The 2019-20 Around the League Thread, Pt. II

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The previous thread was way over the post limit: The 2019-20 Around the League Thread

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[M2Beezy]

Lots of games today

 

[Hoghandler]

Sooooffftttt play by Nylander. Leafs down 3-2.

Still don't like Toronto's makeup.

 

[Fire Benning]

Islanders about to win 9 straight

 

[Hoghandler]

How many right hands does Lucic need to land to make the trade a good one for Calgary? One right hand per James Neal goal and this trade is a wash?

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Tyson Barrie is just Tyler Myers but shorter and worse at defence

 

[Hoghandler]

Tyson Barrie is just Tyler Myers but shorter and worse at defence

Considerably better offensively too. Hasn't looked confident or assertive in Toronto very often though.

Probably still worth throwing a contract at if he does indeed want to play in Vancouver. Just won't be anywhere near the numbers he's apparently hoping for right now. Could fall into that Gardiner territory with an off year...

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Considerably better offensively too. Hasn't looked confident or assertive in Toronto very often though.

Probably still worth throwing a contract at if he does indeed want to play in Vancouver. Just won't be anywhere near the numbers he's apparently hoping for right now. Could fall into that Gardiner territory with an off year...

I won’t pay more than 5m or 3 years

 

[wetcoast]

There seems to be only 11 teams in the west that will even be in playoff contention as the Wild, Black Hawks, Kings and sharks all look to be a step behind the rest of the conference.

Winnipeg is one of the 11 but realistically their problems at defense make it seem like an uphill climb at this time.

I'm actually quite surprised to the bad start for the Black Hawks as they were one of my sleepers most improved teams from last season.

 

[timw33]

Islanders about to win 9 straight

And doing so with a straight up 50/50 goalie platoon. So many platoons this year its a very interesting trend—probably some pretty good research on load management.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Hawks vs King is such a bad game now

 

[valkynax]

Lucic/Neal trade is working out great isn't it...

 

[Hoghandler]

What is going on with Jared McCann?

He started the year playing 15-17 minutes a night, yet after the Penguins suffered a bunch of injuries to their forwards he's been down in the 10-13 minute range the past couple weeks. Would have expected his minutes to rise into the high teens with all that opportunity...

 

[krutovsdonut]

amazing to watch father time catch up with california these three games.

i actually think anaheim and san jose are decent teams. marleau, pavelski and thornton are gone or ghosts, but san jose has some depth and may snap out of it. karlsson was a slow starter last year also. anaheim can still hit you hard and getzlaf is still a horse. they won't do anything in the playoffs but they could get there.

 

[Fire Benning]

amazing to watch father time catch up with california these three games.

i actually think anaheim and san jose are decent teams. marleau, pavelski and thornton are gone or ghosts, but san jose has some depth and may snap out of it. karlsson was a slow starter last year also. anaheim can still hit you hard and getzlaf is still a horse. they won't do anything in the playoffs but they could get there.

Anaheim was god awful last year with terrible coaching but have historically drafted excellently and as a result were able to become much younger and faster and still have great goaltending, in the end last season for them might end up looking more like an anomaly.

San Jose is still probably better than they've shown so far but LA is very very bad.

 

[StreetHawk]

Ducks have prospects in the pipeline that are close. See it with Comtois, Terry, Steel, Jones, Lundestrom, Zegras.
This is a transition year to give the kids experience.

LA at the beginning of their rebuild. The Vilardi back injury really hurts them. Have contracts that are not favourable to move at the moment. They are entering the downside of having these long term lower cap hit deals. The extra year(s) decreases the desire of other teams to acquire them.

SJ still in the win now mindset. No choice now. If their vets drop off they are dead in the water. Be worse than the kings situation.

 

[MS]

Anaheim will be good again, and soon.

San Jose will probably turn it around eventually. Yes they’re old, but there’s a lot of talent there and their younger core guys (Meier, Hertl, Couture) are off to awful starts. Goaltending is the bigger issue there.

LA is in the worst place of any franchise in the NHL and are gonna be bad for a long time.

 

[Melvin]

Anaheim will be good again, and soon.

San Jose will probably turn it around eventually. Yes they’re old, but there’s a lot of talent there and their younger core guys (Meier, Hertl, Couture) are off to awful starts. Goaltending is the bigger issue there.

