Confirmed with Link: Lars Eller to caps

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Eller is a solid pickup. Pretty happy with this. A spine of Backstrom-Kuznetsov-Eller-Beagle is strong. It affords Trotz a lot of flexibility with his matchups. Another shot called by GMBM.

 

[Langway]

Screw the cap and all the propects.

How does one screw the cap?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

NHL Radio was talking Lars. Said he will have moments where you are wondering what was he thinking (offensively) but that he is an excellent shutdown center, notably taking out S1d when assigned the task. Also, that he is really hard on himself after displaying his offensive shortcomings, which kind of gets himself into a funk. A good locker room guy which always seems important to us.

They also said Montreal took a step back thinking Shaw was better, and are foolish to consider a 5-7 year contract for him.

I am happy with the move, and BMac tossing us fans a bone and getting someone fast, instead of kicking the tires and procrastinating that someone we want is a little too expensive, and panic calling off the deal. We needed a Lars anyways and København is freaking awesome. I miss Bellevue. The price seemed steep at first, but with the way we burn 2s at the deadline and they almost always crash and burn, who cares.

MJ Lars Wilson

There will definitely be moments where you wonder what he was thinking. He'll hang onto the puck too long and nothing happens. But like I said, at the very least you get a guy who drives possession, can play against other teams top lines and can chip in points. Anything else is a bonus. I think there's some unexploited upside there though and if Trotts gives him some offensive opportunity it wouldn't surprise me if he hits 20 goals. At worst he's a very solid 3rd liner with size.

 

[hockeykicker]

 

[hockeykicker]

 

[hockeykicker]

Oshie and eller were teammates in St. Louis

 

[Caps8112]

How does one screw the cap?

not looking into but you see other teams make all kinds of trades to get the players they want. The caps always seem to be a play it safe team and playing it safe never wins.

 

[Caps8112]

huh? Pens got Kessel and the Caps didnt get anyone. Right? or.....Williams? Oshie? The year before. Orpik and Niskanen were nothing?
you do realize that Kessel scored 26 goals last season. Oshie scored....26 goals. Kessel scored 10 goals in 24 playoff games. Oshie scored 6 goals in 12 playoff games. So.....

so you considered Oshie a better player then kessel before last season? Kessel was already an established superstar and ill go out on a limb and say he struggled early in the season much like the rest of the pens and turned it on at the coaching change? Kessel was always better then Oshie and thats my points. Although I love having oshie especially after his playoffs the caps always play it safe and never go for the superstar. So they lost to the team that did and I do believe they would have beaten everyone else if they had gotten past the pens.

 

[txpd]

so you considered Oshie a better player then kessel before last season? Kessel was already an established superstar and ill go out on a limb and say he struggled early in the season much like the rest of the pens and turned it on at the coaching change? Kessel was always better then Oshie and thats my points. Although I love having oshie especially after his playoffs the caps always play it safe and never go for the superstar. So they lost to the team that did and I do believe they would have beaten everyone else if they had gotten past the pens.

first off, you said they did nothing. Oshie got better than his previous and Kessel got worse. Kessel makes more. Kessel is a one way player. Oshie is multifaceted. So, yea. if you asked me which i would rather have, its Oshie all day.

 

[g00n]

so you considered Oshie a better player then kessel before last season? Kessel was already an established superstar and ill go out on a limb and say he struggled early in the season much like the rest of the pens and turned it on at the coaching change? Kessel was always better then Oshie and thats my points. Although I love having oshie especially after his playoffs the caps always play it safe and never go for the superstar. So they lost to the team that did and I do believe they would have beaten everyone else if they had gotten past the pens.

I think you addressed your own complaint right there. It's not so much that the Pens made significantly more roster moves, it's that they made a couple of key organizational changes and rode a better, younger goaltender in the playoffs.

A team looking for playoff help doesn't trade for a guy who's got a rep for disappearing in the playoffs (Oshie) if they're playing it safe (which would be more of the Williams move). And yet those seemed to both work out opposite of what was expected. A team playing it safe doesn't let several backbone players walk (Fehr, Ward, Brouwer) and take big chances on new faces like that.

Maybe gmbm's TDL moves haven't worked out as well as his offseason moves, but it's also possible that comparison is skewed because of how much he really does in the offseason.


