Richdg

Yes we do have this convo every year. No Kronwall is not a true #1 Dman. In fact he isn't even the best on the team anymore. Dekeyser has passed him defensively and is closing the gap offensively. But we all know this. Now the convo will break down and everyone will start arguing with each other about which stats mean more, what is a defensemens job to do, etc.......

His scoring goes up and down, which is true of most players. parise scored 40 in his walk year and everyone wanted him. Then had 26 or so the next year. Would many still want him? I think so. Lucic is not a self creating goal scorer. he depends on others to set him up. Those types of players have less stable results. You also have to wonder what he was told to do. It is very possible he was told to fight less and spend less time in the box. Which of course changes his whole game.

Yup. Knew this was coming. Teams want sure things and control.

There are many guys that have been moved, several of which would have helped us. Hornqvuist who is Homer 2.0 for a front of net force. Neal a classic big forward that scores. Jordan Staal a big 2 way C. This year Perron would have been an upgrade at wing. Ryan a big scoring winger. Those are just some of the guys that actually moved, not the many "rumored" guys. Point is, there are many trades made each year for high quality players. We are not a team that makes those moves. No team in any sport wins championships based on 100% drafted players. They all sign UFA's and make trades. Table scraps are not good enough-even if those are moves we may like.

we can trade him for picks now right? If he wants to leave-which appears to be the case, lets get something back!

Big can of worms yes..... Then don't sue......

Now like I said, I don't think Backus is coming here even if he gets moved. But that is Kenny's job. Make the Blues tell him no. Several times. Just imagine if Backus and Phanaef( maybe I will learn to spell him name correctly) were added to this team.... Tatar-Datsyuk-Backus Nyquist-Z-Abby Jurco-Sheahan-Pulk Anderson-Glendening-Miller dekeyser-Phanaef..... Kronwall-Ericsson Oullett-Marchencko Howard/Mrazek That isn't bad at all. Can it be done while hangin onto Mantha, Larkin and AA? If it could we would be set up very nicely for a long time.

At some point you have to stop rebuilding and win. The Oulers have been doing it for what? A decade now? Are they any closer? No. We have been rebuilding for 6 years. Are we any closer? No. We are not close to being a SC team. Yes I understand that the Oilers fans would love to be us right now. But I don't care. I don't want to share the SC with anyone. I want to win it every year. I want the RW's to catch the Habs and pass them for most SC's in history. maybe i am just greedy that way. Every year there is 1 SC Champion and 29 losers.

Jesus must be returning! LOL

If you go read the various RUMOR sites, the sports writers in STL think Taresenko is going to eat up HALF of the Blues 17 million they are under the cap for next year. Keep in mind, he is a great Russian player. if they don't play ball with him, he can go home. get the same 5-6 million per year there. That is always the risk. Not saying he will, just a risk that is out there. besides, long term it is cheaper to lock him up now. If they can sign him for 8 years 64 million that will be less than 3 at 5, then 8 at 10+. If he worth it? No player is. But what would you want Kenny to do if he was ours and a RFA this year? We would want him signed long term!

Babcock is defense first coach. There is a reason for the saying "defense wins championships". because it is true. If the other team doesn't score you have greatly increased your chances to win. His focis is winning game 2-1 or 1-0. Go back the this past Olympics. Team full of the worlds best players and they played a puck control defense first system. This was also Bowman's system. The left wing lock is all about reducing scoring. he threatened to tradeStevie Y if he didn't start to play d. Federov was the same way. Which is why he went from 120 point seasons to 80 point seasons. Now if you are playing a defensive system to win, wouldn't you want to play the best defensive forwards? yes. Why have Z and Dat been stars for so long? Yes they score, but they are great defensively. Now look at our prospects and their development. What part of the game takes the longest to develop? defense. What have most on this site complianed about? Our prospects "overripening" in the minors. What are they learning to do? It isn't offense, it is D. That is Babs/Hollands plan. Play good D or don't play here. IE Hudler and many others.

Sobotka is already being considered back by many and makes like 2.7 million. They have to resign Tarasko (spelling) and that may take 8-10 million to do it. Point is, they may not have to 5-6 million needed to resign Backus. Which means they lose him for nothing next summer. This is when guys get traded. Now to be clear, I am not saying he is GOING to be moved, just could be. But even if he is, the chance its to the RW's is very very very small. But it would be nice.....

This is something that the various PA's need to address. Come up with a mandatory max number a player can have before being forced to retire. Sometimes with the money involved players have to be protected from themselves.

4.25 million for a 3rd pair Dman? In the cap era? That is nuts. In fact I would be trying to move KFQ to Tor in the trade. Which means Dion is only increasing our cap by 2.75 million.

