Miscellaneous NHL Discussion LVIII: May-June edition

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

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#57 -- Miscellaneous NHL Discussion LVII: Countdown to June 2nd and the draft lottery

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[Ghosts Beer]

The Wild still have Fletcher's fingerprints all over them.

Spurgeon -- Fletcher signed him as a FA out of juniors.

Kaprizov, Eriksson-Ek, Greenway, Dumba, Brodin, Soucy -- all Fletcher draft picks.

Suter, Parise, Foligno -- Fletcher UFA signings.

That's pretty damn good for a GM whom the majority of this board whine about incessantly as if he's incompetent.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

It's disturbingly consistent to see people excited over a team progressing to Game 7 of a first-round series. We used to be a substantial organization.

 

[Magua]

Imagine not wanting to see Colorado-Vegas. Couldn’t be me. Vegas is just a better team than Minnesota — full stop.

It's disturbingly consistent to see people excited over a team progressing to Game 7 of a first-round series. We used to be a substantial organization.

Great post. I’d raise a banner for this post in the Xcel Energy Center.

 

[Psuhockey]

The Wild still have Fletcher's fingerprints all over them.

Spurgeon -- Fletcher signed him as a FA out of juniors.

Kaprizov, Eriksson-Ek, Greenway, Dumba, Brodin, Soucy -- all Fletcher draft picks.

Suter, Parise, Foligno -- Fletcher UFA signings.

That's pretty damn good for a GM whom the majority of this board whine about incessantly as if he's incompetent.

Celebrating mediocrity

 

[Beef Invictus]

The Wild still have Fletcher's fingerprints all over them.

Spurgeon -- Fletcher signed him as a FA out of juniors.

Kaprizov, Eriksson-Ek, Greenway, Dumba, Brodin, Soucy -- all Fletcher draft picks.

Suter, Parise, Foligno -- Fletcher UFA signings.

That's pretty damn good for a GM whom the majority of this board whine about incessantly as if he's incompetent.

Building the core isn't hard. It's putting it over the top with depth moves that is. That's what Fletcher sucks at.

 

[Beef Invictus]

It's also really odd to see Hextall getting blamed for Pitt, meanwhile somehow Fletcher is to be praised for a Wild team he's even further from. Interesting double standard there.

 

[Psuhockey]

Building the core isn't hard. It's putting it over the top with depth moves that is. That's what Fletcher sucks at.

I disagree. The Wilds core was never good enough to get past other teams’ much more talented cores like Chicago’s. Fletcher added a bunch of above average players but no real difference makers to get them over the top. Depth is great but without real superstars it doesn’t cut it in the playoffs. I expect a similar situation in Philly now that the Flyers star players are aging out of their prime with no real standouts coming to replace them.

 

[Redpath]

Celebrating mediocrity

I would kill for mediocrity at this rate

 

[flyersnorth]

I expect a similar situation in Philly now that the Flyers star players are aging out of their prime with no real standouts coming to replace them.

Man, we so needed that Patrick pick to count.

Different conversation right now if that #2 OA was Eichel or Malkin-type. Hell, even Svechnikov just a year later.

I'm really bummed that we didn't get an elite player for the next decade of Flyers hockey. Even if the team is mediocre, at least there would be *something* to be excited about and keep me watching.

 

[Rebels57]

Man, we so needed that Patrick pick to count.

Different conversation right now if that #2 OA was Eichel or Malkin-type. Hell, even Svechnikov just a year later.

I'm really bummed that we didn't get an elite player for the next decade of Flyers hockey. Even if the team is mediocre, at least there would be *something* to be excited about and keep me watching.

Id settle for a "good" player at this point, let alone elite.

We are cursed.

 

[TCTC]

The Wild still have Fletcher's fingerprints all over them.

Spurgeon -- Fletcher signed him as a FA out of juniors.

Kaprizov, Eriksson-Ek, Greenway, Dumba, Brodin, Soucy -- all Fletcher draft picks.

Suter, Parise, Foligno -- Fletcher UFA signings.

That's pretty damn good for a GM whom the majority of this board whine about incessantly as if he's incompetent.

I love their D core. Suter, Spurgeon, Brodin, Dumba. That's just a great top 4.

Kaprizov is probably one of the most electric players in the league right now. Fun player to watch and easy team to root for.

 

[Rebels57]

Imagine not wanting to see Colorado-Vegas. Couldn’t be me. Vegas is just a better team than Minnesota — full stop.



Great post. I’d raise a banner for this post in the Xcel Energy Center.

Nothing wrong with wanting to see a Game 7. If Vegas deserves to advance, they'll win it....which I expect them to.

 

[Psuhockey]

Man, we so needed that Patrick pick to count.

Different conversation right now if that #2 OA was Eichel or Malkin-type. Hell, even Svechnikov just a year later.

I'm really bummed that we didn't get an elite player for the next decade of Flyers hockey. Even if the team is mediocre, at least there would be *something* to be excited about and keep me watching.

That’s why tanking is the best option IMO right now with Wright, Bedard and Michkov coming. The Flyers have nothing to sell.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

Let's see. Fletcher left the Wild with the longest active playoff streak in the NHL despite playing in probably the toughest division in the NHL.

They were eliminated by a powerhouse Blackhawks team three seasons in a row from 2012/13 through 2014/15 -- once in round 1, twice in round 2 (after the Wild defeated very good Colorado and St. Louis teams in round one).

The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2 of those 3 seasons, and in the middle season the Blackhawks lost to Cup winner LA Kings in 7 games in the Western Conference Finals.

Yeah, they had first round losses the next three seasons playing against good teams. It happens. They still were a consistently good, competitive team despite having no superstar -- and blaming Fletcher for not acquiring a superstar is ridiculous. Unless you are picking first or second, the odds of landing a superstar are extremely small, and Minnesota never picked that high. Meanwhile, Chicago had Patrick Kane.

