kliq

This was posted on the HOF boards during our hiatus. My question is simple, if the Wings fire Blashill would you be open to bringing Babcock back?

Very fair point, especially based on Det & TO. Just to play devils advocate, he did take the 03 Ducks within 1 game of winning a cup with what I believe was a very young team, Oates and Stumpy being the exceptions.

https://www.tsn.ca/chelios-leaving-red-wings-organization-1.1143010

Here are the facts: Toews is 28 years old, and is signed until 2023 (6 seasons after this year) to a cap hit of 10.5 million per year which along with Kane is the largest cap hit in the NHL. The cap-hits for the big 5 are collectively 39.4 million. Kane - $10,500,000 Toews - $10,500,000 Seabrook - $6,875,000 Keith - $5,538,462 Crawford - $6,000,000 Here is my opinion: Being swept, and losing for the second year in a row in the first round signals that this core likely cannot win a cup again unless something changes as this core is not getting any younger or any better then what they are. Now I don't think by any stretch this team is going to be bad, what I am wondering is can they win the cup keeping the team as is. This kind of reminds me of us back in 2010/2011, we were good but unless our kids broke out (ie. Nyquist, Sheahan, Tatar etc.), we were headed for a major regression. I think a re-build/tank job is stupid as they still have ALOT of talent, and with some good moves likely can win another cup. What the question becomes, is what are those moves. What is fact, is moving Toews and his 10.5mil cap-hit opens up a lot of opportunity. The closest example I can think of to this situation in that a team could get better by moving on from their star is in baseball when the Cardinals let Albert Pujols walk opposed to giving him 30mil for 10 years. At the time Pujols was elite (a much better player in MLB then Toews today in the NHL), but all signs pointed towards a regression. Long story short they let him walk to LAA and now his contract with LA is considered one of the worst in all of sports. Obviously that was a UFA situation and this would require a trade, but the point is there. Right now Toews has trade value, and like the Cardinals in 2012 they have the ability to move on from him as I would put money on it that some team out there would take on that contract. If I am a Hawks fan, I want the Hawks to be like the Cardinals of 2012, not the Angels of 2012. I think we can all agree that you don't trade Kane, as much as I despise him he is one of the best offensive players in the NHL. Keith and Seabrook are staples on D (I would love to have those 2 here), plus their cap hits combined are only about 2mil more then Toews alone. You could trade Crawford if you feel Darling is ready, but putting a kid in goal when you are a team who's objective every year is the cup can be a big risk. 60 points a year now appears to be Toews ceiling and his Selke days seem to be behind him. For the poll, I am looking at what people think is the right move, not what they want to happen. If I am telling you what I want, I want them to keep him as I think it hurts them, and there is nothing more I want then for Chicago to fall into a situation where they cannot win for a long time. What do you all think?

http://www.tsn.ca/leafs-trade-kessel-to-penguins-in-multi-player-deal-1.322900

Sorry, what I meant was who is more deserving then him that wasn't already in the HOF. So essentially Hextall, Vanbiesbrouck, Cujo, Potvin, Richter, Osgood, and Khabibulan in your opinion. My thoughts are this, I've always thought the bar for goalies is ridiculously high when it comes to the HOF. They let a ton of goalies in from the old days, but in modern hockey (lets say last last 30 years) its just Fuhr, Hasek, Roy, Belfour and Brodeur. There is no way only 5 goalies in 3 decades should get in when the bar is nowhere close to as high for skaters or the previous generation. http://hockeygoalies.org/awards/halloffame.html Is he the most deserving goalie of the goalies eligible? That's a fair question, probably not. I definitely think Cujo, Hextall, and Osgood are more deserving, I disagree with Potvin. As for Vanbiesbrouck, Richter, and Khabibulan, I don't know as I think I would have to do a deep dive. I think of all four of those guys in a similar tier.

Out of curiosity, who? I assume Cujo is one.

My statement wasn't saying he is or isn't a HOFer, it was responding to the notion that he was never a top 5 goalie in any particular season. He was.

In 1989 Mike Vernon was the Runner Up in Vezina Voting. https://www.hockey-reference.com/awards/voting-1989.html#all_vezina_stats

It does suck, but I'd still do it all over again. Mantha has been brutal on Washington often being a healthy scratch, so the way I look at it is we got Cossa for Mantha. IMO it went from being a steal to just a win.

Ya I remember you giving him a hard time lol

I remember him getting quite a bit of backlash when Holland was GM, but it did die down. My guess is people didnt give him a hard time because he decline was to a degree connected to that back injury he sustained. Who knows, fans are fickle.

True, but when is any roster fully healthy. There are always injuries, so I'm sure he will still get a chance.

I get it, but even in the AHL you are still paid a very good salary to play a game. As a fan though, its sad to see when players regress like this.

I googled it, here is what Google said: The distance between Fort Worth and Dallas is 30 miles. The road distance is 33.1 miles.

My bad, I thought you were a real poster.

Where did you read the GM hires and fires maintenance staff?

I have a question that I want people to really think about. The narrative for the Leafs right now is that they are an up and coming team who have been built the right way, and are on the verge to take the NHL by storm The narrative for the Wings is an aging team with some good young players, no elite talent, who refuse to admit they need to re-build. Here is my question; If you were to swap out Z for Matthews, so in this hypothetical sceneio we have Matthews, they have Z, would we be the up and coming team about to make noise with Matthews/Larkin/Mantha/AA leading the charge, or would TO still have a better future then us. They are obviously in a better cap situation then us there is no denying that, but I want to know if people think that their bright future is truly because of the way the franchise has been built, or if it really is as simply as they got Matthews. This isn't a thread designed to praise or criticize Holland, its asking the question of how much impact does that one elite and possibly generational player make. Thoughts?

http://www.tsn.ca/report-eichel-won-t-re-up-if-bylsma-remains-coach-1.728316 Wow!

Where did the disney.com moniker come from?

Ill be honest, I dont know much about his draft record in Tampa. As for this pick, I was just read Bob Mackenzie's rankings and he had Edvinsson 3rd, so its not like its some kind of reach. https://www.tsn.ca/bob-mckenzie-s-2021-final-draft-rankings-1.1669727 *edit* I didn't realize you guys already discussed this lol.

I like the pick. We needed a 1st pairing LD, and after the Seider pick a few years ago, I have faith in Yzermans ability to pick a high end D-man. Also, he was ranked 5th, and we took him 6th, so its not like its some kind of reach.

Man f*** that guy. Second time he has taken a cheap shot to a Wings captain, pretty sure he gave Zetterberg a concussion with a punch to the back of the head years ago. Hopefully the league actually does something this time.

Ok I get it now, you're trolling. Cool.