Thoughts on Hags.... I see a lot of people adding up goal totals and doing the math of losing Conno, losing Bura, hoping this guy or that guy bounces back, projecting Wilson's totals over 82 games, etc. IMO, its all short sighted. We won the division yet again despite taking an entire month off and losing what, 9 straight? The RS still means almost nothing, or did these playoffs mean nothing as well? We lost to Carolina, not because our roster wasn't built right, but because the roster we built wasn't all there and Holtby blew a tire in the last 45 minutes of game 7.
What matters most is being hard to play against in the playoffs. Building a roster that has the right type of players that do the things that matter in the playoffs. Nisky was no longer hard to play against. Average players discovered they could pump their turbo button and blow past him to the goal mouth. Gudas brings the sandpaper that we'll miss with Orpik's departure. Hags, despite not being a gifted scorer, is damn hard to play against. He forces teams to deal with what he does well, unlike say Bura who no one has ever game planned around for a split second. Our PK was trash until he showed up. He gobbles up those minutes which lets the other PKers stay fresher - remember that one game he had like 7 mins PK time and could barely get over the wall to the bench at the end. Without Beags and DSP being scratched/gone, we didn't have a lot of good/great PK forwards. Now we don't need much else there.
Bottom line, I think if this deal was at 2.50 people would be calling is great value, but somehow at 2.75 people see it closer to 3 and don't like the price. But I can't see anyone anywhere else in the league at 2.75 that will be as annoying to play against as Hags. We don't need him to score 20+. We need him to put constant pressure on the PK and the forecheck, and he does that very well.
I love what GMBM is doing here. Managing contracts that no longer have value and bringing in guys who are a PITA to play against.