Rumor: 2024-2025 Trade Rumors and Free Agency Talk | The Slow Crawl to the Season

[AvsMakar08]

No Kyllington thread(Or is it made by someone I have on ignore lol)?

Really good signing but I also feel it creates more cap questions.

I saw an avenue for them to get compliant by the time Nuke was ready to return on November 14th... Not sure I see that avenue now.

This is what happens when you start blocking people. You start missing out on things.

 

[Raucherhusten]

This is what happens when you start blocking people. You start missing out on things.

Also, your sleep is much, much better because of it!

 

[John Mandalorian]

There situations involving the obvious in Landeskog and Nichushkin are insane. I hate that we’re in this spot. Yea we know Landeskog is gonna come back and attempt to play this year, but like, when? Late October/early November? Or TDL time? Can we get like a rough estimate Avs brass? Maybe we’ll know more after camp.

For two years theyve been projecting Landeskog to come back. He was projected to come back during the 1st or 2nd round of the playoffs. Didnt happen. Its not a good sign. And even if he does come back, for how long?

 

[MacKaRant]

Also, your sleep is much, much better because of it!

Maybe Nichushkin should have just blocked people instead of using coke?

 

[shadow1]

Parise will be the biggest loss of that group. He was more impactful than Trenin. The day 1 forward group just doesn't look all that strong:

Drouin-Mack-Rants
Wood-Mitts-LOC
Kovalenko-Colton-Kivi
Kelly-Wager-Polin

That's a bottom 10 forward group. Top line... Mitts and a bunch of flawed bottom 6ers. Now if one (or both) of Lehky or Landy are ready to go that certainly helps a lot. But that doesn't elevate a ton, it just gets the 2nd line up to snuff. Until Nuke comes back and if health persists, the forward group will be a weakness and reliant on the top line carrying things.

The team as a whole for the first 10-15 is a weak forward group, bad goaltending, and a good (but soft) defense. Luckily in the regular season, you can get away with a soft defense and a good defense raises the floor. What it will take to start hot is George being good and the top line to take over games and play 22-24 minutes. If anything falters there... getting to Nuke and Lehky's return might be about holding to .550 hockey.

Vegas was proactive in replacing their departures during the season... Martinez to Hanifin. Stephenson to Hertl. Both of those are sizable upgrades. The one they didn't do that with was Marchy. Where I don't think Holtz is the guy that replaces him but Brisson is. Holtz is more insurance. Their forward group looks like:

Barbashev-Eichel-Brisson
Dorofeyev-Hertl-Stone
Olofsson-Karlsson-Holtz
Howden-Roy-Kolesar

Their defense projects as:
Hanifin-Pietrangelo
McNabb-Theodore
Hauge-Whitecloud

They are really strong down the middle. Eichel and Hertl are both 1C capable guys. Hertl is more of a question on age, injuries and regression. Karlsson is still a very good 3C and Roy would be a 3C on most teams. Where Vegas is weaker is on wing. They are talented but flawed. I hate Olofsson as a player and I think that will blow up in their faces. Brisson is a gem though and should step in as a 2nd line quality player. Doro showed NHL ability needs NHL consistency. Stone and Barbie are good top 6 players and fit Vegas like glove. The defense is still strong, need to not regress.

All that said, Vegas is just a playoff team as they sit. Night 1, their roster looks way better because of their advantage at forward. There isn't enough though. When they eventually pull off the Theodore/Marner trade... that's when they could elevate back up.

I mean yeah, at the end of the day, Colorado is essentially Minnesota right now with $13.125M in "dead" space, and that doesn't even include Lehkonen's early-season availability.

