Player Discussion: Mikhail Sergachev

[The Gongshow]

The current thing I'm curious to see play out as it relates to this is how much Sergachev's prime overlaps with Hedman's.

Its hard enough to get one elite defence man but to have two!! Possibly having both be in their prime around the same time... my goodness. I could see Hedman being a Keith 2.0 playing 30 minutes still into his 30's (while most d slow down in their 30's) Its obviously Hedmans D-core right now but Serg will take the ranks down the road.

Glad to see he's happy in Tampa. The Russian Core is in full effect right now.

 

[The Gongshow]

So Tampa replaces Drouin with talented little buggers named Point and Gourde...

Point and Gourde make the loss of Drouin much easier. Point is basically Drouin at this point and Gourde has also been fantastic depth, he's still producing on the 3rd line and his, along with Points, defensive game is already miles above Drouin and above expectations for two rookies (Point being in his 2nd season, 1st full season(?))

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

How many teams in the last 10 or 20 years have had a setup like we have with Hedman and Sergachev?

 

[Boxscore]

Point and Gourde make the loss of Drouin much easier. Point is basically Drouin at this point and Gourde has also been fantastic depth, he's still producing on the 3rd line and his, along with Points, defensive game is already miles above Drouin and above expectations for two rookies (Point being in his 2nd season, 1st full season(?))

Yep. This is the type of trade that sets up an organization (Tampa) for a decade and hurts another (Montreal). Sergachev is a monster defenseman. Wait until he's 22-23. Scary.

 

[Boxscore]

How many teams in the last 10 or 20 years have had a setup like we have with Hedman and Sergachev?

Not many. Detroit had some great depth (Lidstrom/Kronwall), the Blues (MacInnis/Pronger), the Hawks (Keith/Seabrook). The Flames come to mind with Giordano, Brodie and Hamilton. The Blues had a nice 1-2 with Pietrangelo & Shattenkirk. I think the Jackets are set with Jones & Werenski. Maybe Philly eventually with Provorov and Gostisbehere. I might be missing a few, but point being - NOT MANY. And, Hedman is arguably better than ANY of those defensemen at their best except Lidstrom, Keith and maybe on par with Pietrangelo.

 

[JAY7791]

Hedman is better than Pietrangelo

 

[The Gongshow]

How many teams in the last 10 or 20 years have had a setup like we have with Hedman and Sergachev?

Nashville comes to mind. Their D core has been solid for years. With Webber, Sutter, Josi, Ellis, Subban, Ekhome all being, at one point, apart of their Dcore. They havent had to worry about D for a while.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

And, Hedman is arguably better than ANY of those defensemen at their best except Lidstrom, Keith and maybe on par with Pietrangelo.

Pietrangelo can't hold a f***ing candle to Hedman lmao

 

[Oilers in NS]

U guys absolutely robbed Montreal in that trade. You also got a 2nd rounder. I would take a good Dman over a forward any day. Especially Drouin. I am from Eastern Canada (Nova Scotia) and watched Drouin quite a bit in JR. Selfish player. You guys get a stud defenceman. Hard to beat that plus a 2nd rounder. I'm a die-hard Oiler fan but Tampa is a lock for the Stanley cup

 

[The Macho King]

We lose the second rounder in like 4 games. It was conditional.

 

[JoVel]

We lose the second rounder in like 4 games. It was conditional.

We lose Sergachev in 4 games.

 

[Todd1a]

How many teams in the last 10 or 20 years have had a setup like we have with Hedman and Sergachev?

not many at all Nashville with weber and Josi a lot of years. Keith and Seabrook were beasts for a long time for the hawks both have taken a step back for sure now.

 

[RegularSznAllStars]

Point and Gourde make the loss of Drouin much easier. Point is basically Drouin at this point and Gourde has also been fantastic depth, he's still producing on the 3rd line and his, along with Points, defensive game is already miles above Drouin and above expectations for two rookies (Point being in his 2nd season, 1st full season(?))

Umm, Point is basically Drouin at this point? Point has pretty much always been better than Drouin.

 

[Boxscore]

Pietrangelo can't hold a ****ing candle to Hedman lmao

At Pietrangelo's best, he can't hold a candle to Hedman? Come on now. And I love Hedman.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

At Pietrangelo's best, he can't hold a candle to Hedman? Come on now. And I love Hedman.

AP has had a better supporting cast his entire career, was playing in a mix of some of the finest two way players in the most defensive system in the league until Hitch left, and his production still comes well under 77s. He is simply better, especially offensively.

 

[Sky04]

AP has had a better supporting cast his entire career, was playing in a mix of some of the finest two way players in the most defensive system in the league until Hitch left, and his production still comes well under 77s. He is simply better, especially offensively.

