This only takes into account his play this year. Not only a small sample size, but games in which he's averaging his lowest ToI on a bad Preds team, painfully mismanaged by John Hynes. NAK had worse underlyings when the Avs claimed him last season and that worked out just fine. Can't have enough depth, especially right now at a manageable cap hit.
Nashville doesn't play the kind of offensive up-tempo style the Avs do, which gives me hope about him landing onto more of a fast-break team to utilize that great shot he has. He's just not the best skater, which would definitely be a concern.
Not so sure about that--unless I'm wrong, John Hynes absolutely loves creating rush chances, he is the king of one-and-done (seriously, they did a breakdown about how he has the guy on the wing cut toward the middle and fast up the ice on 3-on-2s to make them 2-on-1s, which are way more dangerous, dude knows how to craft a good rush). I know they grind a lot more in Nashville but IMO they still utilize speed, especially when the puck is on Josi's stick.
Issue is that if we are the only team interested in him, then we're on the hook for approximately $750K if we send him down and no one claims him. It's potentially not as simple as just being able to bury the entire cap hit. I would assume that Polie let all other GMs this guy was available for peanuts before waiving him.
If you know his X's and O's I'll certainly relent. I just think he likes to overload the slot which leads to a lot of perimeter play and not a ton of shot attempts, which may explain Tolvanen's scoring struggles a bit. Regardless, there's no question that the Avs play at a much higher tempo with a much higher skill ceiling, something you'd hope he'd immediately benefit from.
EK's resurgence is the best thing here IMO.
Makar needs to start scoring a lot of goals if he wants a shot at the Norris this year.
Still too early, but Makar isn't close to the Norris talk. Right now EK and Dahlin are far ahead of the pack. Morrissey, Heiskanen, and Fox are in the next group with Makar, Serg, Theo, and Hamiltion nipping at their heels. So Makar needs to finish the season better than he's been playing. It would help his case if he was shouldering the load with the injuries as right now it strengthens the arguments against him (which are kinda dumb IMO).
I'll be a bit surprised if Anaheim doesn't claim him.
I’ve liked Foudy a lot, but I don’t think ending the season in Loveland would be that bad. There’s clearly a player there in Foudy, but I think some big minutes in the A could be pretty beneficial for him.
He has gotten middle 6 minutes there for some time. playing at NHL speed would be more beneficial imo.
