Richdg

2 years ago DD had 29 assists, he has some offensive talent. Just having a bad year which is a product of the team and coaching.

Not that far my friend. Just this year and a few names the next 2 years.

Now names for Green. One of the sites talking about moving Green mentioned the Rangers as a possible trading partner. The proposed trade was Green (we retain 50% of his salary in 17/18) and a late rd pick to the Rangers for Vesey and their 2017 1st. Now that was just someone spitballing. But if we could do Green for Vesey 1 for 1 I would do it in a heartbeat! To me the perfect deal for Green would be to the Habs with Sheahan for their 1st and McCarron. Helps the Habs out this year and next as they are built for deep Cup runs, also gives them the large defensive C they are looking for/trying to create and we get a big RHed RW who is very good around the net in McCarron (Detroit kid as well) and another pick.

Or trade for prospects. Draft picks in rounds 2 and later need 3-4 years to develop. We need help now. So getting some guys that are already 2-3 years down the development road playing in the AHL or college would make some sense. For example, there have been Chicago wants Vanek rumors. Here are some guys from Chicago that I would consider: John Hayden 6-3/217 RHed RW 22 years old, 4th season playing for Yale. Career numbers by season at Yale: 3rd rd in 2013. 13/14 6 goals 16 pts in 33 games 14/15 7 goals 18 pts in 29 games 15/16 16 goals 22 pts in 32 games 16/17 11 goals 18 pts in 14 games He is known to play using his size down low around the net. Something we need. Matheson Iacopelli 6-3/206 LHed LW/C. Plays for WMU. 3rd rd pick in 2014. 13/14 41 goals 63 pts in 58 games for Muskegon USHL 14/15 23 goals 37 pts in 56 games for Muskegon USHL 15/16 1 goal 7 pts in 27 games for WMU 16/17 14 goals 19 pts in 18 games for WMU Known as a good skater with a very good shot. Carl Dahlstrom 6-4/223 LHed D 21 years old. 2nd rd pick in 2013. This is his 1st season with the Rockford IceHogs AHL. Has played 22 games with 3 goals and 4 pts. Known to be a very good stay at home defender. Any combo of 2 or 3 of these guys would work for me. All could be ready to play in the NHL sometime next season. Future stars? Doubtful, but these are the type of players that you find in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. 3 line guys that may become second line guys. Hayden and Iacopelli are Abby type of players and Dahlstrom is an Ericsson type of defender. All add depth and competition for our team and organization.

Now the harder part is to find a dancing partner to make a deal. I took a look at the top teams, the ones most likely to make it to the PO's. Also took a breif look at their needs based on how their O/D are doing. Needing Offense: Boston, Ottawa, Washington, Florida, Chicago, San Jose, Anaheim, and LA. Needing Defense: Pitt, NYR, Philly, Tor, TB, STL. Could be looking to improve either end: Habs, BJ's, Minny, Ed, Cal. Players we have that may help by catagory: Offense: Nyquist, tatar, Vanek, Green, Smith Defense: Sheahan and Helm as 3/4 C's, but that is about it. grit (always looked for at the deadline): Ott

Not really. Both are still young and have room for improvement. neither one is max'd out yet. Neither one is cheap either. Trouba's next deal will be in the 4.5 to 5 million range. This is where his contract could become an issue. Not that we don't have the cap but is he going to be worth that type of money in 1.5 years? Right now we can trade our 1st for trouba and hope he becomes elite OR keep our pick draft Foote and hope he becomes elite. Trouba is 4 years older and cost 3 x as much money. Now if we had trouba and he is paired with DD that is a pretty good second pair. But as mentioned above, why are doing either or? Lets get/keep both. Having a BL group of: Samuelsson (2018)-Foote (2017) DD-Trouba Cholowski-Sproul Oullett-Marchenko This would be very very good. Do we have the parts to make it happen? yes. Without using our 1st round pick we can do it. I would next expect it until the summer however when teams are going to be more willing to make moves to protect value due to the expansion draft.

