kipwinger

Didn't they already do that?

The Flames have a lot of Bertuzzi-like players on their wing. Taffoli, Mangianpane, Dube, Coleman. I think they'd more likely be interested in Vrana than Bert tbh. Bert is a better fit for Carolina, Edmonton, Vegas (if they hold on to their playoff spot), Dallas, or (as always) Toronto I'd think.

They (like Calgary) are struggling to maintain a Wild Card spot. They're hardly some emerging powerhouse.

I think you mean "two time Stanley Cup Champion Darryl Sutter's old time rock em sock em never gonna do s*** in the playoffs and stall out into perpetual mediocrity hockey club".

While everything you just said is true, you're failing to account for the fact that both of those guys are p*ssies.

What does that matter? Who'd the Wings' lose to in 96'? #FlamesForever #dynasty

There's more to the story than "Vrana was abusing substances". It would explain these tweets, as well as the fact that he was waived out of nowhere. I'm not sure who he punched, or which manager he told to "f*ck off", but something else happened. Too bad there aren't any reporters with a shred of credibility anymore or we'd find out. Instead Helene St. James and the like are all too busy licking SY's balls trying to get autographs rather than doing their jobs.

You're right. If watching the NHL over the last few years has taught me anything it's that the Oilers are a juggernaut. I guess I should just get myself ready for the inevitability of a Oilers v. Maple Leafs final.

I officially want Calgary to win the Cup. They're the most entertaining team in the NHL.

Watching the Panthers/Lightening bloodbath and some dips*** keeps banging their hands on the glass right next to one of the production team's microphones. It's all you can hear. These low rent Florida people are the absolute worst.

Two handsome, classy, gents like that? I'd buy gondola seats for that show. Lord knows Perron beats the underage trailer trash Bertuzzi consorts with. At least Perron's teeth are missing from years of winning hockey, and not meth.

I'm not talking about specific players or teams here, but are there any hockey related things that are completely overblown in hockey fandom? Something that's not nearly as important/cool/valuable as everyone makes it out to be? I've got a few but I'm curious to see what everyone else comes up with.

Larkin got hit in the hand with a puck too. Only difference is Larkin played through it, put up nearly a point per game during the injury, and continued to treat women like a god d*mn gentleman. Bertuzzi is scum. #scumtuzzi

Yawn. The team demonstrably wins more without him. Nothing more "alpha" than losing and getting hurt. Add "complaining" to the mix and you've got the Tyler Bertuzzi "Alpha Male" hattrick.

It's not really a "swing" though. He gave a player a contract that almost everyone agrees is fair. If it's "too much for too long" then he's only got himself to blame for that state of affairs. If Lou doesn't want guys like Lou to overpay on contracts, then maybe Lou should reign in Lou. It's like that time Brandon Prust wrote an article for The Player's Tribune defending enforcers. He reasoned that you need enforcers to keep the "rats" from hurting star players. Trouble is, Brandon Prust IS A RAT THAT HURTS STAR PLAYERS. Instead of having enforcers stop guys like Brandon from being rats, Brandon could just stop guys like Brandon from hurting star players...by not doing that.

In the offseason I said "trade Bertuzzi for Martin Necas". Nobody here seemed to disagree so I'll assume we were all on the same page. Carolina would have done it too. They wanted a player like Bertuzzi. They went out and got Max Pacioretty for exactly that reason. AND at the time Necas was in the doghouse of the coach. 1 year later Bertuzzi has no trade value and Necas is one of the breakout players of the year. Ugh.

Player 1: 24 years old (will turn 25 in a month) 4.6 million dollar salary, 2 more years .7 ppg this season .45 ppg for his career. 90th percentile offensively and defensively (above replacement) analytically Player 2: (Just turned) 25 years old 4.4 million dollar salary, 1 more year .7 ppg this season .52 ppg for his career 90th percentile offensively and defensively (above replacement) analytically One of these player is Jakob Chychrun and one of them is Filip Hronek. So ask yourself, would you give up two 1st, a top AHL defensive prospect, and a promising young center prospect who's top ten in OHL scoring for Filip Hronek? If not, then Chychrun probably isn't worth that either.

You know that meme where the guy puts a stick into the spokes of the bike he's riding? That's Lou Lamoriello.

Aside from the fact that there's nothing you could get in a trade for Hronek that's more valuable than he is, if you retained salary on him you should (and no doubt would) be fired. He's overperforming his contract pretty substantially, he's signed for another year, AND he's an RFA when it expires so he's under team control. In essence you'd be paying some other team to fleece you in a trade.

No. I'd laugh Arizona off the phone if they asked for that.

Good riddance. The only player on the team who gets more unearned goodwill than Bertuzzi is Zadina. Zadina has never contributed anything to the organization despite two GMs and coaches giving him every single opportunity to do so. Bertuzzi had one good year when it didn't matter and one year later we're a better team without him than we were last year when he was putting up career numbers. They're both clowns. #tradedeadline2023

No, but close. The thing about market value is that it fluctuates based on economic factors (supply and demand, cap space) right? So a player's value to one team isn't the same as a player's value to another. For example, do you think Edmonton would pay Larkin 8.5 million? Not a chance. Why? Because they don't need a center and they don't have the money. But supply and demand also changes from year to year as well. This year there are no other free agent centers of Larkin's caliber (now that Horvat has signed). He's a marginally better player than Barzal and Horvat and they signed for 9.1 and 8.5 respectively. There are no other quality centers, Detroit needs a 1C, and he's still fairly young (by UFA standards). So all things considered I'd say the market value for Larkin is probably 9.5. BUT here's the kicker, there are factors that work in the other direction too. He's from Michigan, he's the captain, the organization is trending upward, and only bad teams can afford to pay him 9.5. All reasons to take a little less. I'd say 8.5 is a steal, 9 million is a good deal, and 9.25-9.5 is paying a premium. Edit: Fun tidbit, Lou Lamoriello, who just signed Bo Horvat's new contract, said of the deal "It's too long and too much money". Lol. This is the guy who signed Kovalchuk to a 17 year/100+ million dollar contract. The very same contract that necessitated the league limiting the length and AAV of all future contracts. I genuinely can't believe anyone would allow that senile old coot to run a modern hockey club.

Totally agree. Plus there's the obvious question of where you find another 1C. There are none on the market, nobody is trading one, and anybody trading for Larkin (if you don't sign him) is doing so because they're trying to win the Cup. As such, their picks are going to be late rounders who generally don't turn into first line centers. "But Kip, if we trade Larkin we'll suck and get a high pick to use on a 1C". Good theory. Except that outside of Larkin all of our best players are A) young, and B) getting better. This team is performing better than a year ago despite missing three top six players (Bert, Fabbri, and Vrana) all season SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE our young guys are good and getting better. To counteract that we'd need to trade not just Larkin, but probably Hronek, Copp, Jusso, and Chiarot too. And then throw guys like Seider, Ras, Berggren, Raymond, Edvinsson into the deep end. SUUUUUUPER good for team building and morale. Or you could just overpay Larkin by .5 million, not completely destroy your team, and use this years top ten draft pick to try and find a 1C.

When I saw GR on Jan. 4th he and McIsaac were the go-to defensive pair for the Griffins. They were sent out for every important situation. He definitely plays a very trustworthy game, if he can add some of the offense he had in Sweden he'll be a quality NHLer. But as it is he has excellent analytics and strong defensive play. Reminds me a bit of Nick Jensen in that way.

There's a pretty good chance of that I'd think. The guy's an absolutely monster. And he's still got so much more filling out to go. Our team is about to be so hard to play against in a couple of years. I love where this iteration of the Red Wings is headed.