< NHL Discussion Thread >

[SuperMcGee]

Looks like the trade is Regehr + Kotalik + 2nd next year for Butler, Byron. Absolute salary dump deal.

Nobody wants Kotalik, but Im not really upset about what we are giving up. I like Byron but he's an excess small forward. Butler is one of those guys who is great at nothing, yet still draws attention to himself by ******* up. Not the worst player, but of all our RFA defensemen, he was the one I wanted back the least. And we get a 2nd? Fantastic.

Lindy Ruff always liked Kotalik. Hoping that aspect won't end up hurting us too much.

[Xiomera]

Looks like the Wings got a good value with their first pick in the 2nd round. Tomas Jurco was projected to them with their pick at 24 before they traded down.

Wings got a Slovakian and a Frenchman. WOO

[MichaelJordanEberle (sabf)]

Originally Posted by nepg

I was going to say the same thing. No way am I complaining about Dougie, but I really wanted Ryan Murphy. If nothing else, Murphy is the perfect last name for a Boston player.

But Dougie is the perfect first name for any player. I have a huge boner for Larsson, but I would love the opportunity to bust out my white boy Dougie every time he scored.

[yo123]

Originally Posted by Jensen

Some draft thoughts:

- not at all surprised that TOR drafted Tyler Biggs. Exactly the type of player Burke loves and he will probably have a quick trip to the NHL. Already has the build, only thing he lacks is experience. I do think he is a bit overrated as I see him more of a Wayne Simmonds-type player than a legit 1st/2nd line power forward.

- Connor Murphy is going to be a steal. He was a guy I was hoping the Sharks were targeting with the 28th pick. He's been injured the past two seasons, but the kid has a TON of talent and it wouldn't surprise me at all if he turns out to be one of the top 3-5 defensemen in the draft if he stays healthy.

- Philly lucked out by getting Couturier with the 8th pick. I think he can be better than Jordan Staal who went higher his draft year. Schenn and Couturier is gonna be nasty down the middle for the Flyers in the coming years.

- Jonathan Huberdeau is overrated. He disappeared for many games during the Q season and doesn't have as much talent as the other top players in this draft IMO. His stock got boosted by playing on the top junior team in the CHL.

- Ryan Murphy will be this year's Cam Fowler...except I doubt he plays in the NHL this year. I can't believe he fell out of the top 10 especially after all of the talk about how there are only 8-9 elite players in this draft and Murphy was included in that. Elite puckmover and offensive defenseman that will probably anchor Carolina's blueline in the coming years.

- Jamieson Oleksiak and Zack Phillips will be busts. Oleksiak was drafted on basically size alone. He is very raw and huge defensemen like him end up accomplishing nothing in their career a lot more often than becoming the next Tyler Myers. Phillips is another Sea Dog overrated because of the team he played on. His skating is terrible as well.

- Why did Rocco Grimaldi fall out of the 1st round? Obviously his size was the main factor, but the kid is a gamer and has talent oozing out of him. If he was even 4 inches taller he would have been a top 5-10 pick. Somebody will be getting a steal in the 2nd round.

- I really like Colorado's draft so far. The Avs picked up the most complete player in the draft and a future captain in Landeskog. Then they followed that up by selecting Duncan Siemens who is a mean shutdown defenseman with some offensive pop. He should mesh well with all of the Avs' offensive defensemen prospects.

Reaches: Stefan Noesen, Stuart Percy - to some extent: Mika Zibanejad, Mark Scheifele
Steals: Sean Couturier, Ryan Murphy - to some extent: Dougie Hamilton, Joe Morrow

Best Available: Rocco Grimaldi, Ty Rattie, Boone Jenner, Scott Mayfield, Ryan Sproul
Most Overrated Left: Tomas Jurco, Brandon Saad, Shane Prince

What about Brodin?

[Xiomera]

More talk of realignment into 4 divisions. Says league will discuss in December for a change to be made 2012-13.