(edit: this is veering off topic...if we want to continue we may need to move this convo to the roster megathread)

 

[Nice]

So it sounds like he's more of a shoot first type of player. Exactly what we need for the third line. I think he'll mesh well with Johansson, that is if we get him signed obviously.

 

[hockeykicker]

 

[Raikkonen]

8-92-77
65-19-14
90-Eller-43

Actually isn't that bad. But...

3rd line isn't as lethal as HBK.
2nd line depends on Bura being good finisher imho.
1st depends on Kuzy being himself.

Well. We like our team (c)

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

How does one screw the cap?

I was also wondering this. If anyone figures it out, be sure to let the rest of us know.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

so you considered Oshie a better player then kessel before last season? Kessel was already an established superstar and ill go out on a limb and say he struggled early in the season much like the rest of the pens and turned it on at the coaching change? Kessel was always better then Oshie and thats my points. Although I love having oshie especially after his playoffs the caps always play it safe and never go for the superstar. So they lost to the team that did and I do believe they would have beaten everyone else if they had gotten past the pens.

Do you think if the Pens had Oshie and the Caps had Kessel that the Caps would have beaten the Pens?

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Johansson-Eller-Wilson is a disaster of a line. There's no offensive threat at all there. They should be defensively stout and be able to waste 15 minutes of ES time a game without giving up much damage but thats not nearly enough.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

So it sounds like he's more of a shoot first type of player. Exactly what we need for the third line. I think he'll mesh well with Johansson, that is if we get him signed obviously.

Thinking the same thing...all the while, providing Wilson a great 3rd line mentor to help him hopefully continue to improve as well.

 

[um]

I'd like to bring in a cheap 3rd line winger this offseason rather than waiting for the TDL again. If Wilson breaks out then great but I don't want the Caps to count on him breaking out.

 

[Zoidberg Jesus]

8-92-77
65-19-14
90-Eller-43

Actually isn't that bad. But...

3rd line isn't as lethal as HBK.
2nd line depends on Bura being good finisher imho.
1st depends on Kuzy being himself.

Well. We like our team (c)

The Pens outscored us by 1 goal while our 2nd line disappeared and Richards centered our 3rd line. We don't have to match their top 3 lines, we just have to be close enough that our defense and goaltending make up the difference.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

The Pens outscored us by 1 goal while our 2nd line disappeared and Richards centered our 3rd line. We don't have to match their top 3 lines, we just have to be close enough that our defense and goaltending make up the difference.

This discounts how well our D, G and PK were. Will we repeat that in the coming years? Maybe. Should we count on giving up pretty much nothing as a pathway to success? Probably not.

 

[twabby]

The Pens outscored us by 1 goal while our 2nd line disappeared and Richards centered our 3rd line. We don't have to match their top 3 lines, we just have to be close enough that our defense and goaltending make up the difference.

They outscored the Capitals 13-10 at even strength. Also the Capitals scored 6 even strength goals in 6 games against the Flyers.

No matter how good your defense and goaltending is, that just isn't good enough to win a Cup. They need another upgrade in the top 9.

 

[hockeykicker]

This discounts how well our D, G and PK were. Will we repeat that in the coming years? Maybe. Should we count on giving up pretty much nothing as a pathway to success? Probably not.

But you can say the same for Pitt. Are their depth players gonna be grea in next few years

 

[Carlzner]

Johansson-Eller-Wilson is a disaster of a line. There's no offensive threat at all there. They should be defensively stout and be able to waste 15 minutes of ES time a game without giving up much damage but thats not nearly enough.

Great insight! If only there was some kind of way to test these things out before the season! Ah well.

 

[Zoidberg Jesus]

Call me an optimist, but I think the young guys are gonna be a lot better in the playoffs next season. Kuzy, Bura, Orlov, and Schmidt all played a lot more minutes last season than they had the year before, probably more than they'd ever come close to playing, and I think a lot of their struggles can be explained by running out of steam. If those guys go into the next postseason playing the way they did in the middle of last season, that goes a long way towards fixing our ES scoring woes and improving our defense. I'm not against further additions, but I don't think we need anything major now that we've got Eller.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I'd like to bring in a cheap 3rd line winger this offseason rather than waiting for the TDL again. If Wilson breaks out then great but I don't want the Caps to count on him breaking out.

I could see them still looking for a scoring winger for depth and to push Wilson. Might depend on the outcome with Chimera.