2024/2025 Around the League

[Tommy Shelby]

Watching Habs and Nucks fans going at it in the Hutson thread is fun

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

Stolen from the mains, but here's the current awards watch from The Athletic. Thoughts?

It's funny to see just how dominant Makar is. What a treat it is to have him play for us. I keep seeing people say how Hughes is a better D-man than Makar, these ratings disagree there.

I am somewhat surprised to not see Lehky in the running for Selke, because he's an absolutely two way monster.

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

It's funny to see just how dominant Makar is. What a treat it is to have him play for us. I keep seeing people say how Hughes is a better D-man than Makar, these ratings disagree there.

Propaganda machine has been in full force for the past year ever since Avs fans started complaining about Makar's defense for not being Bobby Orr level.

 

[Pokecheque]

What's crazy to me is that I still feel like MacKinnon is "off" a bit and he's leading the league in scoring.

 

[dmac7719]

What's crazy to me is that I still feel like MacKinnon is "off" a bit and he's leading the league in scoring.

He has to be "off" so that the score stays close enough so that him and Rants can get their empty net points

 

[Chiarelli]

Seattle is the poor man’s Western version of Carolina. Deep team, boring hockey.

 

[Pokecheque]

Seattle is the poor man’s Western version of Carolina. Deep team, boring hockey.

I still laugh at the fact that Jessica Campbell is likely screaming internally every game.

And sure enough, Ron Francis went out of his way to build a team that's supposed to win games 2-1 and 1-0 but then threw money at a goalie who absolutely can't do the 1 or 0 part.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

F*** what I wouldn't do to have Reinhart on this team

 

[Balthazar]

I still laugh at the fact that Jessica Campbell is likely screaming internally every game.

And sure enough, Ron Francis went out of his way to build a team that's supposed to win games 2-1 and 1-0 but then threw money at a goalie who absolutely can't do the 1 or 0 part.

Joey Daccord is doing OK.

 

[Vaslof]

Propaganda machine has been in full force for the past year ever since Avs fans started complaining about Makar's defense for not being Bobby Orr level.

I remember reading posts here on our board about how Makar is past his prime, those posts were like 2-3 years ago.

 

[Gumballhead]

That dude in the KHL dropping the cell phone on the ice was legendary, and even better was his excuse. He said the phone fell into his hockey pants in the locker room

Pravda

 

[Pokecheque]

Joey Daccord is doing OK.

Which makes that Grubauer contract even worse because they have a backup making $5.9 million per for the next two seasons after this one. And now they gotta find a way to flip him because otherwise they'll have a goalie tandem making $10.9 million combined next year.

They should've just stuck with cheap goaltending and let come what may. I'm actually surprised Francis built such a boring team. IIRC the Pens teams he was on were as run-and-gun as they come. The Hurricanes teams he was on later in his career were obviously stingy but I figured he'd be all about offense given the type of player he was. Nope.

Good heavens what an insanely expensive roster for how mediocre it is. They're paying over SIX MILLION per year for a 30-year-old Chandler Stephenson? For the next six years after this!?!?!?

 

[hockeyfish]

Which makes that Grubauer contract even worse because they have a backup making $5.9 million per for the next two seasons after this one. And now they gotta find a way to flip him because otherwise they'll have a goalie tandem making $10.9 million combined next year.

Good heavens what an insanely expensive roster for how mediocre it is. They're paying over SIX MILLION per year for a 30-year-old Chandler Stephenson? For the next six years after this!?!?!?

Yeah, that team is just poorly built. Lots of expensive 2-3 line guys with zero game breaking talent. It started with a very poor expansion and has not gotten better. Their only playoff season was fueled by a crazy high 10.34 shooting percent. Everything else has been a mess.

But I like the arena.

 

[Pokecheque]

Yeah, that team is just poorly built. Lots of expensive 2-3 line guys with zero game breaking talent. It started with a very poor expansion and has not gotten better. Their only playoff season was fueled by a crazy high 10.34 shooting percent. Everything else has been a mess.