Tavares is a C. he and neilsson were not linemates. Tavares had Okposso and often Martin on his wings. He is from Mississauga (Toronto). Now who is the more likely? The very good on the rise ML or the still in decline RW?

If an elite Dman was available then yes you make a deal. Trouba is not elite. He is a RHed version of DD, nothing more. The stats don't lie. He is a good second pair guy, not elite.

I wouldn't go that far at all. Trouba is a good young talent. Most Dmen don't reach their max until their late 20's. Both Trouba and DD have room to improve/grow as players. But look at their numbers by year. There is very little between them. 2013/14 DD: 23 points 65 games 64 hits 13 takeaways 116 blocks 36 giveaways +10 Trouba: 29 points 65 games 95 hits 31 takeaways 132 blocks 88 giveaways +4 2014/15 DD: 31 points 80 games 74 hits 14 takeaways 88 blocks 38 giveaways +11 Trouba: 22 points 65 games 97 hits 28 takeaways 120 blocks 76 giveaways +2 2015/16 DD: 20 points 78 games 88 hits 17 takeaways 107 blocks 38 giveaways +2 Trouba: 21 points 81 games 144 hits 29 takeaways 177 blocks 65 giveaways +10 2016/17 DD: 6 points 40 games 47 hits 7 takeaways 83 blocks 27 giveaways -13 Trouba: 13 points 27 games 40 hits 15 takeaways 58 blocks 30 giveaways +4 Where is the big difference between these 2? There isn't much. Trouba is a more physical player-more hits and blocks, DD is better with the puck far fewer turnovers. Offense is about the same. DD is a couple of years older. In the end not much seperates these 2. In a perfect world they would form a second pair together. 1 is RHed and 1 is LHed. Perfect.

Except he didn't when he was in Junior. In the 11/12 season while playing for the USNDP he played 54 games and had 32 points. At Michigan he had 1 good year as well. Foote on the other hand is heading for 50+ points this year in the WHL. Next season will be his 3rd year and he should be even better unless he makes his NHL drafting team out of camp. Back to Trouba. If he wasn't from Michigan NO ONE would be pushing so hard or have such a high opinion of him. He is the 4th best Dman on the Jets behind Buff, Toby, and Meyers-who is hurt. Now would I want him for say Nyquist and Smith? Yes I would. I proposed that trade while he was holding out.

What is this based on? Practice the day before a game? Because these have not been the lines used in a game. Why would a good coach mess with the MANtha-Z-Tatar line? they have been playing well. Ok MANtha has been playing well but the other 2 have been supporting him. IMHO the best we can do with a healthy Abby is: MANtha-Z-Tatar AA-Neilsson-Vanek Jurco-Larkin-Abby Ott-Sheahan-Glendening Time for Nyquist and Miller to sit. At least until someone else gets hurt......

Agree. The scary part is where are we if Z falls off in the second half like the last 2 years, Vanek is traded, Green is traded, and Howard can't get healthy. This could still get worse this year. I would add Oullett and Jensen to your average list. Both have played well overall. Flat out stink: Nyquist, Kronwall, Ericsson, Smith, Sheahan (offensively anyway), Helm, Miller

I like Trouba, but to date he is not that good. Average 2nd pair is the best way to describe him. On our current roster he isn't even the best. He is in his 4th season and has had declining numbers each year. His rookie year was his best with 29 points. Since then his points total and shooting % have declined. Dekeyser has had better years than Trouba. Smith has had numbers very close to him, even though he is a couple of years older. Foote on the other hand is younger, cheaper, and is already a better offensive player. Trouba is better defensively. I would do a Fowler for our 1st before I did a Trouba for our 1st, provided Fowler resigns first.

