nawein

I think a lot of us are missing the point on the grit factor. Most of the players listed here are bottom sixers. We need grit, but we need top 6 forwards with grit. Ones with actual hockey ability. Ones like Wayne Simmonds. Guys like Glendening, Helm, Miller, Abby all can play gritty, bottom 6 hockey. We have no on in the top 6 that plays gritty AND can make plays. That's what we need. Not many players we have talked about are that. They don't grow on trees and are going to be expensive to get, but that's what we need.

I'd trade the world to get Pietrangelo. I don't think we have the assets to put a package together good enough to get him though. So a dream will remain a dream.

Offering Tatar, Almquist and a 2nd for Shattenkirk would almost ensure that St Louis never answers a phone call from you again. I agree with the sentiment though, Shattenkirk would make us a much better team.

Trade Franzen and our 1st to Edmonton for their first, then draft McDavid. Everyone wins. Except Edmonton but who cares.

And Babcock says he thinks a man is no longer effective after 9 (I think, don't remember the exact number) years in a job and next year will be his 9th year as head coach here.

I've played competitive hockey for 20 years. I listened. Did I say ever say Nyquist wasn't soft, anywhere? In fact if you look in the "what happened to Nyquist" thread, I said he should put on some muscle. We were tougher in 08, yes. We were a better team and Kronwall was a 3-4. He was also 28 years old and on a team with the greatest defenseman of a generation and arguably the one of the greatest of all time. Comparing anything about hockey now to hockey in 1997 is asinine. This is a completely different game. As far as Nyquist and Tatar not being as good as Zetterberg and Datsyuk, in their first years in the league, Zetterberg abd Datsyuk weren't as good as Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

Kronwall is a 3-4 and Nyquist doesn't backcheck? Are we being serious with this right now? A couple of kids in their first full seasons aren't as good as 2 world class forwards so let's just ignore any potential they show. Also, Nyquist is already about as good as Hudler, and better defensively. I can't get over that you said Kronwall is a 3-4. He's a number one. 2 at worst on any team in the league.

Franzen's point production per cap hit isn't terrible really, as the supporters are arguing. You guys are right, it's not that bad. BUT, anyone can put up points when playing with Datsyuk. Look at Abdelkaders numbers. Everyone here agrees that he has no business on the first line with Pav, but he is and because of it his point production has increased. Last year halfway through he got put there and started scoring. This year he put up career highs in goals and assists, playing with Pav whenever he was healthy. My point is playing with Datsyuk the majority of the time nets you probably 10-15 points more than you would get if you weren't with him. Take Pav away and Franzen's 40-45 point guy. Also before you all tell me that this year he put up decent numbers when Datsyuk was hurt, he benefited from Nyquist's insane run and there's no denying that. Franzen is a good third liner and third liners shouldn't make the 4th most money out of forwards and 6th most on the team. Or if you want to look at cap hits slide him down two spots for both. Either way, he makes too much money for the player that he is and he's consistently put in an inappropriate role. He's not going to get any better, time to move him.

I was going to bring thia up earlier but couldn't find an article to quote from. This is why I am trying to stop calling him Mule and go back to Franzen. Sometimes it slips though.

Sometimes I honestly think if we had a poll that went something along the lines of "Which would you prefer? A team of John Scott's or A team of Tomas Tatar's" The team of Scott's would win by a landslide just because "We need moar big. We need moar tough. We need moar goals and moar goals come from moar big and tough."

Just to correct something I've seen misstated a few times in this thread, Alfie made only 500k more than Franzen this year. Franzens cap hit is just under 4, his salary this year was 5.

I'd like to see Nyquist try to put on a little upper body strength. I think it could go a long way in battles in the corners. I also want to see him playing with Z because I think if he gets to first hand see how Z plays it'll go a long way in his development.

They also all make under 1 million and aren't 34 years old and declining. Franzen can be an effective defensive forward good for 50 points a year but that's not what he's here for. He's here to be our goal scored and until he's gone people will get pissed when he doesn't score goals. The guy doesn't suck, he's just in the wrong role. Which is why I say we should trade him. Someone will give us something for him.

Predators have never had even an average offense. Their best offensive forward just played on our 4th line.

If we're going to have a conversation about this in the main forum, mods can you go ahead and delete this.

I agree with the Ouellet part but at this point it's exactly what you said, potential. As for Smith being better that McDonagh in a year or two, no way. McDonagh is already a number one guy. He plays a better offensive game than Smith, he's miles ahead defensively and has a huge edge in the mental aspect. He plays both PP and PK, and about 25 minutes a night. And he's a bit younger than Smith. Smith will be a good offensive defenseman surely, but you're not going to get a young number one guy for Franzen.

Griffs win a 2ot thriller tonight! Sproul with the winner and Mrazek made 55 saves in the 2-1 victory. Backman also scored with assists from Athanasiou and Nestrasil. Paestch and Nastasuik had the helpers on Sprouls goal.

I'd trade him for Dwight Kings rights. Someone will give something for him.

Everyone keeps saying bring him back on a 1 year deal because he won a lot of games last year and played pretty well. You guys do realize he's going to want to be a starter, want more money than we want to give our backup, and probably a little job security past next season, right? He's earned that. If he signs a 1 year deal it will probably be with a team like Edmonton so he can prove he can be an everyday starter. I'd be very surprised if wanted to sign a 1 year deal with us.

I could watch this all day. His reaction is priceless.

Didn't Vokoun say he was done after this year? Or essentially along those lines anyways?

This is all true. I still think I'd rather have him than any of the others though, except maybe Nabokov. I'm on the fence about him. Brodeur isn't very good anymore and wants to start, Dubnyk has lost pretty much every job he's had this year,and Bryz is weird and wouldn't mesh well at all with the way we do things here. Like you said, Reimer was brutal down the stretch. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt though. His team was playing poorly, he was a backup in a starting role trying to keep his team in the playoffs, he was a goalie in Toronto and all the fans were on him really hard, and Carlyle essentially told the media that he had no confidence in him. All of that on a young guy can't be easy, especially when you're already down on yourself because you can't seem to get a win even when you do make a few good saves. His confidence was shattered, something that wouldn't happen here because that's not how we do things. I don't think he's going to suddenly turn into Tukka Rask, but I think he could be a suitable backup while Mrazek gets one more year of seasoning. Of course as always I could be wrong and it could turn out horribly and we trade a few NHL ready pieces for some blown games. I'm just tryong to come up with a way to keep Petr in GR because I don't think Gus is going to be willing to sign a 1 year deal after the year he had this year.

Franzen, Smith, Pulks/Ouellet, this years first rounder for Ryan McDonagh. If they want Tatar instead of the first or prospect, I still might pull the trigger. A top 4 of McDonagh-DK and Kronner-E makes me much more comfortable than what we've got now. I can only hope Sather is overwhelmed be the sheer number of NHL pieces coming his way and accepts.

Hoping for a Zetterbeard return and a tied series tonight! Especially because that means I'll for sure be at game 6. Let's get it done boys!

What we really need is a goalie willing to sign a 1 year deal. The problem with that is that there aren't many around. Nabokov, Bryz, Brodeur, and Dubnyk are the only ones that I could foresee possibly signing one year deals. But do we really want any of those guys? I don't. Maybe Nabokov but he was mediocre at best this year. If Gustavsson wants to stay on a 1 year deal I'd be okay with seeing him in the winged wheel. If not, I'd definitely bring up Mrazek simply due to lack of other viable back up options. Maybe Toronto would trade us Reimer's rights for our scraps. Callahan and Ferraro or something late at the draft. He could sign a 1 year deal as a show-me contract that would bring him into ufa status.