Taking a little break from what I'm doing, going to throw some comments out there if I may...don't be offended, it's not personal, I'm just scrolling through the roster thread and posting thoughts in the order I see them and think of them as time permits...I will note, it will mostly be negative, because the positives are more obvious and known by the team builders...
Chicago: You really have to wonder about this team's bottom six and their ability to give relief to their big time guys. (Can it be spun as a positive that the first negative I found was with the depth lines? Maybe.) Bolland can kill penalties with acumen, but the rest of that group is a veritable toss-up. They have a strong right-side to augment - or off-set - an otherwise horribly weak left side. Frolik and Stalberg can be interchangeable in a pinch, but it's just re-arranging flowers at a funeral. The expectation to have Steve Montador playing major minutes on a contender is troubling, then you find out he's paired with an extremely expensive Johnny Oduya and it makes things a lot worse. Nick Leddy will grow but is Sheldon Brookbank an adequate enough babysitter to allow him to fully take advantage of those sheltered minutes? I like that the goaltending was improved with the addition of Jonathan Bernier because Corey Crawford is not a good goalie. Keeping three goaltenders on an NHL roster went out with Cooperalls though...Emery is a fringe NHLer at best and should have been waived or Crawford should have been moved to the highest (err, only) bidder.
Los Angeles: The Kings sacrificed a #1 center, which is always a cause for concern. They seem to have four #2 centers though, I'm not sure how much I like that, especially when two of them are as enigmatic as Jeff Carter and Nikolai Antropov. Carter's talents are better used on the wing to be honest and Antropov is a better pivot. But that's immaterial. Overall, I enjoy the team's forward depth a lot. But honestly, it might have been better to pair it up and sell it off for one elite player in that group. Easier said than done though. I really wonder about Hartnell's and Brown's ability to be big time scorers without an elite playmaking center at their disposal. I think that will really hurt the team's scoring ability on their top line. The defense is outstanding and has a good blend of size, speed, skating (Bouwmeester and Russell, two former Medicine Hat Tigers are two of the best skaters in the league in terms of fluidity), puck movement and youth. Keeping Quick is great, Gustavsson should be a good enough backup now that he doesn't have to be a butterfly goalie behind that defense. I wouldn't guess that team would give up even 180 goals this year. I'm not sure they can get far past 200 goals for though even though the depth would say otherwise. When they're in a tough spot, who is the gamebreaker?
Vancouver: I like this team's depth and it fits well to their role. I'm not sure that Artem Anisimov is much of a traditional third line center, but I think this is a team that could benefit from a first line, a 2A line and a 2B line and the players wouldn't look out of place. And then that energy fourth line is good and fits the team very well. So well. I'm not sure about Leino getting paid more than his buyout value (by like $2 million!) that's a poor move. Too many natural centers to keep players in natural positions is going to under-utilize some of the expensive talent acquired, which is bred from poor planning and execution. The defense is deep and rich and plentiful. It's a defense that will not get pushed around by big Western Conference foes not one iota but still have the ability to generate transition and offense. It's rather brilliant. The goaltending is good enough, it's not like Luongo is bad. It's a curious choice in the end, but there's nothing obscenely wrong with it. Getting Anisimov for Malhotra was highway robbery.
Islanders: I'm mentally adjusting for what this GM had to work with from the start and I'm still not very impressed. Breaking up a sure 30-goal combo of Matt Moulson and John Tavares was an unneeded move and just when I thought, "well, at least Okposo showed chemistry with Tavares at times last year when that loser Parenteau wasn't with him" I find that Okposo was plundered in the same deal. There's a lot of kids being thrown into the fire at once and there's no backup plan in place in case it doesn't work. There's a reason why there are some veterans brought in by rebuilding teams - it's so they don't kill their own prospects by force-feeding them. It's young, it's hopeful, it's borderline audacious. It's hard to believe Brad Boyes couldn't crack this lineup. It's so easy on the wallet that I have a hard time believing this club reached the Lower Limit (cap floor). Furthering this is the vastly incorrect salary of Jonathan Blum (I would know), he was signed to Nashville for one year, $2.2 million but far exceeds that on the page. Which further leads me to believe that this 26-man (illegal) roster is any where near cap compliance (illegal). I don't mind that defense, it's young and it has a lot of upside. Roman Josi is a stud and soon everyone will know it, thank God Hamonic wasn't moved...I wish there was some sort of veteran presence to show these kids the ropes but out of the astonishing 9 d-men on the active roster, do any of them even have 200 NHL games under their belt? I'd be surprised if one of them did. They certainly don't have the goaltending the bail them out. It's going to be a bumpy ride and it might end up costing them a couple of decent goalie prospects just on pure shellshocking alone. I haven't seen all the teams yet, but I would expect this to be a lottery team. And hopefully there's a future here if the kids aren't ruined by the 22-win season forthcoming. It's clearly a rebuild job, but it's not fair to the team, the players and the fans to ice a near-AHL caliber roster. The 2004 Penguins basically tried this and we were so bad the league shutdown...I'll say this, if there's a lockout (I don't think there will be, but if) this team would be a whole lot better...a whole lot.
