Speculation: What will Canes do at deadline?

[Bub]

I didn't expect any shiny new toys either, but after watching RF's presser, I'm seriously doubting that there's a plan other than "wait...maybe something will happen....just wait." I'm feeling like Hank Hill right now:

 

[sheriff bart]

We couldn’t have done Mrazek, we have Darling and he isn’t going anywhere.

I'm already depressed enough. Stop with that.

At what time is he deemed a failed experiment? I'm saying that time has come, for me at least.

 

[My Special Purpose]

If ****ing Ryan comes back I will explode. There is no need for him, we have Necas who will come in at center.

BP knows what position Necas needs to play to be successful.

 

[AD Skinner]

If peters then ryan. It's like a logic statement by now. I doubted that stempniak would ever recover from his injuries and I guess he hasn't enough to be effective. Nobody wants rask on his crummy contract. The only goal the organization seems to have is to allow the checkers to experience some success and try like hell to avoid getting the hurricane stink of losing on them. Maybe that's not a bad idea but it looks from the outside like the coach and GM have their heads up their asses.

 

[Chan790]

At what time is he deemed a failed experiment? I'm saying that time has come, for me at least.

I'm pretty sure the answer is "We're committed to him at-least until the day we can give him away for nothing."

To put it another way we're stuck with him.

 

[HisIceness]

I thought at best maybe we could get a 5th for Stempniak and hope like hell that 5th turns into a an Aho/Slavin type a la 2012 when we flipped Ponikarasoky into the pick that became Slavin. Thats about the best outcome we could have hoped for today.

I didn't expect any shiny new toys either, but after watching RF's presser, I'm seriously doubting that there's a plan other than "wait...maybe something will happen....just wait." I'm feeling like Hank Hill right now:

He's waiting for that GM job at Strickland Propane I hear.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

The organization has accumulated enough picks and used enough of them over the past several years that they could have afforded to take a run at something with a mid-round pick or two (i.e. Maroon.) It doesn't even matter that it may not have made much of a difference. The value would have been in the message that it would have sent to the fanbase and the locker room. To me, not adding anything was simply

 

[AD Skinner]

Again? You mean, we stopped at some point?

"Back on that time is money kick eh Tom?"
"Not back on it Bob-- still on it"

 

[Breakdowns]

BP knows what position Necas needs to play to be successful.

I swear if Necas will play wing...

 

[Bub]

I swear if Necas will play wing...

...with Ryan at center.

 

[My Special Purpose]

I swear if Necas will play wing...

Ryan-PDG-Necas. Incoming.

 

[Svechhammer]

There is risk averse and then there is Ron Francis. He's the kind of guy who would wrap his kids in 3 layers of bubble wrap and put them in a padded cell when he puts them down to sleep at night.

They sold us this was a make or break year before the season. All that has some since is the old owner blaming fans for not buying tickets only to see zero player acquisitions made. I'm still waiting on that 1C we were promised last year.

 

[dogbazinho]

I know it sucks to keep the wtny going but i truly think this coming offseason will determine the long term health of this franchise. Its not surprising we didnt do jack this desdline, we had no flexability with this shit roster. Grab a few players beyond our needs, make every spot competitve, gettison those marginals and be ready to pounce when options are available.

We also need to get our coaching and roster on the same page. Im not concinced we develop our players effectively.

 

[NotOpie]

That TB/NYR's deal, on the surface looks pretty tilted towards TB, but I don't know anything about Hajek.

So I'm going to disagree a bit, not a lot but a bit. For a rebuilding team like the Rangers, I thought the return was pretty solid. Howden and Hajek are both highly regarded prospects. Hell I'd love Howden; he's both fast and skilled. Namestnikov is finally coming into his own, but I believe he's still got something to prove. A late 1st in a good draft and a conditional 2nd. Maybe not the highest return ever, but it looks like to me it is very solid on both sides.

One has to wonder what it would have taken to get Miller 2 weeks ago however....

Would anyone here have matched any of the deals made today?

I'd have easily matched the Vanek deal. For us, that's basically a Stempniak and Patty Brown for Vanek trade. Sure we might not be making the playoffs, but that's clearly added scoring and it clears out some dead weight.

There was a whole lot of low-key wishful thinking during that 15 minutes.

Ain't that the truth.

The lack of urgency in this organization is absolutely infuriating

I've said before, our window for doing something was either in early January or early February. We need to make a move to help the team longer term then. Hoffman, Miller, guys of that ilk which were available, but overpayment would have been required. BBA and I both spoke about trying to get ROR; I still believe we could have put a compelling package together for him.

We'd basically be replacing Stempniak for Stewart, which would be an improvement, but hardly an earth-shattering one.

But again, an improvement, something that was needed....these moves don't just send messages to the fans, they send 'em to the players. A message needs to be heard loud and clear - this is a meritocracy and even if a guy is a little bit better than you, he's still better than you and you'll lose your spot to him.

 

[Johniac]

I would have liked to have traded for Maroon for that asking price. Imagine -- a forward who likes to go to the net for dirty goals?! Haven't had that in years. My other trade was Faulk and some queso for McDonough ...

 

[My Special Purpose]

I understand that position as well, but for whatever reason, they've earned favor from RF and/or Peters.