Anyone else wanna take a stab at guessing who falls where?

[Scotty D]

Not happy about Chicago unloading Campbell's contract on Florida. At least they didn't save the full 7 million and got a poor contract back. Would have liked to see Holland acquire Wisniewski's rights but hopefully they can just sign him outright.

Setoguchi must be pissed. How can you sign a deal with a team and be traded days later? Seems like there should be a rule to prevent that.

[fenikz]

Yandle, OEL, Gormley, Connor = win?

[Jensen]

Originally Posted by Scotty D

Not happy about Chicago unloading Campbell's contract on Florida. At least they didn't save the full 7 million and got a poor contract back. Would have liked to see Holland acquire Wisniewski's rights but hopefully they can just sign him outright.

Setoguchi must be pissed. How can you sign a deal with a team and be traded days later? Seems like there should be a rule to prevent that.

Seto's deal was signed a while ago, just didn't get announced until the day before the trade.

[Jensen]

Originally Posted by yo123

What about Brodin?

Smooth, puck-moving defenseman. Excellent skater and can make nice outlet passes to start the offense. He needs to put on more weight, but he's not afraid of physical contact and has great defensive instincts. He has the chance to be an elite shtudown defenseman in the mold of Lidstrom. They both play similar defensive games. Not very flashy, but gets the job done. His offense needs some work though. He played in the SEL as a 17 year old which is very impressive. I would have picked Ryan Murphy over him if given the choice though.

[Hines]

Ryan Smyth to the Oilers for Colin Fraser and a 7th round pick in the 2012 draft.

[Hines]

Originally Posted by fenikz

Yandle, OEL, Gormley, Connor = win?

Win, but Pittsburgh's depth is better. :)

[Rosebud]

Originally Posted by SuperMcgee

Charlie Boyle ensures they won this trade. Real big on that kid. Let's see what they do at 28.

Colorado getting Landeskog and Siemans is very good for them. I'd love to see Mueller get healthy for them. Then signing Vokoun could make them pretty interesting in present and future.

Yeah, despite trading JML and re-signing Hunwick I'm still ecstatic about this draft for the Avs. With EJ, O'Byrne, Gaunce and Siemens on his way we'll finally have a defense that has the size and mobility to actually shut teams down. Plus judging by the JML trade management has gotta feel that one of Elliot, Barrie and Chouinard is ready to make an NHL impact and possible more than just one since there's some murmurs that both Elliott and Barrie will make it to the big team if they can play their game during training camp.

I'm really hoping that the Avs can get Vokoun. With him and EJ this would be the toughest to score on the Avs have been since Roy retired although I'm not holding my breath on Mueller getting healthy. Him and Duchene just played way too well together for the Avs to get to see that for an extended period of time. It's the same reason Fleischman's season and career went on hold right in the middle of playing out of his mind alongside Duchene. Hejduk seems immune to the curse so it's not too bad for now, but that won't be the case for too long.

I wanted Larsson but Lando was my second favorite, I guess 1b really, but I really wanted another beast for the blue line because no one would be able to score on an EJ-Larsson pairing in a couple of years with the game on the line. Curious to see where Lando ends up playing line wise this year. If we had some more proven wingers I'd love to see him and Giraldi flank RoR for a while, but I do think that the marriage of him and Stasny is something that will be huge for the Avs since both are such hard working, smart and well rounded players. Plus playing with Staz instead of Duchene will let Lando get comfortable scoring in the NHL more than he would passing it to Duchene.

[Xiomera]

Bieksa reportedly off the market. Re-signs with the Canucks for undisclosed terms.

[SuperMcGee]

Bieksa officially signing caused a 0% shift in probability that anyone else would sign him.

Anyway, this weekend was pretty awesome for the Sabres. Catenacci in the 3rd was baller. The draft as a whole finished out pretty nicely. Friday should be fun.

[Xiomera]

I think the Wings are gonna end up signing Jovanovski.

