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So basically, if we give Helm and Abby fake addresses to report to. We can then get rid of them when they don't show up without it hurting the cap. Cool.

Our long national nightmare is over.

Ok let's just WIN....in regulation...in OT....in the shoot out. Hell, I don't care. Just be engaged and for the love of Pete, get the damn put out of our zone and into theirs for at least a few minutes that could cause, oh I don't know, a possible goal or two? That is all! GO WINGS!

Yes, I'm sure. And if he was born 7 months earlier, he would have been eligible for the 2016 draft as well. I know that's a stretch, but just showing to note that it's not that he was eligible for the 2017 draft by a hair and would have been one of the youngest.....if he was drafted in 2017, he actually would have been of average age to the older end perhaps.

Assorted links: 2019 NHL Draft Rankings - November 2018 Edition [DobberProspects] Sportsnet's 2019 NHL Draft Prospect Rankings: December [Sportsnet] 2019 NHL Draft: Fisher's Top 186 for December [The Hockey Writers] Hughes, Kakko among top 2019 NHL Draft prospects to watch at WJC [NHL.com] The hype about Jack Hughes: U.S. NTDP's latest star product has the NHL's attention [Sporting News] From that Sporting News piece on Hughes:

Bearback Army

Bear Army is back.

Give me all the loses!!!!!!!! DraftHYPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LGRW!!

Yikes. Smith is falling like a fat paratroooper with an empty parachute. That's disappointing. Was really hoping we had a future 3rd liner there.

Not sure if you have access to TSN in the states, but Canada are about to play their first pre-tournament game against Switzerland now. I'll be watching and keeping a close eye on Leason, as well as Veleno (I don't think McIsaac is playing, listed as the 7th defenseman). Also, yes, Cozens and Dach will likely be better players than Leason, but I'd be okay with taking one with our 1st pick, and one with one of our 2nd rounders... EDIT: Nevermind. McIsaac is playing. Joe is #9, Jared is #4.

I haven't seen much of him (incidentally, yay streaming sites!), so I don't have a strong opinion on him. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on him and anyone else. I'm hoping there'll be streams available for all of the tournament games, or at least the bigger ones. So, yeah. If we're looking for a big, right-shot scoring center / winger of the high-end variety, Leason probably isn't our guy. Or maybe he is. (Probably not.) In any case, Dach and Cozens and Lavoie are the big names in the big-bodied RH C/W category and they're all great young players, as you know. Hughes and Kakko are still my #1 and #2, respectively, but there are, like, six(ish) non-Hughes/Kakko forwards who I view as equal to or better than 2013-14 Dylan Larkin. But that's just one man's take.

I guess it comes down to exactly how much you attribute his current dominance to the age factor. The safe bet is probably "It's entirely because of the age factor." But if our amateur scouts think he's a genuine late-bloomer and we take him in the first half of the draft, I wouldn't complain (provided we have lots of picks across the first half of the draft). Franzen was in his mid-20s when we drafted him out of the SEL and he projected as a checking center with limited scoring ability. Granted, that's not a perfect comparable/precedent for Leason, but the point is that good talent can and does slip through the cracks.

I KNOW! I get especially impatient when I think a goalie is hurt and I get excited because bashing said goalie for said reasons fits in with my narrative and then it turns out he's not hurt that bad. What. a. downer. Also, I get impatient with losing because we don't have elite talent because of Helm's contract. This also sucks.

I would love one our stats gurus to tell me what our record is with and without Green. I'm guessing we have barely won a game without him. He eats minutes, he plays special teams and he MOVE THE DAMN PUCK. I did my own research quickly. We are 13-8-2 with Green in the lineup and 1-8-3 without. That is a pretty telling stat.