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2022-2023 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread

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Celtic Note said:
I hear you. I would be surprised if we were a pretender by next year though, even in a bad West. Some coaching changes may help us net something like 20 more points with the roster we had? That’s an in the playoffs number, but we sort of lost a whole 1B /2A forward line, a 3rd liner and a strong fourth liner since last season. We might not have taken it too the studs in all rooms, but it’s still a heavy remodel. Plus, we have got to fix that D. It might pass the ole McGiver muster, but spit and ducktape only holds for so long. I know I am probably droning on a bit about these points in my posts, I just haven’t seen anything I would consider a good answer to how we get competitive or even fix or D by next year yet.
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Bigger problem for next year is missing 3 top 6 forwards from last year's team. the d is largely coaching issue. not saying that the d will be championship level, but the pieces aren't awful. moving out a d or 2 is about rebalancing payroll and realizing that these guys will be lesser by the time we are a contender, notsomuch that they can't be good enough to be a pretender if we have competent coaching.
 
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Louie the Blue said:
So, how bad is next season going to be?
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Even after all the moves, I still think we have more baseline talent on our roster than the true dumpster teams. I think we'll finish in the 6-10 draft spot range again. And I PRAY that the 2024 draft has multiple D prospects in the top 10.
 
LetsGoBooze said:
DA selling off early was huge. We ended up with 2023 1sts from teams who look like they are moving multiple years worth of 1sts (Tor, and soon to be NYR?) Although i guess NYR still has their "earlier of the two" 1sts in 2023. But who knows, if Kane went to NYR first that coulda tanked Tarasenkos value or they literally could had offered us the 2024 first and we woulda had to accept it. Im happy with all these deadline moves. Follow it up by moving Krug in the offseason, a few savvy FA additions and we can be right back competing for the playoffs by 2025.
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I also think he was loading bullets in the chamber to position himself to buy young talent at the deadline if the opportunity presented itself.
 
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Blueston said:
Bigger problem for next year is missing 3 top 6 forwards from last year's team. the d is largely coaching issue. not saying that the d will be championship level, but the pieces aren't awful. moving out a d or 2 is about rebalancing payroll and realizing that these guys will be lesser by the time we are a contender, notsomuch that they can't be good enough to be a pretender if we have competent coaching.
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I think the D is largely a coaching issue minus Krug. It’s really hard to have a top 4 D that you have to shelter without a #1 D. I also think our team D has gone to shit and it’s been more than just this year.

Honestly, I would clear house with the assistant coaches. Ott out, Van Ryn out and McTavich (I don’t care if I spelled his name wrong because…) he can take take a trip to the moon.
 
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Celtic Note said:
I think the D is largely a coaching issue minus Krug. It’s really hard to have a top 4 D that you have to shelter without a #1 D. I also think our team D has gone to shit and it’s been more than just this year.

Honestly, I would clear house with the assistant coaches. Ott out, Van Ryn out and McTavich (I don’t care if I spelled his name wrong because…) he can take take a trip to the moon.
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Ott can stay. The rest have to go this offseason.
 
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Brian39 said:
I think 'pretender phase' sells a hell of a lot more regular season tickets than 'start of an obvious long term rebuild' would. I'm not all that interested in a plan to just try to make the playoffs, but that is almost certainly better financially than tanking even if it costs the team a few million dollars more in payroll.

The West sucks at the moment. Looking toward next year, I'm not predicting a massive improvement. Minnesota eats an additional $2M in cap penalties and isn't going to be able to extend Dumba. Winnipeg probably isn't going to get an extension done with Dubois. Colorado is probably going to see some depth price themselves off the team. Seattle and LA don't have big cap squeezes coming, but I'm not expecting either to take another step (or two) into elite territory. Edmonton is still a deeply flawed roster with cap issues and Calgary has a ton of decisions to make that will be more difficult given the frustrating season they've had.

There are a ton of avenues to parlay some of the assets we just accumulated into a team that can be middle of the pack in the West and reasonably sell the notion that 'anything can happen' once the playoffs start in this middling conference. Again, I'm not interested in that. But from a dollars and cents perspective it is probably more appealing to spend a bit more on payroll to do that than to sell everything not bolted down and play in front of 12k fans a night.
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There are a few teams that I would put in the "powerhouse" column of a strong roster, culture, and team-play but there are far fewer than there have been the last half decade, IMO. We're clearly seeing the effects of the flat cap. If there was a time to "re-whatever" this is a pretty good moment to choose.

...I would've preferred last summer, but...

All that said, unless a miracle happens (i.e. we hit the lottery and also hit on P9s scenario of bringing in a a blue-chip D that hits beyond the senders expectations) I feel like we're destined for a repeat of the Oshie years. Without the marketability. Downtown was a bit of a different situation then vs. now, so maybe we're more willing to ride the "experience" train to hit revenue goals, but I share your overall concern of the organization NEEDING to flirt with the playoffs.

Chicago taking the build through the lottery path with unlimited cap-space for years 24-26 makes we nervous to no-end. I think it's fair to say building that way has a greater chance of "BOOM" if you stay patient, but also...what happens in Edmonton over that span has the potential to be some of the biggest shifts in power we've seen in the league in a long time.
 