This makes no sense, he has a better defensive cast so you could state his defensive abilities are played up by the system but Hedman has always played with better offence yet AP has a better career PPG. He had one moster season last year, if that's his norm going forward then sure but your argument looks bad when AP has 1 less point in 1 less game than Hedman this year with the Lightning far and away better than STL in scoring.

I'd rate Hedman better overall but with any of the top-5/6 defenseman any of them can take over a game on any given day.

 

[Boxscore]

This makes no sense, he has a better defensive cast so you could state his defensive abilities are played up by the system but Hedman has always played with better offence yet AP has a better career PPG. He had one moster season last year, if that's his norm going forward then sure but your argument looks bad when AP has 1 less point in 1 less game than Hedman this year with the Lightning far and away better than STL in scoring.

I'd rate Hedman better overall but with any of the top-5/6 defenseman any of them can take over a game on any given day.

This is exactly right. I can't stand when people try to "show love" for a player by going over the top and saying, "AINEC" or "Can't hold a candle to..." etc. Unless we're comparing Ryan Murphy to Erik Karlsson. I would personally take "best Hedman" over "best Pietrangelo" but to say it's not even close is beyond silly. Hyperbole.

 

[Werewolf]

The addition of Sergachev is fantastic. In the latter years of Hedman's career we'll be able to slot him down to the second pairing while Sergachev is in his prime. Pretty much extending Hedman and our cup window for an extra 3 to 4 years. We can at this point essentially go from:

Hedman - X
Sergachev - Stralman
Coburn - X

To:

Hedman - X
Sergachev - X
X - Stralman

To:

Sergachev - X
Hedman - X
X - Stralman

To:

Sergachev - X
X - X
Hedman - X

From the start of Hedman's "true" #1D status starting in 2013 - 14 - that will be like 15 straight years the organization can have a true elite number one defenseman on the roster. I'd extend Stralman one more time on a Coburn type contract and have him play babysitter to up and coming young defenseman on the third pairing in the organization until the wheels fall off.

 

[Rschmitz]

We have a lot of D talent coming up as well, really depends on what kind of contract Stralman would accept. Cernak and Foote are surefire NHLers on the right side.

 

[FinnLightning26]

Nashville comes to mind. Their D core has been solid for years. With Webber, Sutter, Josi, Ellis, Subban, Ekhome all being, at one point, apart of their Dcore. They havent had to worry about D for a while.

Nashville's D core is just not fair. Plus they have all of them on sweethart deals aside from Subban. Ellis making 2,5M a year is a highway robbery.

 

[Club]

Nashville comes to mind. Their D core has been solid for years. With Webber, Sutter, Josi, Ellis, Subban, Ekhome all being, at one point, apart of their Dcore. They havent had to worry about D for a while.

You really botched like half those names lol. But yeah, I agree.

 

[Boxscore]

We have a lot of D talent coming up as well, really depends on what kind of contract Stralman would accept. Cernak and Foote are surefire NHLers on the right side.

I am a huge Cal Foote fan. Call me nuts, but he's one of those kids who looks like he's going to make more of an impact in the NHL than he did in Juniors (i.e. Shea Weber). I think a "Big 3" of Hedman-Sergachev-Foote could be absolutely insane in 2 years.

 

[Sky04]

Good read, great kid.

 

[FlatIron]

Please destroy Montreal tonight, our terrible GM deserves it plus I'll b

Good read, great kid.

You guys deserve him, our clown management and system would have ruined the poor kid.

 

[The Macho King]

On Serge - this is one of the weirdest rookie years of a player I can think of, especially at D. The number of "rookie games" - where he's making mistakes based on a lack of experience - are probably fewer than 5 all year. While he has some growing to do, he doesn't commit the mistakes that I would expect from a rookie. There aren't a lot of bad turnovers or bad reads, or even bad pinches.

Also - for the Habs fans that may be stopping by - I notice a big part of the question is "if Yzerman knew Sergachev was so good, why include the 2nd round pick as a conditional?"

Two reasons. One - you never know how a 19 year old is going to translate, even if you're over the moon for him. That's the obvious one. The second issue and one that gets overlooked: he had to beat out Slater Koekkoek for his spot. KK is not waiver eligible and is in his D+5 season. Yzerman wanted to give him a shot to make the top 6. If KK played even or better than Sergachev in camp/through ten games, he probably gets the roster spot. He didn't outplay Serge, so he didn't get a regular spot - but Yzerman was basically playing a game of "I get Serge + 2nd in the pipeline if KK does well, or I get Serge if KK doesn't impress."