The "I guess we're tanking" thread--Projections

[Mike Liut]

Finishing around 11-15 will be the worse case scenario. I’m sure that’s how it will play out. Crappy year and missing out on a top 10 pick.

 

[carter333167]

Finishing around 11-15 will be the worse case scenario. I’m sure that’s how it will play out. Crappy year and missing out on a top 10 pick.

If that occurs, Armstrong needs to be fired.

I doubt it has ever before occurred in NHL history...a team misses the playoffs two straight years and doesn't own its first round pick in either of those years.

 

[Mike Liut]

If that occurs, Armstrong needs to be fired.

I doubt it has ever before occurred in NHL history...a team misses the playoffs two straight years and doesn't own its first round pick in either of those years.

Looking back, id probably not do the Schenn deal over again. I like Schenn and think he’s a solid player, but he isnt an elite player imo. Not sure who those players the Flyers drafted are, or who was available at the time of those picks.

 

[Mike Liut]

Lots of suck teams playing tonight. Lets root for some wins

 

[converseman54]

Looking back, id probably not do the Schenn deal over again. I like Schenn and think he’s a solid player, but he isnt an elite player imo. Not sure who those players the Flyers drafted are, or who was available at the time of those picks.

I still would. Last year he was amazing and we would have been a lottery team for sure then. I really hope they resign him after next season.

Out of all the people on our team I think would be most beneficial to move, I'd have to say Petro. I know no one can fill his skates but he's almost 30 and we know what happens to d-men at that age. I think Toronto would overpay for 1+ years of his service.

 

[Mike Liut]

I still would. Last year he was amazing and we would have been a lottery team for sure then. I really hope they resign him after next season.

Out of all the people on our team I think would be most beneficial to move, I'd have to say Petro. I know no one can fill his skates but he's almost 30 and we know what happens to d-men at that age. I think Toronto would overpay for 1+ years of his service.

I like Petro, but i’d easily move him in the right deal.

 

[Brian39]

I was obviously be sardonic when I said there was no way. Of course I know they could end up not getting a top 5 pick. My post merely conveys my own personal opinion based on toughness of schedule, severity of injuries, and previous play. I can see you don't share my pessimism, but I'd be willing to bet you that fans of five different teams say every season that they can't possibly stay that bad all year long.....

Every fan I talked to from Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, and Arizona knew that their team was garbage from about a month into the season last year. From a pure talent perspective, each of those rosters was worse than the collection of players we have on this team and I think the consensus of preseason predictions about our team this year compared with those teams last year supports that.

I don't think you have every team in the basement who thinks that they are better than the basement. I still think chances are better that we wind up with 80 points than 70.

 

[Spektre]

Every fan I talked to from Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, and Arizona knew that their team was garbage from about a month into the season last year. From a pure talent perspective, each of those rosters was worse than the collection of players we have on this team and I think the consensus of preseason predictions about our team this year compared with those teams last year supports that.

I don't think you have every team in the basement who thinks that they are better than the basement. I still think chances are better that we wind up with 80 points than 70.

Take your rainbows, unicorns, and positivity somewhere else. This is the Blues and the fans have earned the right to be miserable

 

[Mike Liut]

I agree that we have a better roster than those typical lottery type of teams, but as someone pointed out, we have a terrible record while playing the easiest part of our schedule. The schedule looks brutal in the 2nd half. With Petro and Fabbri out a month minimum, December might be bad too. We could easily be sitting bottom 5 by Jan 1.

 

[Borderbluesfan]

Bluesiest thing for the Blues would be winning enough games to not be in bottom 10 of league losing our 1st round conditional pick, lol!!!

 

[Mike Liut]

I think we should be looking at prospects from 7-10. Maybe Matthew Boldy

 

[TruBlu]

Every fan I talked to from Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, and Arizona knew that their team was garbage from about a month into the season last year. From a pure talent perspective, each of those rosters was worse than the collection of players we have on this team and I think the consensus of preseason predictions about our team this year compared with those teams last year supports that.

I don't think you have every team in the basement who thinks that they are better than the basement. I still think chances are better that we wind up with 80 points than 70.

Maybe, but, as I stated, that is my opinion. I look at our remaining schedule, the coaching staff, injuries, etc. If we aren't going to fight for one another when we have a chance at the playoffs, why would it start now? I'm not saying the team is going to tank, no one would do that, but DA can help that out by keeping guys on IR as long as he can before they return, he can sell at the TDL, or prior. We have the worst starting goalie in the league (according to many here). What makes you think we aren't headed towards a top 5 pick?

