GDT: NHL Playoffs

[Wild11MN]

The Blues are gonna do it... I don't like 'em... but good for them. Really.

 

[gphr513]

Mike Yeo's gotta be sitting at home like "what the f***..."

 

[NHL1674]

There is a joke about Yeo in there somewhere.

Seriously though, this post season just sucks.

 

[Sarge58]

I don't mind if either team wins, if the Blues win it gives me hope that Minnesota could win it some year and if the Bruins wins it means the Blues didn't win.

 

[Bazeek]

Yeah, I figured the Bruins would take this but have no problem watching the Blues win their first. It's hard to be all that invested one way or the other

 

[Wild11MN]

Who wins MVP? I would have said ROR until tonight... now it might be Binnington.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Who wins MVP? I would have said ROR until tonight... now it might be Binnington.

They'll go Binnington. Partially because he deserves it, partially for the story.

 

[Bazeek]

You know who I bet is really enjoying this game? Jason Botterill.

 

[Sarge58]

Binningtons been pretty good most of the series especially tonight but for overall play throughout the series I think you have to give it to ROR.

 

[Sarge58]

Good for Coyle he had a good series even though he came up short.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Mike Yeo's gotta be sitting at home like "what the ****..."

"Where the f*** was Binnington in December?"

 

[Bazeek]

"Where the **** was Binnington in December?"

There's gonna be some Ace Ventura **** going down in about 10 years between him and Jake Allen.

 

[Wild11MN]

Huh, so it was ROR.

 

[Bazeek]

You know who I bet is really enjoying this game? Jason Botterill.

Huh, so it was ROR.

I repeat.

 

[Wild11MN]

I repeat.

Didn't seem worth the price at the time, but man, I sure wish we traded for him looking at where we are now.

 

[Avder]

Much disappoint. Very blah.

 

[Ban Hammered]

St. Louis winning is why you always should want to make the playoffs.
Chip. Chair. Chance.

 

[Wild11MN]

St. Louis winning is why you always should want to make the playoffs.
Chip. Chair. Chance.

I agree with your main point, but St. Louis is not a good example. Best team in the league the second half of the season.

 

[Bazeek]

I agree with your main point, but St. Louis is not a good example. Best team in the league the second half of the season.

They're a good example of a team that's been considered to be in the same purgatory that the Wild are: good but not great, can't get past the 2nd round, need to blow it up, etc.

Then you look at who led them to that cup...
O'Reilly - 2nd round pick, traded for
Binnington - 3rd round pick
Pietrangelo - #4 overall
Tarasenko - #16 overall
Schwartz - #14 overall
Schenn - #5 overall, traded for
Bouwmeester - #3 overall (a million years ago), traded for
Parayko - 3rd round pick

And the next wave of young guys they have coming...
Dunn - 2nd round pick
Fabbri - #21 overall
Thomas - #20 overall
Blais - 6th round pick
Kyrou - 2nd round pick

Pietrangelo's basically the only guy the Blues themselves drafted in the top-10 and that was 11 years ago. The rest of that roster was put together with trades, mid-to-late 1sts or later picks, and UFAs. It's exactly the approach that HFBoards seems to think cannot win a cup.

 

[Engebretson]

To add to your point regarding trades @Bazeek :



One of the areas I'm very nervous about going into this next season is moving forward with some combination of Staal/Koivu/Rask/Ek as top 6 centers.

In 2017, we traded a 1st, 2nd and 4th for 25 games/14 points of Martin Hanzal as a rental, while that offseason the Blues traded 2 1st rounders (and Lehtera) for Brayden Schenn (with 3 years left until UFA) who has scored 124 points in 154 regular season games and 12 points in 26 playoff games. Not exactly efficient use of our high draft picks in trades.

 

[Bazeek]

To add to your point regarding trades @Bazeek :

The flip side is that, looking at my list above, St Louis did a great job with their later 1sts, 2nds and 3rds over the years. That's part of what allowed them to be aggressive with Schenn and exploit an obvious mistake by another GM with O'Reilly.

For various reasons Minnesota hasn't done as well with that and Fenton's got a lot of work to do, but it's a valid route to take. It'll be interesting to see what we take out of the 2nd-7th rounds this year, because the early returns on last years later picks seem pretty good. Not sure how much the scouting and front office turnover will affect things but it's cause for optimism, as is actually having a 2nd this year.

 

[Wild11MN]

Right, the key difference is that they have an elite center, and we don't have any current way of getting one. I don't think we even have the assets for one anymore.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Right, the key difference is that they have an elite center, and we don't have any current way of getting one. I don't think we even have the assets for one anymore.

We have the same current way that they did. Just might not be one available.

 

[Wild11MN]

We have the same current way that they did. Just might not be one available.

Which is another problem. Gotta strike on those when you get the chance.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Which is another problem. Gotta strike on those when you get the chance.

That you do. And maybe take a chance when you get the chance.

There were a lot of Wild fans that would not have been happy with an ROR trade last summer, as it would've probably meant Kunin and a 1st going the other way, among other smaller pieces, and he was thought of as a loser and an overpaid 2nd line center.