Foote is better than Trouba. So if we are going to trade it needs to be for someone better than Foote. Hamilton is, Jones is, Ekblad is, etc.... Most have him ranked in the 30's. He should be there is we are picking top 10. he would be the future replacement for Z in 2-3 years.

As I have mentioned before, if we are in the top 5 I want either Patrick (who might drop) or Rasmussen. If we are 6th through 14th I want Foote. hague would be my backup pick if Foote is gone. I prefer Foote over Hague becasue he is the better skater and much better offensively not to mention RHed, something we need. if we get Foote we would have a top 6 like this in 2-3 years: DD-Foote Oullett-Sproul Cholowski-Marchenko Good R/L balance on each pair, with a strong offensive Dman with a strong defensive Dman. If we then add Samuelsson in the 2018 draft we could be golden for the next decade or so.

Soph slump. The league has seen him, scouted him, knows his strengths and weaknesses, and game plans for him. Now he has to mkae the adjustments. Up until the last 2-3 games he hasn't been playing C at all. he has been on the wing. The last part about Larkin is/was how good can he become offensively? That was the question when he was drafted. Everyone knew he had speed and played a 200ft game. Can he become more than a 25g 50 point guy? He had 25 goals last year and is on pace for 22 this year. Can he take the next step and get to 30 goals and 75+ points? This is his second pro season so no need to panic by anyone. Mantha is a year ahead physically and mentally in his 3rd pro year. Both should be very good to great for a long time.

Deals will happen between now and the start of next season. We are now inside of 2 months before the trade deadline. What do every PO bound team look for? More scoring, more grit, and more D. That sound like Vanek, Ott, and Green to me. Maybe a Nyquist and/or Tatar can be added to that list. Now once summer gets here-hurry up already I hate the cold and snow! It is widely believed that this will be a very busy trade market this summer because of the expansion draft. All the top teams will have players that can't cover with the 7 F, 3 D, 1 G format. This is when and were Holland needs to be alert and proactive. These are the times I look to make major moves. The Habs could be a good trade partner coming up to the deadline. They have injury issues up front and could use one more Dman. They also have been looking for a big C for several years. There are of course more teams that we can work with. It is time to do it.

That is always true with prospects. Everyone has their fav's, be it fans, scouts, draft sites, and GM's. There are very few players that everyone agrees on in most years. 1 or 2 tops. After those guys it is up to each team based on needs and type of team they want. As I mentioned earlier another guy I like is Tippett. he is rising fast on most boards. Might be the fastest F in the draft and has the best shots-slap and wrist. The negative on him was he misses too much. But with 31 goals so far that seems to be corrected.

Don't forget he resigns Tatar to a 5 year/24 million deal with a NMC this summer........

He has been trying for years and failing to land the top UFA's. Either do or do not, there is no try......

Go to the draft thread. There are videos up of the guys that I posted there. How many sites are there? Dozens. Every player has all different rankings. Rasmussen is top 5 in many of them, top 10 in the majority of them. The knock on Rasmussen before this season was he doesn't shoot enough. This year he has 29 goals in 44 games with 19 assists to date. Boyle was never that good offensively at any level. The only guy in this draft with more goals in the CHL is Tippett-another player I like, who has 31. Here is the scouting report on Rasmussen: "Large competitive centreman with skill and good feet. A gritty player with mobility who wins most board scrums, he is a dominant player in the front and below the goal line. Difficult to contain or move. He wins puck battles and scores. Intriguing prospect with upside offensively, difficult to contain, and effective vision and passing skills. He might look for the pass over shooting. Has an upright skating stride but gets there and shows jam when he greets you. Is an effective two way centre. " Of course others may disagree.

Suter and Parise say hi!

Depends on how you describe fast. he is quick side to side, but not in straight line speed. That does not mean he is slow, but he doesn't have great speed. Tatar, Abby, maybe neilson are also equal or faster at the F position. I wouldn't be surprised if DD and Sproul are faster.

Nope, 1 more year.

Larkin has been playing C the past couple of games. Finally.......