 

[Mike Liut]

Maybe, but, as I stated, that is my opinion. I look at our remaining schedule, the coaching staff, injuries, etc. If we aren't going to fight for one another when we have a chance at the playoffs, why would it start now? I'm not saying the team is going to tank, no one would do that, but DA can help that out by keeping guys on IR as long as he can before they return, he can sell at the TDL, or prior. We have the worst starting goalie in the league (according to many here). What makes you think we aren't headed towards a top 5 pick?

Sure, its possible. But man, theres a handful of really bad teams. It will be hard to out-suck those sucks.

 

[TK 421]

Maybe, but, as I stated, that is my opinion. I look at our remaining schedule, the coaching staff, injuries, etc. If we aren't going to fight for one another when we have a chance at the playoffs, why would it start now? I'm not saying the team is going to tank, no one would do that, but DA can help that out by keeping guys on IR as long as he can before they return, he can sell at the TDL, or prior. We have the worst starting goalie in the league (according to many here). What makes you think we aren't headed towards a top 5 pick?

Our roster doesn't necessarily have to look cohesive for us to pick up wins. B-ri has a good point and I would be forced to agree that we're far more likely to end up with a pick between 6-11 than a top 5 pick and it really wouldn't take much to swing things that direction. It's hard to stay bottom 5. We need to start Chad Johnson as our Patrick Lalime every game if you want that top 5 pick.

Speaking of which isn't LA about to get Quick back?

 

[TK 421]

I remember 2006's operation 'Out suck the Penguins'. It took a steady diet of Patrick Lalime, Kitchen as H.C., and a god awful roster no where near the quality of this roster to win the right to draft....Erik Johnson. I wanted Nik Backstrom. But instead of a franchise level forward like other teams are fortunate to get we ended up with Erik Johnson. Our only 1st OVA in franchise history and of course we miss out on Malkin and Crosby in the 2 previous years. Those ****ers already watched prime Lemieux and Jagr and then they get those 2 while we get...Erik Johnson.

I'm not bitter or anything though. I'm just saying that Penguins fans are the luckiest group of undeserving a-holes around and that's a fact.

 

[Vladdy the Impaler]

I remember 2006's operation 'Out suck the Penguins'. It took a steady diet of Patrick Lalime, Kitchen as H.C., and a god awful roster no where near the quality of this roster to win the right to draft....Erik Johnson. I wanted Nik Backstrom. But instead of a franchise level forward like other teams are fortunate to get we ended up with Erik Johnson. Our only 1st OVA in franchise history and of course we miss out on Malkin and Crosby in the 2 previous years. Those ****ers already watched prime Lemieux and Jagr and then they get those 2 while we get...Erik Johnson.

I'm not bitter or anything though. I'm just saying that Penguins fans are the luckiest group of undeserving a-holes around and that's a fact.

And Blues fans are the most unfortunate, unluckiest, sorriest sons of *****es around, and that's a fact.

 

[carter333167]

Looking back, id probably not do the Schenn deal over again. I like Schenn and think he’s a solid player, but he isnt an elite player imo. Not sure who those players the Flyers drafted are, or who was available at the time of those picks.

I've always said and believed that the trade tips pretty heavily in the Flyers' favor if we didn't re-sgn Schenn (or at least trade him and recoup a first).

In 2017, The Flyers took Morgan Frost but Eeli Tolvanen also was available.

As for 2018, here are the players taken after 14 in the first round. :