I'm only cool with that if it's on a one-year deal and he's not the only defenseman we sign.

[nepg]

Originally Posted by Xiomera

More talk of realignment into 4 divisions. Says league will discuss in December for a change to be made 2012-13.

Anyone else wanna take a stab at guessing who falls where?

They should move Florida to Kansas City...otherwise swap Columbus with Kansas City/Florida on the Divisions below. Name them whatever you want (Northeast, East, Central, Pacific?)...

Division I
Boston
Buffalo
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
New York R
New York I

Division II
Carolina
Columbus
Nashville
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Tampa Bay
Washington

Division III
Chicago
Colorado
Dallas
Detroit
*Kansas City*
Minnesota
St. Louis
Winnipeg

Division IV
Anaheim
Calgary
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver

[Xiomera]

I think they should do away with the conference all together. Just have 4 divisions. Top 4 teams in each qualify for the playoffs.

Then you have the first and second playoff rounds be divisional (1 vs 4, 2 vs 3; then winners face off). Then you seed the remaining 8 teams seeded 1 through 8 with a regular bracket to determine a winner.

The regular season would have a more balanced schedule. Every team would play a home and away with every other team, and then more games against divisional foes to account for the remaining games.

Then everyone can collectively ***** less by travel.

[SuperMcGee]

Laich signs with Washington. Makes enough sense, even if the contract is a bigger than I would have expected. I love him playing with Johansson.

I don't even want to know what guys will be getting on the open market with such a weak class/insane cap.

[Xiomera]

Richards just got richer.

Laich was the consolation prize to whoever didn't get Richards.

[slightlyaraiderfan]

FA class getting even thinner with that signing, and it looks like all FA's are going to get paid, probably due to the higher cap.

[Xiomera]

You'd think more of these guys would feel compelled to test free agency since there's so much available money to be handed.

Guess not.

[SuperMcGee]

Originally Posted by Xiomera

Richards just got richer.

Laich was the consolation prize to whoever didn't get Richards.

Laich would have been one of the most attractive forwards available, so you might be able to say that in the sense of making moves just to make moves, but he's still just a 2-3 utility forward that is already in his perfect role. Richards is so far of an outlier in this class, I don't know if anybody could even be considered consolation. That is, unless you share the same view of Tim Connolly that a certain Habs fan has.

[Xiomera]

Anyone wanna do a top 10 free agent-to-be list?

Mine looks something like this (with predicted landing spots):

1. Brad Richards (Maple Leafs)
2. Tomas Vokoun (Avalanche)
3. Christian Ehrhoff (Red Wings)
4. James Wisniewski (Umm ... Rangers?)
5. Tomas Kaberle (Bruins)
6. Joni Pitkanen (Blues)
7. Ville Leino (Jets)
8. Tomas Fleischmann (Avalanche)
9. Jussi Jokinen (Lightning)
10. Michael Ryder (Kings)

[fenikz]

Originally Posted by nepg

Division III
Chicago
Colorado
Dallas
Detroit
*Kansas City*
Minnesota
St. Louis
Winnipeg

Division IV
Anaheim
Calgary
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver

I dont see why you would force the canadian teams and southwestern teams to travel so much

[nepg]

Colorado and Dallas are kind of isolated no matter what. Putting Kansas City in there gives them both a decent connection to the rest of the division.

Division 4 is just all up and down the west coast (aside from Edmonton).

That's just a quick stab I took at realigning the NHL. I think it's fairly solid. The main concern for me was the TV markets and making sure the big TV markets got to see their teams on the road at a reasonable hour.

It's so tough to make the West Coast fair because the teams are so spread apart. The other issue is Edmonton and Colorado are the only two Mountain teams. Detroit is kind of an odd-duck in that group being in the Eastern, but playing mostly Central teams is better than what they've been doing (especially if they move their away games back an hour), and people will stay up for the Colorado games anyway.