ChristopherReevesLegs

I wouldn't say XO is a top 4 Dman yet.

Yeah it's pretty much a requirement. It's not really surprising Bergevin went hard after him and Julien accepted.

St. Cloud is having a bad year in general

J'attends avec impatience le printemps

Only bad coaches get fired midseason

What Babs did was worse. They fired Julien on their own volition. If my boss fired me tomorow, first thing I'd do is call up the biggest competitor and let them know I'm available.

The Blues won 3 games AND the Bruins won 4 games after firing their coaches??? Clearly this small sample proves it. Open and shut case boys. Fire the entire coaching staff. We might still have a shot at the postseason now that we've discovered this one weird trick that GMs dont want you to know.

Nope. Id choose MTL too. Theyre first in the league. Plus theyre both french canadians so it fits.

Neither of us are asserting that he did. We don't know if he did or didn't. Just like you don't know if he did or didn't. Yet you stand here claiming he never placed a phone call to any of them. That's straight BS

Dude, you say you're not mad about the Nielsen signing, but then you go on to explain why it is exactly Nielsens contract as to why you have a problem with the deal. All in the same post. If Holland had dumped Datsyuks contract and signed Stamkos in UFA would you have had a problem with the Chychrun deal?

Let me get this straight... Holland didn't hire any of them, therefore he never spoke with any them? Are you being serious? Like I said, you don't have a source saying Holland did not try on any of them. You're making stuff up and trying to pass it off as truth.

Source? Who am I kidding, you dont have one. Just making stuff up to fit your narative per usual. You have absolutely no idea, Holland may have called all 3, he may even have plans to bring 1 of the remaining 2 in this offseason. Your argument is founded on absolutely nothing.

This should be a fun thread where we laugh and point at Boston for giving away their elite level coach to their bitter rivals (don't bring up Babcock plz it hurts too much) but no, it's a Holland bashing thread already... and it hasn't even been reported that Holland didn't speak to Julien. This is why we can't have nice things.

Where did you hear this? All the article says is at least one other team spoke with him. And Freidman is reporting that more than a few teams spoke with him, but Bergevin moved very quickly. Again, where are you hearing this?

Good point. You're hired... Now that you're hired, you're fired.

True, they certainly don't have that weapon in their arsenal with an NTC. At that point your probably looking at a buy out anyway though.

Does take Balls. He's taken a lot of heat for being too loyal to Therrien and trading PK. I think Weber has worked out great for them though, Radulov was huge pick up for them, and now he's canned his BFF for his bitter rivals coach. I'm still lol-ing over here. Didn't Julien replace Therrien last time too??? Circle of life. Can't believe it actually happened.

So the difference is NTC restricts trade and NMC restricts trade and being sent down. So, speaking to your original point, why is harder to trade Bieksa with an NMC than it is with an NTC?

Bergevin is a mad man

They do that for Tampa, Dallas, and Toronto now

Scouting. Wheaton, McNulty, McKee... lots of wasted picks at defense. True. Q is weird. I think injuries slowed him down right before he got to us. He was LA's most leaned on D-man outside of Doughty, and was Colorado's top D-man for at least 1 season before the injuries happened. Then he gets here and is complete garbage. NJD has been using him in the #6 spot and he's been scratched a bit this season too. Although the Avs and Kings were pretty bad on the blueline those years I think.

Looking back it was definitely an overpayment. Holland knew he was losing Stuart after the season, so Quincey was his attempt to offset that loss. Losing Stuart at the time was big loss. Ken obviously really wanted Q because he was a former Red Wing that he had drafted. So I'm guessing the overpayment was a combination of him willing to overpay for that particular player, and a thank you to Yzerman for helping him get the guy out of Colorado. Quincey just wasn't what we expected. He flourished in LA, but lost his touch after. What's the big difference?

Wasn't counting Renouf and De Haas in my head mostly cause I don't think they'll ever make the team, but I could be wrong and perhaps I shouldn't have written them off. With Malmstrom, Sambrook, and Cholowski it's too early to tell. Of the rest the only ones that seem to be of note to me are Hronek, Hicketts, Russo, and Saarijarvi. Hopefully Hronek and Saarijarvi turn out to be something, cause Hicketts and Russo look like bottom pairing guys to me at best. To clarify, my biggest issue with our D is we haven't trained a top 4 Dman since Kronwall. Kronwall assumed a full role with the team in 06, so It's been 10 years. We've trained plenty of bottom pairing guys but that's it. A lot of our D prospects seem to be more of that.

Yeah those 3 are all smaller Rafalski types, but boy all three can really move the puck up ice. Don't forget we also have Holway and Malmstrom on top of Sambrook. Both seem to be bigger and more defensively minded. It's ridiculous how few D-men we have in the system right now with how big that need is for us.