14	Joel Farabee (LW)	United States	Philadelphia Flyers (from St. Louis)2	U.S. NTDP (USHL)
15	Grigori Denisenko (LW)	Russia	Florida Panthers	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (KHL)
16	Martin Kaut (RW)	Czech Republic	Colorado Avalanche	Dynamo Pardubice (ELH)
17	Ty Smith (D)	Canada	New Jersey Devils	Spokane Chiefs (WHL)
18	Liam Foudy (C)	Canada	Columbus Blue Jackets	London Knights (OHL)
19	Jay O'Brien (C)	United States	Philadelphia Flyers	Thayer Academy Tigers (USHS)
20	Rasmus Kupari (C)	Finland	Los Angeles Kings	Karpat (Liiga)
21	Ryan Merkley (D)	Canada	San Jose Sharks	Guelph Storm (OHL)
22	K'Andre Miller (D)	United States	New York Rangers (from Pittsburgh via Ottawa)3	U.S. NTDP (USHL)
23	Isac Lundestrom (C)	Sweden	Anaheim Ducks	Lulea HF (SHL)
24	Filip Johansson (D)	Sweden	Minnesota Wild	Leksands IF (Allsvenskan)
25	Dominik Bokk (RW)	Germany	St. Louis Blues (from Toronto)4	Vaxjo Lakers (SHL)
26	Jacob Bernard-Docker (D)	Canada	Ottawa Senators (from Boston via NY Rangers)5	Okotoks Oilers (AJHL)
27	Nicolas Beaudin (D)	Canada	Chicago Blackhawks (from Nashville)6	Drummondville Voltigeurs (QMJHL)
28	Nils Lundkvist (D)	Sweden	New York Rangers (from Tampa Bay)7	Lulea HF (SHL)
29	Rasmus Sandin (D)	Sweden	Toronto Maple Leafs (from Winnipeg via St. Louis)8	Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[TruBlu]

Sure, its possible. But man, theres a handful of really bad teams. It will be hard to out-suck those sucks.

I guess we will see. I realize we have a couple of games in hand, but the easiest part of our schedule is behind us. Most of the wins we have are against the better teams in the league. Do you really think we'll keep winning against Nashville, Toronto, Calgary, Anaheim, and Colorado? What hope do you have when we can't win against anyone in our division? The Kings blanked us, and Chicago has taken 3 out of 4 from us. Both teams are sitting neck and neck with us. Look at this month alone. Winnipeg, Colorado, Calgary X 2, Buffalo, Pittsburgh.

 

[LetsGoBooze]

This team is correctable and can turn around and be competitive as soon as next year. Not trading for Schenn and O'Reilly meant we would of wasted Tarasenko, Pie's, and Schwartz's prime and eventually most likely have moved 2 or 3 of them. That being the case we prolly would be a bottom dwelling team the next 5-6 years(UGH). Army IMO has been great at re-aquiring 1sts both the years he traded those said picks away. Honeslty IMO he put together a great roster that just straight out hasn't responded. I'm still happy with the talent we currently have, swap 1 or 2 core players, change some leadership within the locker room, but im not on board with blowing it up or wishing we could 'take back' the moves for Schenn and O'REilly. Lets fix what we have, rather than live in hind-sight.

 

[i aint Dunn yet]

everyone knows how this will play out .. the darlings of the league will have a little extra weight in the ping pong balls ...

 

[Ted Hoffman]

I doubt it has ever before occurred in NHL history...a team misses the playoffs two straight years and doesn't own its first round pick in either of those years.

Here's what I've come up with in a search that takes me well past the point I intended to go to bed, because ... I guess because of dedication to all of you. It's actually happened 3 times: Los Angeles (1970-1973), Oakland / California [1971-1973], and Philadelphia [1993-1994].

How Los Angeles did it: they actually didn't have a 1st-round pick in 6 consecutive years. They made the playoffs in the first and last years of that stretch.

Spoiler

1969 - in the expansion draft of 1968, the Kings traded this pick and their 1st in 1972 to Montreal for Gerry Desjardins. The Kings would end up 24-42-10, 58 points but knocked off Oakland in 7 before falling to the Blues in 4. Desjardins would play 104 games in goal for the Kings before getting dealt to Chicago; Montreal later dealt this pick to Minnesota to protect Dick Duff from being taken in the '69 Intra-League draft; the North Stars would take Dick Redmond.

1970 - before the expansion draft of 1968, the Kings needed Skip Krake from Boston and traded this pick to the Bruins for him. The Kings would end this season 14-52-10 and 38 points and be nowhere near the playoffs. Krake would play 88 games with the Kings as part of a serviceable but unspectacular NHL career. [He'd have better luck over in the WHA.] The Bruins would use the pick to take future Conn Smythe trophy winner Reggie Leach.

1971 - a year after shipping the '70 1st away, the Kings dealt this pick to Boston for Ross Lonsberry and Eddie Shack. Oh, and the Kings also gifted the Bruins their 1st in '73. They proceeded to go 25-40-13, 63 points and miss the playoffs a 2nd straight year. Lonsberry would play 2 1/2 decent seasons with the Kings, then go to Philadelphia and win the Cup twice with the Flyers. Shack was late in his career and would play 84 games with the Kings before getting moved to Buffalo as the Sabres stocked their NHL roster. Boston would waste this pick on Ron Jones.