Boston: It was kind of a roller coaster ride reading this roster. I was impresed at times, depressed at others and utterly confused at still others. The top line is well assembled. It's skill, it's grit, it's mean, it scores, it hates you, it's responsible. The second line has a potentially really weak link on it in Wolski who is a shell of his former self. If he can get it together, you got something, but that's a big if. Then Eric Tangradi doesn't provide all that much depth and whoever got him that ridiculous contract is an absolute genius
naughty
. The fourth line is truculent and hard working. I worry about the Bruins size down the middle. Faceoffs, their forecheck, their backcheck, it's a lot of wear and tear on some relatively thin guys. Oshie and Horton have played some center in their careers as I recall, but it's hard to twist that lineup around and still be ok. It's solid group but I don't think it could handle the defensive structure that the Bruins are known for under Julien, not enough hockey smarts for my liking and I'm not sure that the team is much faster...in fact, I'm rather sure it's slower. The Phaneuf trade was terrific and that gives the Bruins two #1 d-men. Then they have two #3's. Which is really good. I don't like Matt Carle, but with a good partner, it could work itself out. The main issue I have is that the top two pairings may have to play 48 or 50 minutes per night, which will add up. Colin White is a fringe NHLer at this point and Mike Weaver is a steady eddy but if he has to step into the lineup due to injury and play major minutes, there might be some issues. There's three #6's by my count. It'd be nice if there was one more halfway decent anchor in the #5 hole just in case. I like Krug's upside, but like Weaver, he is demonstrably smaller than other NHLers of his ilk. It's hard to fathom getting robbed so badly when you acquire a former Hart Trophy winner and a starting goalie, but Boston found a way. Plundering such wonderful youth in Brad Marchand, Dougie Hamilton (there's your #5 right there, with potential to be a #1), Jared Knight and for crying out loud, Tuukka Rask...not to mention, Ryan Spooner, a 1st and a good prospect in Filip Forsberg. The Ducks traded an average or above average starter and a top line winger for a solid chunk of a contending team in a few years...what a great trade for Anaheim even if my reservations about Forsberg are accurate. That deal smacks of unneeded desperation. I'll assume Langenbrunner (acquired) for Dubinsky and Kelly was a cap dump otherwise, it's a horrendous trade also as Boston gives up the two best players in the deal. On top of all that, Jordan Caron was waived which is just poor asset management. This is what happens when you feel the
need to make moves and not build a roster necessarily. Players come and go in 24 hours and you make more of a mess of things. But I don't mean to be harsh, it's a game and you want to have fun and make moves, I respect that. The roster isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, they're a playoff team, but after the dust settled, you have to wonder "how badly would the 2011 team beat the 2013 team" the spread is 1.5 for me.
New Jersey: My first instinct was, "ok, the players are different...decidedly different" and then I got confused because I didn't understand the plan really. Was there a goal in mind? It's difficult to tell. That top line will score as long as Elias can hold up, though he's in his fading days. I was going to sugarcoat the second line, but really, it's a big question mark at best...can Purcell produce without elite players feeding him the puck, is Desharnais someone that can be a #2 center on a contender? Those are valid questions, I feel. The third line is good, but I wouldn't mind D'Agostini being replaced with someone who fits that mold a little better (off the top of my head, Wayne Simmonds would have been great there). That can be a sizeable, mean, defensive third line but then D'Agostini gets stuck on it and I lost interest in it. No qualms with the fourth line, but Brunette seems out of place. I'd say the defense isn't great, but the Devils make it work with little in the way of household names but with Larry Robinson out of the organization, how well will they hold up? Salvador is going to log top-pairing minutes at his advanced age for 80+ games? Volchenkov si slowing down and Zidlicky just goes out there and flies by the seat of his pants...my favorite parts are Campbell and Emelin. That's going to be one ugly power play unit when Campbell has to come off (minor exception to Zidlicky). I wonder about this team's transition ability. How will they get out of the zone when Campbell and Zidlicky aren't out there? The only forward that can do it is Kovalchuk. I can't figure out how they'll move the puck forward when they retrieve it. GM must think highly of Scott Wedgewood.
I'll do more later. I hope that roster thread is updated, I'm not searching for moves, I'm just going to read and comment.
northeast division champs vote
for atlantic division champs
for the southeast title and President's trophy!
