Chrisinroch
Registered User
Gonna have to say Minny
Inb4 the droves of Minny fans to tell us everything is ok and they’ll be fine
Everything is not OK and we won’t be fine.
Gonna have to say Minny
Inb4 the droves of Minny fans to tell us everything is ok and they’ll be fine
I wouldn't be so sure about SJ though, Doug Wilson knows what he's doing..
I’m not really sure why people are saying San Jose. They have a pretty young group of forwards and 2 of the best defencemen in the league locked up for term. Maybe in a few years but seems hf is reacting poorly to a 5 game sample size (as always).
Yeah. With all that they're sitting at 7 points in 6 games...a 96 point pace over a season. What did 96 points do for a team in last season's playoff race?...early golfing.
Add in a bottom 16 defense and a goalie now over 30 to those multiple albatrosses of contracts and the future looks bleak for the Leafs.
I’m not really sure why people are saying San Jose. They have a pretty young group of forwards and 2 of the best defencemen in the league locked up for term. Maybe in a few years but seems hf is reacting poorly to a 5 game sample size (as always).
Since the early 90s. Yes, I remember Barker, Skille, Toews and Kane. 2007 was the first time since expansion that the Hawks picked higher than 3rd. Yes, Bill Wirtz ran the team into the ground. Until 2016, Kane's career high in points was 88 in 2010. Kane didn't peak until their run was already over, which is sad.
I also remember Ruutu, Yakubov, Vorobiev and the like.
My argument is this: The Hawks have had bad luck with lottery picks most years they've been bad.(2019 nonwithstanding, but they jumped to 3 in a year when there was a clear dropoff at 3) In 2004 they missed out on Malkin/Ovi 2005 got canceled when they were clearly one of the worst teams, 2006 they got lucky at the top, and in 2007 it felt deserved because they got screwed in 04/05. They always seem to get the short end of even winning a lottery. The only time they actually didn't was in 2007 with Kane.
Probably Pittsburgh starting in 2-3 years. Crosby/Malkin/Letang are getting old and their prospects pool is brutal
San Jose: Again, I feel they'll still be good for a few more years (give or take 3-4 years, depending on how their D ages). But their team is definitely up there in age. Burns is 34 (his contract takes him to 39), Vlasic is 32 (his contract takes him to 38 I believe), Karlsson is likely going to fall off in his 30's (his biggest asset is his speed, and that's not likely to last through his contract which takes him to 36. I figure he still has 4 more good years or so barring injury), Couture is 30 this year, (his contract takes him to 37). Marleau and Thornton are both 30 this year. The upside is, I feel they have at least a bit of replacement talent already in their pool to help replace as these players age out, but the next few years of drafting could make or break them.
Again though, all it's going to take is one or two good trades, or a couple good drafts and this doesn't happen to any of these teams. I'd also say the wild, but I really feel they never totally bottom out, they remain just... average, somehow.
Yeah. With all that they're sitting at 7 points in 6 games...a 96 point pace over a season. What did 96 points do for a team in last season's playoff race?...early golfing.
Add in a bottom 16 defense and a goalie now over 30 to those multiple albatrosses of contracts and the future looks bleak for the Leafs.
Get back to me when we miss the playoffs
Looking at their salary cap, I think it is not entirely clear that he knows what he's doing. Sarcasm aside, he went all in with this core group, but they looked flawed and their are a ton of contracts with big AAV and lots of term. That is a recipe for disaster. I say that as a ducks fan saddled with Perry and Kesler's contracts (and to a lesser extent Getlzaf's). The difference is the ducks have younger players with very good contracts (Gibson, Manson, Rakell, Lindholm, Kase), bought out Perry, put Kesler on IR, great goaltending, and have a nice pipeline of younger players - the ducks can probably avoid bottoming out assuming some of their younger players pan out. SJ has none of those things (other than possibly buyouts, but those won't be realistic for a while).
Couture, Burns, Vlasic, and Jones' contracts have a lot of term and all of those players are in or past their prime. And in the case of Jones, it is just a bad contract. Couture and Kane are good players, but even their contracts will be pretty awful in 2-4 years (Couture $8M AAV through 2025-26 when he's 38). And who knows how Karlsson's contract will play out? He's so injury prone and he will have an $11.5 AAV through his 36-37 season.
Bottom line, they are locked into an aging core and it will be painful and dificult to extricate themselves from cap hell as the age up.
I see the Wild making a comeback into the wild card cusp.
I'll say New Jersey finishes last in the league and wins the lottery for the 3rd time
fLames are on the decline with no high end elite forwards on the horizon any time soon (well unless they win the draft lottery this year).