LA is in the worst place of any franchise in the NHL and are gonna be bad for a long time.

Minnesota is in a pretty bad place too. That's a toss-up.

 

[MS]

Minnesota is in a pretty bad place too. That's a toss-up.

Ha, yeah, can’t argue that.

 

[Motte and Bailey]

Anaheim will be good again, and soon.

San Jose will probably turn it around eventually. Yes they’re old, but there’s a lot of talent there and their younger core guys (Meier, Hertl, Couture) are off to awful starts. Goaltending is the bigger issue there.

LA is in the worst place of any franchise in the NHL and are gonna be bad for a long time.

Uh Logan Couture is 30 years old...

San Jose is completely boned, they’re going to be forced to rebuild unless the rest of the west is so bad they can still make the playoffs but they have so many bad contracts that they recently signed that they’re handcuffed for the next 6-7 years

 

[krutovsdonut]

Anaheim was god awful last year with terrible coaching but have historically drafted excellently and as a result were able to become much younger and faster and still have great goaltending, in the end last season for them might end up looking more like an anomaly.

San Jose is still probably better than they've shown so far but LA is very very bad.

i think the ducks are in limbo on the transition. they cannot win without getzlaf to stir their offensive drink. they have only been able to develop complimentary forwards by drafting. steel, case and jones et al. need to come through for them as play drivers in their own right.

one question for both teams is whether their younger players can develop fully when the team still keys on their veterans. if you cast a guy as a complimentary player that's what he becomes for you if you are not careful.

 

[MS]

Uh Logan Couture is 30 years old...

San Jose is completely boned, they’re going to be forced to rebuild unless the rest of the west is so bad they can still make the playoffs but they have so many bad contracts that they recently signed that they’re handcuffed for the next 6-7 years

I know how old Couture is, which is why I used the word ‘younger’ instead of ‘young’. He’s still a guy fully in his prime having an awful start.

Yes, San Jose will have a rough ride down the standings starting in a year or two. But they’ve been a top team for basically the past 15 years.

 

[Motte and Bailey]

I know how old Couture is, which is why I used the word ‘younger’ instead of ‘young’. He’s still a guy fully in his prime having an awful start.

Yes, San Jose will have a rough ride down the standings starting in a year or two. But they’ve been a top team for basically the past 15 years.

I didn’t mean to point out Couture’s age as some kind of gotcha. I knew he wasn’t young but when I looked it up and saw he’s 30 it was kind of shocking and not a good thing for San Jose.

It’s pretty amazing how long Thornton has been able to stay a top player in the league and I understand why a GM would try is best to win it all before Thornton is done but Jumbo Joe is like 40 years old.. they have no more truly elite talent on that team, just a few guys who could be close to elite sometimes and most of those guys are on the wrong side of 30. And lots of ugly contacts, probably the most in the league.

It was also a really stupid move to cut the team’s heart out (Pavelski) and replace it with Erik Karlsson

 

[Hoghandler]

Anaheim will be good again, and soon.

San Jose will probably turn it around eventually. Yes they’re old, but there’s a lot of talent there and their younger core guys (Meier, Hertl, Couture) are off to awful starts. Goaltending is the bigger issue there.

LA is in the worst place of any franchise in the NHL and are gonna be bad for a long time.

San Jose could be in a really really bad place right now. Locked up veterans to longterm contracts, while lacking the horses needed to compete in the near term. That could be one of those worst case scenario's that takes a half dozen plus years to unwind.

To not have their 1st rd pick this hear could be catastrophic as well. This draft is tremendous...

 

[JT Milker]

Considerably better offensively too. Hasn't looked confident or assertive in Toronto very often though.

Probably still worth throwing a contract at if he does indeed want to play in Vancouver. Just won't be anywhere near the numbers he's apparently hoping for right now. Could fall into that Gardiner territory with an off year...

Not if we want to re-sign our ELCs.

And doing so with a straight up 50/50 goalie platoon. So many platoons this year its a very interesting trend—probably some pretty good research on load management.

Probably what we should be doing with Markstrom and Demko, and continue to do until the expansion draft at which point you’d expose Markstrom unless Demko goes off the rails.