Public GM comments to keep the fans interested. Nothing more. They want to get better. Ok. What is better? Who are they going to get that is better than (pick your expensive vet) that is also cheaper? No one of course. The goal is to be a better team. That means you make moves, as in plural. maybe a Dman for a F or a F for a Dman. These things happen all of the time. Once they make their moves, whatever they end up being, most of us will be surprised at the moves-like we always are......

So? Every owner tells his GM to win. No surprise here. But is being in the top 53% good enough? I wonder if back 40 years ago Mr I decided I just want to have the 20th biggest pizza chain in the world. or did he decide to be the biggest? Hmmm i wonder which it was...... On top of that, do you honestly believe there is anything Holland could do right now to get fired? Nope. he is a lifer. If he decided to rebuild, he would still be here as the GM. With all do respect, Mr. I doesn't do much anymore due to his age and health. The GM's are also both club presidents, they are fully in charge of each team.

The thing with Phaneuf is, where does he fit and how does he impact our good young D prospects. We currently have 10 Dmen under contract or have to stay up with the RW's for the 2016/17 season. Kronwall, Ericsson, Kindl, Dekeyser, Smith (once resigned), Marchenko, Sproul, Oullett, Jensen, and Lashoff. The last 5 have to stay up or clear waivers next summer. Most of which wouldn't clear. So who goes and who stays? Kronwall/Ericsson as one pair. Dekeyser and ???? as another pair. Youth for the 3rd pair? Oullett and Marchenko. Sproul as the 7th. That means we have plenty of bodies to move. Lashoff, Jensen, Kindl, and Smith can all go. Make the deal and this year we can have the following D: Kronwall-Ericsson Dekeyser-Phaneuf Oullett-Marchenko Lashoff Move KFQ, Kindl, and Smith in deals. Next year Sproul stays up then Jensen and Lashoff can be moved.

There are reasons why these things are called "rumors". Fact is the Blues are cap tight and they seem to think they need a roster shake up. A guy like Backus who they will not have room to resign becomes possible trade it. One of many on the team.

Holland will never be fired. He is getting closer to retiring however. Does that mean 1 year? 2? 3? We don't know. As to the bigger point, yes Holland deserves all the credit good/bad for the team. He is the GM and has been for a long time. he can't blame anyone else due to the length of his tenure. He does a lot of good things and some really dumb things. True of most GM's. He has chosen the middle ground of patch and plug to try and keep the playoff streak alive. Some agree with it some do not. That is where I am critical of him. Making the PO's shouldn't be the goal. Winning SC's should be. The lower bar has made him too careful and risk adverse.

Team to keep an eye on is the Blues. Rumors are starting to be posting about some "major adjustments" coming this off season in STL. They do have several players I would love to see here. How about Backus as Datsyuks RW? Think about it. a 6-3/225 RHed shooting RW that can skate, bang, and score. He is 31, has 1 year left on his contract, scores 25-30 goals every year, and has never played fewer than 72 games since he became a full time NHLer other than the lockout year. 4.5 million cap hit. He is the player everyone wished Franzen was!

Stafford would be a good fit. 6-1/210, RHed shot and has proven he can score 25-30 goals per season. At 29 he isn't old either. Yes the last couple of years in Buff he wasn't very good-something about the team around him.... But in Winn he was on a 27/28 goal pace over a full season. He is a better offensive player than Abby is. He is also a UFA and would cost us nothing to bring in. We have the cap room. Ideally we would bring him in for 3 or 4 years which would bridge the gap for our other young forwards to develop: Mantha, Larkin, AA, Nosek, Nastiasak, etc....

There are several teams with caps over 65 million that need to add multiple players to fill out their rosters/resign RFA's etc.... Boston, NYR, Philly, Chicago, LAK IIRC and maybe a couple of more.

You hve to be real careful with your examples here. The NHL was a much better offensive league during this period. Gretzky was in his prime, Mario, Stevie etc.... all putting up 150-200 points per season. The teams overall were much better and deeper. As the NHL over expanded teams overall became weaker. Guys that should have been in the IHL or AHL were now 3rd and 4th liners. Toppair Dmen were getting "easy" shifts because of the deluted talent. The game was also far more physical from 79-95 than it is from the 95-today period.

True, but we have to remember. Kenny prefers his forwards to be 5-10/180 and from docile socialist countries.......LOL. This makes it easier for him to make a trade for a 37+ year old pending UFA.......

That is when he was in his 40's. When we traded for him he was making 6 million per year. After he retired we sign Cujo to a 3 year/24 million contract. fact is we paid a lot of money for goalies. It was never on the cheap. There has always been this false belief that from 95-2009 we had sub par goalies that didn't matter becasue of the team in front of them. Not true at all. Vernon, Cujo, and Hasek were some of the biggest stars in the league as goalies. Ozzie may end up in the HOF. That is not a shabby group at all.