Speculation: 2024-25 Roster thread

[Leonardo87]

The only silver lining to Mac being out is it gives an opportunity for Zegras to be at C. But then Greg Cronin happens.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Give us

Gauthier zegras colangelo! Cowards

 

[MMC]

Team is 28th in the standings, 24th in goal differential, 26th in PP%, bottom 10 always seemed about reasonable for this season and an improvement on the last 2, you'd then hope next season is the jump to being in playoff contention

 

[KelVarnsen]

I hope this isn't the story of Mac's career.

This and being dumb on the ice.

 

[Rooch]

Team is 28th in the standings, 24th in goal differential, 26th in PP%, bottom 10 always seemed about reasonable for this season and an improvement on the last 2, you'd then hope next season is the jump to being in playoff contention

This is what Verbeek said LAST season. They tried to mollify us with new unis and new on-ice graphics, which seems to have been an ample distraction for some people. But the hockey team has been running in place for six years. Are we foolish to expect change when the man at the top has shown very little aptitude for general managing?

 

[MMC]

This is what Verbeek said LAST season. They tried to mollify us with new unis and new on-ice graphics, which seems to have been an ample distraction for some people. But the hockey team has been running in place for six years. Are we foolish to expect change when the man at the top has shown very little aptitude for general managing?

I’m sure he wanted that to be the case. Once the offseason went the way it did, this current result was much more likely

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

I know I say this in hindsight but until we change coaches I'm glad we didn't bring in any high priced, ageing vets. I don't think they would have made one difference in helping the young guys develop and mature.

 

[Reveille1984]

There's no way Verbeek actually believed that this could be a competitive roster, it's just your typical executive lip service. Even if he ends up not becoming a great GM, you don't rise to this level by being a complete dumbass with talent evaluation. The OC is a historically ultra soft media market, where he's not gonna get lambasted or held accountable for much and he knows it.

The only thing that "fixes" a teardown rebuild is your high end picks becoming high end NHL talent, and so far the jury's out on that (and probably will be for at least another few years). The terribleness is just amplified this season since the "older" kids have been mostly invisible, and the vets have been anywhere from bad to hot garbage on top of that.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

This is what Verbeek said LAST season. They tried to mollify us with new unis and new on-ice graphics, which seems to have been an ample distraction for some people. But the hockey team has been running in place for six years. Are we foolish to expect change when the man at the top has shown very little aptitude for general managing?

He's mostly lip service. What else do you expect from a first time GM and a first time HC?

nothing short of a disaster!

 

[robbieboy3686]

There's no way Verbeek actually believed that this could be a competitive roster, it's just your typical executive lip service. Even if he ends up not becoming a great GM, you don't rise to this level by being a complete dumbass with talent evaluation. The OC is a historically ultra soft media market, where he's not gonna get lambasted or held accountable for much and he knows it.

The only thing that "fixes" a teardown rebuild is your high end picks becoming high end NHL talent, and so far the jury's out on that (and probably will be for at least another few years). The terribleness is just amplified this season since the "older" kids have been mostly invisible, and the vets have been anywhere from bad to hot garbage on top of that.

I’m pretty sure verbeek wasn’t expecting the no show of many of our top end players.

 

[ZegrassyKnoll]

Does that mean then you can’t call any young player injury-prone? I love McT but this is the 2nd straight season he’ll be missing several games

"Any young player" is way too wide of a criteria for me to really answer this.

For example - 24 would still be a young player IMO and missing significant time every season until 24 would be injury-prone.

But Mason is only 21. Missing some games for a couple of seasons doesn't really mean that much to me, especially when we have no idea what his injuries were/are.

 

[ZegrassyKnoll]

Even after the ugliness we've seen so far, I really do think we have the ingredients to be a decent team.

I have grown very skeptical that it will happen under Cronin but I don't think this is really a lost season as some have suggested.

 

[Mr Rogers]

"Any young player" is way too wide of a criteria for me to really answer this.

For example - 24 would still be a young player IMO and missing significant time every season until 24 would be injury-prone.

But Mason is only 21. Missing some games for a couple of seasons doesn't really mean that much to me, especially when we have no idea what his injuries were/are.

I think we interpret the term “injury-prone” differently.

It seems like you want to see a handful of years which is fine I guess, but then by that you can’t call a player injury-prone who’s missed a bunch of time with multiple injuries because he’s “too young still.” For me, he’s shown to be injury-prone so far, what other term would you use to describe a player like that.

If a 21 year-old is bad at passing, you call him a bad passer. If he improves at passing over his career, you don’t call him a bad passer anymore. I think we probably just disagree.

 

[Reveille1984]

I’m pretty sure verbeek wasn’t expecting the no show of many of our top end players.

This roster doesn't really have established top end players.

Our best forwards based on previous success are probably Terry and Zegras, and Terry has been mostly fine. Even if Zegras wasn't a black hole and the usual vets like Killorn, Strome, Fabbri, Vatrano, etc. played to their norms, this is still probably a bottom five roster with likely a bottom three D group.

The only way we rise above the trash heap is for guys like Carlsson, McTavish, Gauthier, Mintyukov, Zellweger, Luneau, etc. to develop and become good to great NHL players. That might be the case in a few years, but most guys aren't going to even be sniffing their prime at 19-20 years old.

 

[ZegrassyKnoll]

I think we interpret the term “injury-prone” differently.

It seems like you want to see a handful of years which is fine I guess, but then by that you can’t call a player injury-prone who’s missed a bunch of time with multiple injuries because he’s “too young still.” For me, he’s shown to be injury-prone so far, what other term would you use to describe a player like that.

If a 21 year-old is bad at passing, you call him a bad passer. If he improves at passing over his career, you don’t call him a bad passer anymore. I think we probably just disagree.

I just think that being injury-prone and your example of passing are two totally different types of stats.

Like in driving - somebody can be a bad driver, maybe they drive too quickly. But if you’re a good driver and do everything right but get T-boned by bad drivers twice, you’re not “accident prone” when there was nothing you could have done differently, you were just unlucky.

Injury-prone to me suggests more likely to be injured than somebody who isn’t injury-prone, and I don’t think you can determine that with such a small sample size.

Especially because we have no idea what Mason’s injuries are. Like, if he is out because he took a puck in a soft spot, that’s just unlucky.

 

[Mr Rogers]

I just think that being injury-prone and your example of passing are two totally different types of stats.

Like in driving - somebody can be a bad driver, maybe they drive too quickly. But if you’re a good driver and do everything right but get T-boned by bad drivers twice, you’re not “accident prone” when there was nothing you could have done differently, you were just unlucky.

Injury-prone to me suggests more likely to be injured than somebody who isn’t injury-prone, and I don’t think you can determine that with such a small sample size.

Especially because we have no idea what Mason’s injuries are. Like, if he is out because he took a puck in a soft spot, that’s just unlucky.

A2d

 

[ZegrassyKnoll]

A2d

I disagree to disagree. You must agree with me or else!

 

[MMC]

Really sucks how unlucky Frank's been, he leads the team in xGoals by a decent margin

 

[MMC]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1858278078885065200

Both sent back down per AHL transactions