1972 - see 1969. The Kings still weren't close at 20-49-9, 49 points. The Canadiens used this pick to take future HOFer Steve Shutt.

1973 - see 1971. It was the best point total in a season to date for Los Angeles at 31-36-11, 73 points, but still 3 points shy of a playoff spot to miss for the 4th consecutive year. The Bruins would take Andre Savard, who would go on to have a serviceable career most notably with Buffalo.

1974 - after having dealt away 5 1st-round picks before the franchise had played its 2nd full season, the Kings waited all the way until May, 1973 to deal this pick away. This time, it was for Bob Murdoch [who would play 414 games for the Kings!] and Randy Rota [who would play ... 58]. The Kings got into the playoffs this year, going 33-33-12 for 78 points. Montreal would take future HOFer Mario Tremblay.

Oakland missed the 3 years it didn't have a 1st-round pick. [And, it missed the playoffs from 1970 until the franchise technically dead-ends in Cleveland.] The story of how they traded those picks away is ... kind of similar to what Los Angeles did. Maybe, slightly worse.

Spoiler

1971 - the Seals, having come off a 22-40-14 season in 1969-70, were approach by Montreal with a fantastic offer: take Montreal's 1st-round pick in 1970 and Ernie Hicke, and send back Francois Lacombe. Oh, and also send back Oakland's 1st-round pick in 1971. Oakland used the 1st on Chris Oddleifson [who would never wear an Oakland/California jersey as he got dealt to Boston for Ivan Boldirev]. Hicke would go 22-25-47 in his rookie season, but the Seals were a league-worst 20-53-5 for 45 points, meaning their 1st-round pick was #1 overall. Well, not their 1st-round pick any more; it was Montreal's 1st-round pick at #1 overall - and the Canadiens gleefully used it to take future HOFer Guy Lafleur.

1972 - the Seals traded this pick to Montreal for Bryan "Bugsy" Watson ... in 1968. Watson would play 50 games for Oakland before getting dealt to Pittsburgh in January, 1969. California went 21-39-18 for 60 points in '71-72. The Canadiens used the pick on future backup Michel "Bunny" Larocque.

1973 - the Seals sent this pick [and their 2nd round pick in this draft] to Montreal for a 2nd-round pick in '72 and the opportunity to take Carol Vadnais in the Intra-League Draft .... in 1968. [Which should tell you about when it was traded.] Vadnais would play a couple years with Oakland, then get traded to Boston where he'd be a part of the Bruins' Cup-winning team in 1972. The Golden Seals would miss the playoffs a 3rd straight year, going 16-46-16, 48 points. Montreal later flipped this pick to Atlanta, who took Tom Lysiak.

Philadelphia's explanation is much more simple: the Flyers traded away their 1st-round picks in 1993 and 1994 in the deal to get Eric Lindros [trade completed 6-30-1992]; the Flyers missed the playoffs both years, both times trailing the Islanders by 4 points.


Honorable mention:

NY Rangers - traded away their 1st-round picks for 2000 and 2002, didn't make the playoffs in either year. [They also didn't make the playoffs in 2001.] The 2000 pick went to Tampa at the 1999 draft to get the #4 overall pick to use on Pavel Brendl; the 2002 pick went to Florida at the trade deadline to get Pavel Bure.

Pittsburgh - traded away their 1st-round picks in 1971 and 1972; they missed the playoffs in '71, and only got into the playoffs in '72 on some tiebreak over the Flyers. The '71 pick was traded to St. Louis in 1969 in a deal that sent Ron Schock, Craig Cameron and a 2nd in '72 go to the Pens for Lou Angiotti and that '71 1st. [Don't ask what we did with that pick; you'll cry.] The '72 pick went to Minnesota for Bob Woytowich in ... October, 1968.

 

[Ranksu]

What we did that pick? Idk

 

[i aint Dunn yet]

and the blues almost moved to saskatoon ..... next

 

[i aint Dunn yet]

ask buffalo how they felt when they tanked and still lost out on the #1 pick ... oh wait they got a redo a year later ? ... right ............ that seems fair

 

[Ranksu]

Bluesiest thing for the Blues would be winning enough games to not be in bottom 10 of league losing our 1st round conditional pick, lol!!!

You know it will be realiaty end of season. Something like finish #14 spot.