But with a similarly flawed line-up, they still plowed through most of the NHL last season. Below is a snapshot/representation of last year's club pre-BUF/PHI trades, based on games played:

LW	C	RW
Lehkonen (28GP)/Nichushkin (40GP)	MacKinnon (63 GP)	Rantanen (63 GP)
Drouin (61 GP)	Johansen (63 GP)	Kiviranta (48 GP)
Wood (58 GP)	Colton (61 GP)	O'Connor (57 GP)
MacDermid (29 GP)	Olofsson (55 GP)	Cogliano (56 GP)

It's a horrible line-up, and we all know they won by overplaying their top guys. But with Mittelstadt in the mix, and the potential of Landeskog/Nichushkin (and if not, $13M in deadline cap space), this year's team should be better up front.

For Vegas, there's no denying they're a good team. They smartly backfilled a lot of their expiring players last year, but those two groups overlapped at the end of last, and the result was a first-round exit. And like you said, they didn't replace Marchessault, which is big. There are just more question marks than in past years.

 

[henchman21]

I mean yeah, at the end of the day, Colorado is essentially Minnesota right now with $13.125M in "dead" space, and that doesn't even include Lehkonen's early-season availability.

But with a similarly flawed line-up, they still plowed through most of the NHL last season. Below is a snapshot/representation of last year's club pre-BUF/PHI trades, based on games played:

LW	C	RW
Lehkonen (28GP)/Nichushkin (40GP)	MacKinnon (63 GP)	Rantanen (63 GP)
Drouin (61 GP)	Johansen (63 GP)	Kiviranta (48 GP)
Wood (58 GP)	Colton (61 GP)	O'Connor (57 GP)
MacDermid (29 GP)	Olofsson (55 GP)	Cogliano (56 GP)

It's a horrible line-up, and we all know they won by overplaying their top guys. But with Mittelstadt in the mix, and the potential of Landeskog/Nichushkin (and if not, $13M in deadline cap space), this year's team should be better up front.

For Vegas, there's no denying they're a good team. They smartly backfilled a lot of their expiring players last year, but those two groups overlapped at the end of last, and the result was a first-round exit. And like you said, they didn't replace Marchessault, which is big. There are just more question marks than in past years.

I'd say if things all click, the team is better up front. It came at the expense of defense, but that was needed to balance the team. To start the season, it looks pretty rough up front. I don't think it is a big deal for the whole season, just the start is going to look like 18-19's forwards or worse.

Vegas rushed a bunch of guys back and they had to face Dallas where they gave them more of a fight than the Avs did. Still they didn't get it done. That team should pretty easily be a playoff team. Being more than that will be up to their trades (kinda like the Avs).

 

[GoNordiquesGo]

Did you see the moves some of those teams made? Know their youth?

Yes
Ana, SJ, Clb and Chi remains the likeliest teams to finish last in their respective divisions, IMHO.

 

[henchman21]

Yes
Ana, SJ, Clb and Chi remains the likeliest teams to finish last in their respective divisions, IMHO.

 

[GoNordiquesGo]

You're very good at skating in circle. I still don't understand why you're saying that that group of 10 games is not a soft schedule... It doesn't mean the Avs will go 10-0... Hell the Avs have their shitload of uncertainty themselves to start the season. But the Avs situation has nothing to do with the strength of their opponent...

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Where do we actually stand with regards to Landeskog and O'Connor. My understanding was that when the team broke for the summer, both guys were on target to be ready for camp.

I certainly understand and have also readied myself for Landy maybe not being fully ready but what is the concern with LOC not getting back into shape by then? Is this just us being all "The sky is falling" like normal, or is there a real medical opinion stating that his recovery could take longer?

 

[henchman21]

You're very good at skating in circle. I still don't understand why you're saying that that group of 10 games is not a soft schedule... It doesn't mean the Avs will go 10-0... Hell the Avs have their shitload of uncertainty themselves to start the season. But the Avs situation has nothing to do with the strength of their opponent...

I'm simply saying that 6 of those teams should be in the playoff hunt. There are certainly 4 weaker teams in there. Of those teams Anaheim, Columbus and Chicago... especially Chicago should improve. San Jose will be trash for another season. They may not be teams in the playoff hunt, but more 70-75-maybe 80 point teams. When you take any 10 game stretch, you'll end up with somewhere between 5-7 playoff hunt (or better) teams and 3-5 lottery teams. There are usually a couple outliers in each season... where one is especially tough and one is especially easy. This stretch isn't the toughest. It also isn't super weak either.

