kliq

Agreed. What coaches/GM's etc. say to the media means nothing to me. It's a choreographed answer given to balance keeping the media/fans/players happy. Doesn't mean its actually what they think, or reflective of what is actually going on. I find it funny when fans/members of the media get so worked up about it. Local radio guys are the worst, they just eat that s*** up.

Most likely scenario for Mrazek is that they simply let him walk. Unless he does a 180, he wont be worth 3mil to anyone. He will walk, and sign with a team on a cheap contract like you said.

lol agreed

If Ottawa allows us to talk contract with the agent before the trade, maybe I change my opinion. If not, I'm worried. I see your point though, Karlsson is a game changer, Larkin/Mantha are not.

Karlsson on an extension, I trade Larkin or Mantha for him in a heart beat. No extension, I'm very hesitant. If we traded say Larkin for Karlsson, then Karlsson just leaves, we look like idiots.

I dont think anyone would argue with you that players play for money, because they do. BUT when you are coaching a professional sports team, to be successful you need two things...1) talent......2) The players to buy in to the plays and strategies that the coaching staff develop, and to put 100% effort in to these plays/strategies. When players don't believe in a system that a coach has created, they tend to put in 90%, 80%, 70% etc. of effort. That is what is meant when asking the question "has Blashill lost the team". Players buying into a system has nothing to do with what they are paid, or what their ages, cultures, ethnicity and perspectives on life are. There is no connection.

People who vote for Mrazek are voting what he represents, that being a young goaltender with potential to be elite. The problem is Mrazek has shown nothing since his birthday in 2016 to indicate he will be good enough to be a starter let alone elite.

With the big three UFA D next summer, I dont think we should waste our cap space on John Carlson. I get that chances are we dont sign any of them (but same can be said for every team), but With Carlson being the #1 D-man this off-season, he is going to be way overpaid. I dont mind overpaying for an elite D-man, I dont want any more "very good players" at high cap hits. Carlson plays on the caps, he comes here and he is not going to be the same player.

I wouldnt say that, these articles are all from 2017. Ship hasn't sailed. http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/20312842/nhl-kansas-city-trying-stay-conversation-future-expansion http://www.kansascity.com/sports/nhl/article167290422.html https://www.tsn.ca/kansas-city-on-nhl-expansion-radar-1.831403 https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/kansas-city-viable-nhl-expansion-location-150205807.html http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/bill-daly-comments-potential-nhl-team-kansas-city/ From Bill Daley: "Kansas City has never been entirely ‘off our radar screen" http://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/lamar-hunt-jr-talks-future-of-kc-as-possible-nhl-expansion-market Not saying hey are going to get one, but to say that ship has sailed is just incorrect.

You've definitely turned into a much better poster Cady!

The phraneuf one was different though...right? That wasn’t so much a “we want to get rid of you” thing, it was more of a “we can only protect 3 in the expansion draft thing, and don’t want to lose player x” thing. More to your point though if that’s correct. I don’t think the wings will attempt to move Nielsen at this point, I think he is going to be playing recruiter in the hopeful JT sweepstakes. If they don’t land JT, different story.

Agreed. These things are put in by the players so they have control over where they are going. Eliminates the possibility of waking up one morning and seeing you have been traded to a place you have zero desire to live. The only player I can ever remember refusing to waive one was Joe Thornton.

Im not surprised, at the end of the day we are players in free agency. Local fans are biased when it comes to stuff like this, they tend to either think we have no chance at anything, or that everything will workout perfectly. The truth usually lays in the middle.

If its 7mil, that is huge for us. Makes the bad contracts less of a liability. Hopefully we don't spend it on anything other then elite talent/RFA's.

No reason to have to defend your self. You're posting something positive and unfortunately when you do that around here certain posters enjoy bringing others down. That's their problem, not yours.

That's a huge stretch. Are 900 career minor league games a huge feat if you are sitting in a room with NHLers...probably not. Is it impressive when compared to most of us? Probably. Its all relative. Bashing another person's accomplishments for no reason is not "keeping it real"

Ya alumni game Stevie!

I'm down with that!

Sorry if I hurt your feelings, no need to get all worked up. There are alot of dumb things posted on here, you should know that. I never thought someone would come on here bragging about how many portfolio's and mutual funds they have, but that happened lol.

My point was to take what is said in a press conference/interview with a grain of salt. This can be said for most GM's/Coaches. Countering that with more things he said does not change anything.......

I had no opinion on Blashill when he came here, I knew nothing about him. I was one of the posters hoping that Babs stayed as I knew him leaving was going to hurt us. I agree with you that he should be fired, unless the plan is to tank this which I doubt. If the plan at this point is to tank, keep him until the end of the season. Personally I would like to see Tippett. That's true about Hossa, forgot about him. Toews is a good player, but I wouldnt go as far as to call him elite but I dont want to get in to that again. Not really, what coaches/GM's say in pressers/interviews is simply media management and keeping the peace. Take EVERYTHING you hear with a grain of salt.

If you gave him one he would just throw a temper tantrum until Seabrook came over and rocked him to sleep.

Do you remember what it was like on here? All I read was "Babs needs to go, we need a new voice". People were in love with Blashill. I'm not saying I thought that, personally I didnt really follow him as I dont watch the AHL games. The voice thing I just found funny, really that has nothing to do with anything. Different scenario with Lewis, he came in with an expectation of cup or bust and was knocked out early. How about now? He's pretty much done

meh hindsight. 75% of this board would have lost their s*** if the Wings didn't go with Blashill. I agree that we should have interviewed more candidates, and of course I agree that it didnt work out, but at the time it made sense. Every coach has to have their first coaching job somewhere, you can't critisize a team for going with a new coach.

That's what I think. In 2013 for the Bruins, in 14 games he had a 2.32 GAA and a 92% Save %. His first year on Carolina, he actually played well, pretty much replicated the same stats, but if I remember correctly he took over late from Ward. Second year on Carolina his GAA jumped to 2.72 and his Save % dropped to 90% (I remember this very well because I had him on my fantasy team that year lol.) Then he went to Anaheim where he played poorly, and finally back to Boston last year where he played poorly as well. This year he finally seems to have that 2013 game back, but I believe its because he plays a limited amount of games (ie. small sample size), and likely he is strategically started. If he was 25, sure someone would give him a chance, but at 31 I would be shocked if he was given a starters role. Look at Budaj, similar story, and had a great year last year, but didnt land him anything more then a backup position on TB. Though he is 35, so I'm sure that hurt him.