But I like the arena.

It's crazy how they went about building that while keeping the original roof and how the majority of it is actually underground, but yeah they went exactly in the wrong direction. If it were me I would've tried to put together the fastest, most skilled roster I could possibly assemble and then scooped up some bargain bin goalies, and then watch what happened (I most certainly wouldn't have hired Hakstol to be the first head coach either). Probably would be a disaster on the ice, but it would be a fun disaster on the ice, and they'd be getting good picks in the draft as a result. Instead they decided to go with the biggest, slowest, least skilled blueline they possibly could to start, and only started adding skill and speed after the fact.

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

I remember reading posts here on our board about how Makar is past his prime, those posts were like 2-3 years ago.

It's unreal how spoiled some fans have gotten by him. He's easily the best defender in the league, just quietly goes about his business game in and game out. We will probably never see another player like him on this team and yet some people have issues with his game. Advanced stats aren't everything.

 

[hockeyfish]

It's crazy how they went about building that while keeping the original roof and how the majority of it is actually underground, but yeah they went exactly in the wrong direction. If it were me I would've tried to put together the fastest, most skilled roster I could possibly assemble and then scooped up some bargain bin goalies, and then watch what happened (I most certainly wouldn't have hired Hakstol to be the first head coach either). Probably would be a disaster on the ice, but it would be a fun disaster on the ice, and they'd be getting good picks in the draft as a result. Instead they decided to go with the biggest, slowest, least skilled blueline they possibly could to start, and only started adding skill and speed after the fact.

I will say though that they kind of got boned by having their 1st two drafts be really shitty draft years.

 

[Pokecheque]

I will say though that they kind of got boned by having their 1st two drafts be really shitty draft years.

Yeah, you have a valid point there. Ironically, the one draft where they likely would've found a really good player was in 2023 when they made the playoffs.

 

[Gumballhead]

It's unreal how spoiled some fans have gotten by him. He's easily the best defender in the league, just quietly goes about his business game in and game out. We will probably never see another player like him on this team and yet some people have issues with his game. Advanced stats aren't everything.

I mean - how do y'all feel when you see he's on the ice, emotionally? I feel f***ing awesome any time he's on the ice. He's the best.

 

[The Kingslayer]

What's crazy to me is that I still feel like MacKinnon is "off" a bit and he's leading the league in scoring.

Thats how talented this guy is. He looks meh and hes still a unit.

Lane Hutson is special nobody should be arguing that especially not Nucks fans who have the better version in Hughes.

Leon for MVP makes sense especially when you see his defensive numbers.

 

[The Merchant]

 

[Balthazar]

Lane Hutson is special nobody should be arguing that especially not Nucks fans who have the better version in Hughes.

Hutson is a pretty unique player with an unknown ceiling. He's tiny, he's not a fast skater and doesn't have a good shot. However he has the ability to slow everything down (almost to a stop) and then use his size to his advantage to make plays. His entire game is based on hockey IQ and head fakes.

His IQ is sky high though and his ability to pass the puck is pretty insane. It seems like every other shift there's a linemate that is getting the puck from him without expecting it. They'll have to learn to play with him.

IMO he's their best player (until Demidov at least) and they got him in the 2nd round. Unexpected for a team that got this many top picks in the last ~5 years.

 

[Balthazar]

Seems like there's no going back

 

[Balthazar]

His issues with EP40 aren’t hockey related, sadly.

Could it be related to this?

If so now everything makes sense.

 

[Metallo]

First replay from the moon was fire!

Also don't shoot at the goalie.

 

[Foppa2118]

Could it be related to this?

If so now everything makes sense.

Seems doubtful. I don't know either way, but these rumors seems to happen often, without them being true.

If they were trying to make it work between them, it's not this. You don't make things work with a teammate that banged your wife.