Blueston said:
Bigger problem for next year is missing 3 top 6 forwards from last year's team. the d is largely coaching issue. not saying that the d will be championship level, but the pieces aren't awful. moving out a d or 2 is about rebalancing payroll and realizing that these guys will be lesser by the time we are a contender, notsomuch that they can't be good enough to be a pretender if we have competent coaching.
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The problem is this is the ultimate trap. I do think we're close to the playoffs than a lot of people here think, assuming we get competent coaching next year. It's not hard to see us do that, maybe re-sign O'Reilly, and then sneak in in a weak western conference. But that just puts us in the trap of not being bad enough to really build a true contender and not being good enough to truly contend.

Maybe there's another Lindholm available in the future where if Army is ready we can take a significant step forward. I'm not familiar enough with the entire league to make any prediction on that happening, and part of it is also just going to be players developing in unexpected ways and changing roster dynamics.

I'm also not sure Army can make it happen. He's had a decent track record with unexpected trades, but he also seems to do a lot of we need X so sign the best X and ignore play style/value/fit. I don't have faith he can identify a defenseman who may be undervalued by someone else but may be primed to take another step with us. That's also a problem with the team's identity; what is the type of player who may be undervalued for the type of roster we're trying to build? We used to be a team built around defensively responsible forwards and forechecking but that certainly isn't our identity now, and maybe it shouldn't be with Kyrou, Thomas, and Krug as long term parts of the roster. I don't know.

Just going to sit back, pray we win the lottery, and hope Army works some magic.
 
LetsGoBooze said:
Even after all the moves, I still think we have more baseline talent on our roster than the true dumpster teams. I think we'll finish in the 6-10 draft spot range again. And I PRAY that the 2024 draft has multiple D prospects in the top 10.
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That, they do. I would only put Reinbacher and Sandin-Pellikka in the first round this year, and they're honestly not up to the standards I'd want for our defense (to be fair, though, there's a lot of good defensemen that should be available in the second and third rounds this year). There's a lot more first round-caliber defensemen next year, even though it's a weaker class.
 
From Twitter.

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Vladys Gumption said:
What do people think about bringing Sundqvist back on a one year deal for next season? I can’t help but feel like he could help us down the lineup. And we’re familiar with him.
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I would for sure. But what is keeping Detroit from resigning him? I feel like he's a perfect fit on their team as they continue to work back into a playoff team.
 
Vladys Gumption said:
What do people think about bringing Sundqvist back on a one year deal for next season? I can’t help but feel like he could help us down the lineup. And we’re familiar with him.
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A one-year deal so we can trade him to another team at the deadline? Absolutely. Would he sign a one-year deal if he knew it was a possibility? That, I'm less sure about.
 
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mk80 said:
I would for sure. But what is keeping Detroit from resigning him? I feel like he's a perfect fit on their team as they continue to work back into a playoff team.
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I’m sure they’d like him for the same reasons I want him back. I’m more just spitballing because I think we need a player like him to help the bottom six.
 
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Vladys Gumption said:
What do people think about bringing Sundqvist back on a one year deal for next season? I can’t help but feel like he could help us down the lineup. And we’re familiar with him.
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For a cheap price and short term? Yep! Sign me up.

Louie the Blue said:
Why bring back a guy who will be 30 next season when this team likely won’t be trying to win for a few years?
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Because they’re still going to have to ice a team. And they’ll likely want to settle on an identity early on. My guess is, lunch pail hard work. Sunny would be perfect for that.

He’d help the 4th line, works hard and we already know he’s a great fit in the room. And he’d be cheap.
 
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Louie the Blue said:
Why bring back a guy who will be 30 next season when this team likely won’t be trying to win for a few years?
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Well firstly, because Armstrong has made it pretty clear he doesn’t intend for this to be a prolonged rebuild. And secondly, I have no interest in following Edmonton’s path where losing because acceptable. I want guys who are willing to play balls to the wall and set a good example for the young players.
 
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Vladys Gumption said:
Well firstly, because Armstrong has made it pretty clear he doesn’t intend for this to be a prolonged rebuild. And secondly, I have no interest in following Edmonton’s path were losing because acceptable. I want guys who are willing to play balls to the wall and set a good example for the young players.
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I get that but there’s other ways of doing that than signing someone who isn’t the same player he was 4 years ago just to skate and set an example.
And if that’s the case where losing isn’t acceptable, Armstrong openly gave up on this season and probably next with his moves. He accepted losing (which he was right to do).

STL fan in IA said:
Because they’re still going to have to ice a team. And they’ll likely want to settle on an identity early on. My guess is, lunch pail hard work. Sunny would be perfect for that.

He’d help the 4th line, works hard and we already know he’s a great fit in the room. And he’d be cheap.
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Would rather just play someone from Springfield than sign someone whose best hockey is behind him.
 
Louie the Blue said:
I get that but there’s other ways of doing that than signing someone who isn’t the same player he was 4 years ago just to skate and set an example.
And if that’s the case where losing isn’t acceptable, Armstrong openly gave up on this season and probably next with his moves. He accepted losing (which he was right to do).


Would rather just play someone from Springfield than sign someone whose best hockey is behind him.
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I’ve watched quite a bit of Detroit this year. Sundqvist is still a solid player down the lineup.
 
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I always figured that Sunny would make his way back here at some point, but I do wonder with a lot of the former teammates gone, will his desire to return go down, or is the draw more than just being around the players, but the city and organization itself. I think Sunny would be a great bottom 6 mentor for a lot of the young guys that we'll have coming up.
 
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