kipwinger

I’ve seen it rumored that Nashville will leave Johansen unprotected in the expansion draft just to get his contract off the books. So if they’re willing to lose him for nothing then I’d assume it wouldn’t take much. But I’d want them to retain salary, so maybe a 3rd and a B level prospect depending on how much they’re retaining.

Offseason plan: Step 1: Draft Kent Johnson, William Eklund, or Chas Lucius with our 1st pick. Draft Mackie Samoskevich with our 2nd pick. Step 2: Trade Nashville for Ryan Johansen. They want cap relief, I want a top six center who can produce offensively (Johansen's a great passer) and can take some of the load off Larkin's shoulders and free him up offensively as well. Step 3: Sign Tony DeAngelo and Luke Glendening in free agency. After thorough consideration I've decided we need the boost on the powerplay bad enough to warrant the risk on DeAngelo. Glendening is a no-brainer. Step 4: Lock down all our RFAs Bert-Larkin-Zadina Veleno-Johansen-Vrana Svech-Ras-Fabbri Erne-Glendening-Panik DK-Hronek Cholo-Seider Stetcher-DeAngelo

Wilson is another Wayne Simmonds. I've got all day for those kinds of players.

Guilty as charged.

I'm expecting him to announce the hiring of Kevin Lowe as President of Hockey Operations at any moment.

You've had some doozies too, that's for sure. I'll definitely think of you and eat crow as I watch all-star center Alexis Lafreniere dominate the NHL. If I'd only listened to Wayne Gretzky lol.

You have to assume that with the recent firings of John Davidson and Jeff Gorton in NY they'll be back to their old way of operating (i.e. sign over the hill vets with name value every year). So Staal should be heading back to the Garden I'd think.

I'm in. I have it on good authority that Brendan Smith is a "dynamic offensive defenseman". Lol. The whole timeline of our rebuild would be different if Babcock had just let Smith partner with Kronwall.

This is absolutely the p*ssiest s*** ever. "Horrifying act of violence"? Give me a f*cking break. Anybody remember this? What's the difference?

Blash goes hard in the opposite direction though. Larkin starts in the offensive zone 47% of the time. Larkin EASILY plays the hardest minutes of any top line center in the league. Even top two-way centers like Barkov, Bergeron, and O'Reilly get more than 50% offensive zone starts. Larkin gets absolutely buried.

Must have been nice for Eichel though. He basically had the easiest minutes of any 1C in the league other than McDavid. Though it's a little bit easier to let McDavid feast on juicy o-zone minutes when you've got a Draisaitl there to do all the heavy lifting.

I'm looking at Buffalo's stats right now and holy hell was Ralph Krueger a dumbf*ck. He started Jack Eichel and Taylor Hall in the offensive zone 60% of the time. Meanwhile he started Mittelstadt and Cozens in the offensive zone 45% of the time. So basically he sheltered his workhorses and threw his young, developing, skill players to the f*cking wolves.

The guy I liked most in that draft class was Mittelstadt. IMO Buffalo rushed him into the NHL and messed up his development, but after they finally got their s*** together and put him back in the AHL for a while to fix his game he's started to come around. I'd love to see a "change of scenery" move, Mittelstadt for Cholowski.

Nah, give me Necas all day long over Vilardi.

Or those inexplicable years when he'd take like 7 grinders/depth defensemen. Take a look at that 2017 draft class. Woof.

When I look at this picture it's easy to focus on the shirt or the tattoos as visual evidence of his "don't-give-a-f***-ness", but the backward visor really is the icing on the cake. This guy f***s.

I'm loving the fact that we basically have a bunch of kids in the lineup right now and they're playing pretty even with some of the better teams in the league. The argument against bringing kids into the lineup too early has always been that they'll give up too many chances...and then they brought the kids into the lineup...and they didn't give up too many chances. For the first time in a long time I think there's going to be genuine competition for those bottom of the lineup spots.

FWIW, Pearson scored at a very similar rate to Veleno in their AHL rookie season despite playing significantly fewer (and definitely harder) minutes.

I think that's probably true, and not necessarily a bad thing when you're trying to teach really young players how to play the game properly. Better to drill the fundamentals and keep the freewheeling out of their game until they've learned when/how to take the risk. But as we attempt to round the corner and start being competitive again we're going to need guys who can ratchet up the intensity a bit. Tom Wilson can definitely ratchet up the f*cking intensity.

I agree with all that, but I mostly just want someone like Wilson because he plays like he's got a pulse. Our entire team (aside from Namestnikov weirdly) plays like a bunch of robots. I've said this before, many many times, but this team needs its own version of when Rasheed Wallace came to the Pistons. A little swagger would go a long way.

I want this guy on our team sooooo f*cking bad.

I'm liking Johnson/Eklund/Lucius with our first pick, and Mackie Samoskevich with our pick from Washington.

"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over." - Psalms 23:5 - Kipwinger

Just sayin'...

He's got pro-average skating, probably like a Glendening actually. He can keep up no problem, but I don't think he's blazing fast or anything.