

[violaswallet]

btw Eichel gonna look great in a Cats jeysey.

10 M is a bit rich for third liner behind Lundell and Barkov, but I guess you're one of those center guys/girls?

 

[BabyBennettov]

You could look it as Zito being able to unload $7mil from the books without giving up on any guaranteed roster players and/or a 1st round pick. From Zito's point of view it's a good deal if he think he can put that extra cap space into work, and from Bowman's point of view he thinks he can add more future pieces with Borgstrom for the time when their next wave of top players are in their prime.

Yeah... I know...

I just don’t get why he HAD TO do it now...

Don’t think I’ll be pleased by the answer in the next couple of days...

 

[Chaos2k7]

We need to make noise in the post season