People can whine all they want because his Minnesota teams didn't get "over the top" against brutal competition, but he did a good job there. The irony is that if Hextall signed Jared Spurgeon as an unsigned junior FA, or drafted Kaprizov in round 5, the slobbering would never stop; but with Fletcher you never read a word of acknowledgment for those gems.

 

[TCTC]

I disagree. The Wilds core was never good enough to get past other teams’ much more talented cores like Chicago’s. Fletcher added a bunch of above average players but no real difference makers to get them over the top. Depth is great but without real superstars it doesn’t cut it in the playoffs. I expect a similar situation in Philly now that the Flyers star players are aging out of their prime with no real standouts coming to replace them.

28 teams weren't good enough to get past Chicago. The Wild never had the opportunity to draft a Kane or Toews. Without Doughty in his prime the Kings wouldn't have made it past Chicago either.

 

[Psuhockey]

28 teams weren't good enough to get past Chicago. The Wild never had the opportunity to draft a Kane or Toews. Without Doughty in his prime the Kings wouldn't have made it past Chicago either.

So you are also advocating for the Flyers to tank?

 

[Curufinwe]

Hextall and Fletcher's biggest failure was not acquiring ROR, who must be a real superstar since he was the best player on a Cup winning team. Maybe they read too many posts on here calling him an overpaid 3C.

 

[flyersnorth]

That’s why tanking is the best option IMO right now with Wright, Bedard and Michkov coming. The Flyers have nothing to sell.

Even if the Flyers finish dead last - which would be hard even if they gave away all the vets because there's still too much talent to bottom out - we'd have less than a 1/5 chance of getting #1OA.

I have no interest in tanking and watching another decade of garbage hockey. We had our chance to do that, Hexy chose not to, and here we are.

 

[Redpath]

Hextall and Fletcher's biggest failure was not acquiring ROR, who must be a real superstar since he was the best player on a Cup winning team. Maybe they read too many posts on here calling him an overpaid 3C.

That would have required trading picks and prospects, which is shortsighted and impatient, and therefore the wrong way to build a team.

 

[TCTC]

So you are also advocating for the Flyers to tank?

I think at this point this team is too talented to outtank the worst teams in the league. Tanking is something you can do when your core is aging and you have no second wave of talent. We have Farabee, Konecny, Lindblom, Provorov, Sanheim,... They're all in their early/mid twenties. Should we trade them all and hope to draft better players?

 

[Beef Invictus]

Let's see. Fletcher left the Wild with the longest active playoff streak in the NHL despite playing in probably the toughest division in the NHL.

They were eliminated by a powerhouse Blackhawks team three seasons in a row from 2012/13 through 2014/15 -- once in round 1, twice in round 2 (after the Wild defeated very good Colorado and St. Louis teams in round one).

The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2 of those 3 seasons, and in the middle season the Blackhawks lost to Cup winner LA Kings in 7 games in the Western Conference Finals.

Yeah, they had first round losses the next three seasons playing against good teams. It happens. They still were a consistently good, competitive team despite having no superstar -- and blaming Fletcher for not acquiring a superstar is ridiculous. Unless you are picking first or second, the odds of landing a superstar are extremely small, and Minnesota never picked that high. Meanwhile, Chicago had Patrick Kane.

People can whine all they want because his Minnesota teams didn't get "over the top" against brutal competition, but he did a good job there. The irony is that if Hextall signed Jared Spurgeon as an unsigned junior FA, or drafted Kaprizov in round 5, the slobbering would never stop; but with Fletcher you never read a word of acknowledgment for those gems.

Got it. Fletcher gets credit for a team he doesn't run that's gotten better after he left, but somehow Hextall also gets that credit in Pitt instead of Rutherford, and here.

It's all as clear as mud.

 

[Psuhockey]

Even if the Flyers finish dead last - which would be hard even if they gave away all the vets because there's still too much talent to bottom out - we'd have less than a 1/5 chance of getting #1OA.

I have no interest in tanking and watching another decade of garbage hockey. We had our chance to do that, Hexy chose not to, and here we are.

The Flyers would have less than 1/5 chance (couldn’t find the new percentage for next years draft) but what is the chance of getting a player of that caliber picking in the teens? Being that Boston has been the only team in the last 12 Stanley cup winners to not receive a huge contribution from a top 4 pick on their way to winning, what are the Flyers chances of doing so without tanking? Seems that would be lower than 1/5.

 

[Psuhockey]

I think at this point this team is too talented to outtank the worst teams in the league. Tanking is something you can do when your core is aging and you have no second wave of talent. We have Farabee, Konecny, Lindblom, Provorov, Sanheim,... They're all in their early/mid twenties. Should we trade them all and hope to draft better players?

This team would sink like a rock without Giroux and Couturier. Good luck winning anything with Kevin Hayes as your #1 center. Everyone has seen what the defense looked like this year without a decent partner to carry Provorov.

I think you are overestimating what this team really is all based on a 2 month hotstreak in 2019 before the pandemic shut everything down.

 

[TCTC]

This team would sink like a rock without Giroux and Couturier. Good luck winning anything with Kevin Hayes as your #1 center. Everyone has seen what the defense looked like this year without a decent partner to carry Provorov.

I think you are overestimating what this team really is all based on a 2 month hotstreak in 2019 before the pandemic shut everything down.

You don't need Couturier or Giroux to be better than Buffalo. You would need to have a really bad season with everyone underperforming. We just had a pretty bad season and still had 21 more points than the Sabres. And then there's the Devils who always find a way to be bad. Or Detroit.