When you combine that with a forward group that could have Wood and LOC in the top 6, it isn't a stretch to say some struggles may occur in that stretch. Now, knowing Bednar, he'll just play the F out of MacK and Makar to ride them to victory, long-term implications be damned.

 

[dahrougem2]

Vegas misses the playoffs next season.

 

[missionAvs]

Vegas misses the playoffs next season.

No way. Pacific is going to end Oilers-Canucks-Vegas in that order.

 

[dahrougem2]

No way. Pacific is going to end Oilers-Canucks-Vegas in that order.

Did you see that team's record after their first, what, 13 games? They SHOULD have missed last season, too.

Now they've lost Marchessault and replaced him with Victor Olofsson. Goaltending was highly suspect last season, too.

I would not be surprised if it's Oilers/Canucks/Kings and the two wildcard spots come from the Central.

Personally I think all of Colorado, Dallas, Winnipeg, Nashville, and Utah make the playoffs.

 

[missionAvs]

Did you see that team's record after their first, what, 13 games? They SHOULD have missed last season, too.

Now they've lost Marchessault and replaced him with Victor Olofsson. Goaltending was highly suspect last season, too.

I would not be surprised if it's Oilers/Canucks/Kings and the two wildcard spots come from the Central.

Personally I think all of Colorado, Dallas, Winnipeg, Nashville, and Utah make the playoffs.

Tyson Jost avatar bet for next playoffs. If Vegas misses the playoffs, I sport the Jost avatar of your choosing and if they make it you use the Jost avatar I get you. Disclaimer, I don't make fancy avatars so I would likely enlist the help of some of our more creative content creators to get you something extra nice.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Tyson Jost avatar bet for next playoffs. If Vegas misses the playoffs, I sport the Jost avatar of your choosing and if they make it you use the Jost avatar I get you. Disclaimer, I don't make fancy avatars so I would likely enlist the help of some of our more creative content creators to get you something extra nice.

Damn... shit is getting real.

 

[dahrougem2]

Tyson Jost avatar bet for next playoffs. If Vegas misses the playoffs, I sport the Jost avatar of your choosing and if they make it you use the Jost avatar I get you. Disclaimer, I don't make fancy avatars so I would likely enlist the help of some of our more creative content creators to get you something extra nice.

You're on big boi.

 

[missionAvs]

You're on big boi.

 

[lionsDen]

So how long do yall have to have the avatar.

 

[missionAvs]

So how long do yall have to have the avatar.

The entirety of the playoffs

 

[Metallo]

The entirety of the playoffs

The whole 10 days!

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

You're on big boi.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I also think Vegas misses next year. If I had to guess playoff teams today, I'd say:


Stars
Avs
Preds
Utah(WC1)
Jets(WC2)


Oilers
Canucks
Kraken


Canes
Devils
Rangers


Panthers
Leafs
Bolts
Bruins(WC1)
Sens(WC2)

 

[missionAvs]

I also think Vegas misses next year. If I had to guess playoff teams today, I'd say:


Stars
Avs
Preds
Utah(WC1)
Jets(WC2)


Oilers
Canucks
Kraken


Canes
Devils
Rangers


Panthers
Leafs
Bolts
Bruins(WC1)
Sens(WC2)

That's wild. Maybe I'm the crazy one but I have Vegas comfortably in that Pacific 3rd seed. Nevertheless, there's a Jost avatar bet on the table so I'm sticking to my prediction.

 

[dahrougem2]

That's wild. Maybe I'm the crazy one but I have Vegas comfortably in that Pacific 3rd seed. Nevertheless, there's a Jost avatar bet on the table so I'm sticking to my prediction.

Just curious: why comfortably? They weren't that last season, have only gotten older and lost their best goal scorer.