Can we get a date from you on which it will be reasonable to question RF for his lack of creativity and general inaction? On a "one-off" basis, it's easy to say he shouldn't have done anything with these prices, or it wasn't the right time, etc., but after four seasons with marginal -- if any -- improvement at the NHL level, it's still not clear to you that RF isn't up to the job. So I ask you, at what point -- exactly -- this offseason or next season can't we realistically expect RF to do *something* that will change the fortunes of the team he has been hired to lead? I need to know when it will be OK to actually criticize the guy for being blind to the issues that plague this franchise and doing nothing to correct them.

 

[NotOpie]

Now with a fresh sense that their front office believes that can do this...

 

[NotOpie]

Not saying we could have done the same, but the point is valid...

 

[tarheelhockey]

Stewart would have been a good pickup. He's a real heart-and-soul guy, but he's not the player he once was. We'd basically be replacing Stempniak for Stewart, which would be an improvement, but hardly an earth-shattering one.

Earth shattering or not, why on earth do we not put in a waiver claim on a veteran UFA?

Our top C is out, depriving us of one of our only “heavy” players. We just traded another C, and we already know we’re moving Aho to the middle as a stopgap, leaving us a winger short.

A heavy-playing winger is on the market for free, and we don’t put in a claim? What possible way can the fans take that, other than waving a white flag on the season while simultaneously saying “we like our group”? I mean there is literally no lower-effort message that can be sent than what we saw today.

 

[Chan790]

I need to know when it will be OK to actually criticize the guy for being blind to the issues that plague this franchise and doing nothing to correct them.

He inherited crap, a broken farm system, an AHL coach in Jeff Daniels who was terrible at player development, a broken development program, and Pete Karmanos.

I don't think any GM could have turned the Canes around by now under those conditions. He's just finished digging out of the hole JR left him...I'd say, to your chagrin, he's probably got 2 years from next season's opening night as long as the Canes show any improvement next year.

 

[Negan4Coach]

IDK, what did you expect RF to do? You can't add to a team that loses 5 straight going into the deadline and is incapable of winning any clutch games. You also can't blow up a team that is rebuilding.

At least he didn't get his anal cavity worked over like a champ by Yzerman. I mean I'll give him that.

 

[My Special Purpose]

IDK, what did you expect RF to do? You can't add to a team that loses 5 straight going into the deadline and is incapable of winning any clutch games. You also can't blow up a team that is rebuilding.

At least he didn't get his anal cavity worked over like a champ by Yzerman. I mean I'll give him that.

Do you have that on copy/paste?

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Can we get a date from you on which it will be reasonable to question RF for his lack of creativity and general inaction? On a "one-off" basis, it's easy to say he shouldn't have done anything with these prices, or it wasn't the right time, etc., but after four seasons with marginal -- if any -- improvement at the NHL level, it's still not clear to you that RF isn't up to the job. So I ask you, at what point -- exactly -- this offseason or next season can't we realistically expect RF to do *something* that will change the fortunes of the team he has been hired to lead? I need to know when it will be OK to actually criticize the guy for being blind to the issues that plague this franchise and doing nothing to correct them.

You can criticize Francis all you'd like. Just make sure the criticisms are valid. For instance, that last line is simply untrue.

If you have asked this board what they would have liked Francis to do at the end of last season, the answer would have been some combination of "Acquire a starter, grab a Top 6 forward, get some grit/physicality in the lineup and some players that know how to win wouldn't hurt."

So Francis attempted exactly that. He acquired what many people believed could have been our new starter, he acquired a Top 6 forward, he added players that were known for their physicality, and all of them were Stanley Cup champions.

He identified the areas of weakness on the team and attempted to correct them. The fact that they haven't worked out sucks, but unless you believe GMs should be able to predict the future, attempting to correct them is the best one can do.

As I said the last time we had this discussion (since your obsession with me knows no bounds), Francis does deserve criticism for committing too hard. His statements about being a playoff team this year raised expectations, and likely came as a result of expecting Darling to perform like an NHL goaltender. He certainly paid him like one before seeing him play a game. He put all his eggs in that basket and it blew up on him.

He also deserves criticism for sticking with Peters for too long. It's a bit tougher here, since for a good while, this team went through coaches like tissue paper, when it's questionable how much fault lied with the coach and how much was on the players (Laviolette and Maurice, especially). But Peters has shown some questionable decision-making over the years, and this year especially, it's cost them points they couldn't afford to lose.

And if he doesn't make serious changes this offseason, he'll deserve every bit of criticism he gets lobbed at him at the time. Because while I'm not as straight out pissy as you are most of the time, make no mistake that I'm not happy we're going to have yet another long offseason.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

IDK, what did you expect RF to do? You can't add to a team that loses 5 straight going into the deadline and is incapable of winning any clutch games. You also can't blow up a team that is rebuilding.

At least he didn't get his anal cavity worked over like a champ by Yzerman. I mean I'll give him that.

At least make a change behind the bench, if he's not going to upgrade the NHL roster.

There's a ceiling to this particular group of players under this particular coaching staff. The status quo is not going to work out.

 

[My Special Purpose]

This is my favorite. We have one goal, in 12 games in February, from our "centers." Francis addressed this? How?

Incidentally, Lindholm's goal was on the PP with Staal on the ice, so he wasn't playing center at the time.