Neomaxizoomdweebie

Not for me. Would love to see them finally win a cup. Same with the Caps. What I don't want to see is a Pens 3peat or a Vegas expansion team. Which I don't think would happen anyway. Regular season success when you're playing a team once or twice with gaps of time in between doesn't always translate into postseason success. I think a good team in a 7 game series beats them easily. They kinda remind me of the 95 Nordiques. I wouldn't be surprised if they get knocked out in the first round. It would be a Lindros type return. Not worth it IMO. Acquiring him would require giving up 1st round picks for at least the next 2 years, both of which are considered deep drafts. Also, a team would have to give up their best prospects too as well as good roster players. Karlsson is a generational player, but I would rather keep the assets needed to get him.

You're right, but it doesn't matter. If he's not on the roster to start the season, there will be a lot of angry armchair GMs.

Because like most rational people, he's come to respect this team for its 2 plus decades of sustained success and the model that other franchises have tried to emulate for just as long.

There's a game?

I mean, it's true Babcock was more successful with a declining team than Blashill. But really, how much better would this team be if Bowman, Quenneville, Hitchcock, etc was coaching was coaching them? Better? Yes, but it's not like this team is a legitimate contender that's being ruined by bad coaching. Herb Brooks couldn't turn this team into a miracle.They're just a bad team, period. Could another Coach be a better fit? I think so. But I am not going to put this teams failures on one guy.

Lol, Why do you need 8 D for a playoff chase? Oh wait, its Holland. He can't give up on the playoffs.

Awesome experience. I haven't been yet. Thanks for sharing.

Huh. B. Smith and I are literally the same height and weight. I don't fight munchkins tho.

Like it or not, Holland and Blashill will be back next year. Beyond that, their chances of staying go down.

I don't know that there are any true cup contenders that can afford a $12 million dollar cap hit, and that's what JT will get. If he leaves Long Island, I don't think the team he signs with will be significantly better. Plus there's no way that someone signs him to that kind of money and he's not their 1C. Teams that need 1C's are not contenders. So unless he is willing to play a reduced role for less money on a good team or a team has the ability to pay for two top line centers, he more than likely signs with a competitive, but not elite, franchise. And I still believe that the Wings have a chance. IF they get Dahlin at the draft and appear to be getting better, it will help. Plus he would be the the face of an Original 6 franchise with 20+ years of success on the rebound.. I don't think anyone else could offer him that. If Green is healthy, I would re-sign him. Bring up Hicketts and roll with 8 D. We already have Larkin, Mantha, Z, AA, Nyquist, and Bert for the top 6. Nielsen, Abby, Helm, Frk, Glendening, and Witkowski for the bottom 6. There's room for only one more forward. IF we draft Svech, he'll be #13. That would fill the roster. It all kinda depends on how the draft goes and whether elder Svech is ready for full time NHL duty. If there is a spot open come July 1st, I wouldn't consider JVR. He's a top 6 guy and signing him pushes someone else down the lineup. If we bring in another forward I think it would be a 3rd line type guy (You know KH likes Vanek). That would be the most likely.

The one thing that gives them the edge tho is the extra year they can sign him to. The NYI can actually offer less AAV and still pay him more over the length of the contract. That gives them a better chance IMO. Even if someone else offers 12 mil x 7. The Islanders can always match the 12 and offer an 8th year. It just depends on how important that is to JT.

At least they played well against a cup contender. Played better than the Caps actually. That's a good sign that the team still cares enough to compete. Grubauer played really well or that game would have easily gone the other way. Failing to score on the 5 on 3 pretty much sealed their fate for the game IMO.

I am guessing Hicketts

So the goal would go to whichever Coyote player touched the puck last. Could you imagine if it was someone's 3rd goal of the game to complete the hat trick? How does that affect Ward's GAA and Save Percentage? I am guessing it counts against his GAA, but not his Sv pct because it wasn't a shot on goal? So would it count if the puck was stuck in an opposing skaters skate and he purposefully pushed his skate past the goal line?

When your 4th line is Robitaille, Larionov, and Holmstrom, you are the best team ever to skate in the NHL.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/hockey/news/flyers-petr-mrazek-pulled-early-against-former-team/ "...the Czech goalie appeared to have some choice words for Flyers coach Dave Hakstol upon getting the heave-ho at 9:57 in the second period." Remind you of anyone?

Fun fact: Quebec actually had two different verbal agreements in place for Lindros. First with the Flyers, than with the Rangers. When the Nordiques chose the Rangers offer, the Flyers filed a complaint with the league and it went to arbitration. The arbitrator sided with Philly, and the Nordiques were forced to honor the Flyers deal. What is so great about that story is what the name of the arbitrator was. It was...wait for it...wait for it...Larry Bertuzzi!!!!!! I kid you not. You can't make this stuff up. First Larry, then Todd. I can't wait to see what Tyler does to them someday! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Lindros_trade

Thanks for posting that. I had to look it up myself to see what the final haul was for the Nordiques. I have to say that I don't think they have the same success with Lindros. They just got too many pieces back in that trade that had a lot more of an impact than Lindros would have. The "whole is [not] greater than the sum of its parts" when it comes to the Lindros deal. The Nords traded Hextall to the Islanders the summer of 93 so they wouldn't lose him in the expansion draft for nothing. Part of that deal was the Islanders and Nordiques swapping first round picks. The Nordiques drafted Adam Deadmarsh with that pick (10th overall) and Thibault with the 14th overall pick from the Lindros deal, who was traded to MTL in the Roy deal, as you mentioned. Both guys played a role in their 96 Cup victory. Then Deadmash was traded to the Kings in the Rob Blake deal in 2001. The Avs won the Cup again that year with Blake on the blue line. What I really found interesting was who the Islanders chose with the 1st round pick they got in the swap with Quebec. Guess who it was? It was none other than Todd Bertuzzi. Think about it. If that trade hadn't happened, Bertuzzi may have been an Avs player instead of an Avs maimer. So weird how things turn out sometimes. So basically, Quebec ended up with Forsberg, Ricci, Duchesne, Simon, Roy and Deadmarsh. Six players that all contributed more than Lindros ever could. The Nordiques totally won that deal and 2 Stanley Cups thanks to Eric Lindros, who came close to winning one if not for....

Yep. I can remember "experts" (The Hockey News among others) predicting that "this will be the year the streak ends" years before it actually happened.

Thanks. I forgot about the CHL agreement with him. Unless he pulls a Larkin and performs too well at camp next year to send him down, he will probably spend a handful of games on the roster and be sent down before he hits his ten game mark. Its entirely possible he starts the following season in GR before being called up permanently. I am actually OK with this. I would rather a future top 6 forward get top line minutes in the AHL then get 4th line duty in the NHL as he develops. That's what i would have done differently with Jurco. Just my opinion tho. A bottom 6 forward would be different. Bringing up guys like Bertuzzi, Turgeon, and Frk and giving them bottom 6 minutes in the NHL allows them to be sheltered but learn their roles at the NHL level at the same time. Just how I would do it. As for keeping prospects down too long, I don't think it hurts the player as much as it does the team who is wasting contractual years on a guy by keeping him in the minors. Its certainly better than bringing up a guy too soon. I would rather a guy be "overripe" than too "green". I think the latter is more damaging to a players development. And as much as people hate the whole "overripe" thing, the only guy I can think of that was kept down longer than he should have been IMO is Nyquist. Larkin and Mantha weren't overripe when they were brought up. Signing Vanek may not be the right thing to do, but it wouldn't be blocking Svech. This is a false argument that has been overused over the years (not saying you) that UFA signings keep NHL ready kids in GR. But signing guys like Green, Daley, Nielsen, etc did not keep guys like Mantha or Larkin buried in the minors. If a guy isn't ready for full time NHL duty, he isn't ready. Bringing in veterans doesn't change that. Besides, kids make far less salary than veterans do. Why would a team with cap problems bring in more expensive UFAs to fill their roster if they have cheaper, younger alternatives available who are ready to go? That never made sense to me. I don't necessarily disagree with your premise, but its Holland so.... As for Lil' Svech, if the Wings get him, than I can see him making the roster out of camp. That might even give them the incentive to keep his big brother on the roster, but that's the only way I see it happening.

This team won't be any better next season, so they would have an equal shot at next year's 1st overall too. Dahlin will be on the roster next year if he's drafted, but I wouldn't expect to see either of Rass or Svech on the roster to start the season. Svech will probably see around 20 games or more and will be the first call up. Rass will probably play less than 10 games next season. Even w/o Tatar and Booth, you still have 12 forwards from this year carrying over to next year (assuming all RFAs are re-signed). That leaves one, maybe 2 forward spots available. If (and thats a big IF) Holland scores JT, the cap crunch wouldn't allow for anymore forwards. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if KH is looking at bringing back Vanek as a consolation prize.

Is rooting for them to lose really worth it tho if they don't pick in the top 3?

They can, like krsmith mentioned. But they are also giving up their chance to play in the NHL because the team that drafted them retains their rights and they can't play for any other NHL franchise until those rights are traded or expire. That's why unless ur a high profile prospect like Lindros who can force a trade, its unwise to do so cuz the team that holds ur rights can choose to hold on to them for 2 years for juniors and 4 years for college and european players. Then you can be signed by other NHL franchises. He wasn't a 1st rounder, but Jimmy Vesey did that recently.

I agree with this. The Legwand and Cole trades I think had more to do with the former. Same with the Weiss and Nielsen signings. I am willing to give him a pass on those. The Abby and Helm deals are on him tho. The Datsyuk-Chychryn-Cholowski thing wasn't any of those things or his fault IMO. Daley and Green were good, smart signings. Sheahan, Wilson, Sproul, Tatar, and Mazek trades all seem to be solid so far. So at this point, the only thing I am putting squarely on Holland is his penchant for overpaying/overextending pending UFAs. I am willing to give him at least one more draft, free agency and TDL to see what he can do before I start looking at replacements next year (YZERMAN).

Auston Matthews last week Not really. If this team was any good, he wouldn't be fighting. He makes way too much money for fighting to be his biggest contribution.