Armchair GM Thread

[GeauxPreds1]

Late to the Cozens shoulda woulda coulda trade party, but I was all about making a move for him early in the year. Most around here balked at the idea of giving up ZLH for him. I said then and I say now, ZLH is a nice player, but I will be really surprised if he is ever much more than a Nick Cousins type player vs the Marchand player everyone is dreaming about. That's going to be even further emphasized on this team with this staff.

With our development staff you're probably right. Put him down in dallas and I bet he's closer to Marchand than he is to cousins. We just don't develop forwards good at a

 

[Olderfan]

I'm pretty sure nobody is dreaming about Marchand for ZLH!

I would have liked to think he'd become a little more than a Cousins, however... like maybe a 15-20/15-20 disturber, more willing to physically back up his mouthiness than Cousins too. It's fair to wonder if he'll ever become that HERE, given the way we are handling him so far, and given the track record here with young forwards in general.

My question was whether or not Cozens himself is much more than a 15-20/15-20 kind of player? He had 1 peak season above that level, but that's all; his other seasons haven't been. For $7.1M you really want to have confidence he's going to be more like that 1 peak season than like his other 4 seasons. We'll see I guess if he keeps it up in Ottawa.

To me, it's only our utter ineptness in handling our internally developed young forwards that opens the door to considering the trade. And that's a rather grim way to have to look at things.

ZLH is 4th liner. Maybe fill in on 3rd line from time to time. Expectations beyond that are dreams right now. He’s easy to love though. Don’t fall in love with 4th liners.

 

[Armourboy]

ZLH is 4th liner. Maybe fill in on 3rd line from time to time. Expectations beyond that are dreams right now. He’s easy to love though. Don’t fall in love with 4th liners.

Problem is at the time he was looking like he may become more than a 4th liner, then Brunette got a hold of him and just like every other young guy he just went stagnant. This isn't a case of just ZLH flat lining, literally every forward we have brought up has. That's either bad drafting or bad coaching.

 

[Olderfan]

Problem is at the time he was looking like he may become more than a 4th liner, then Brunette got a hold of him and just like every other young guy he just went stagnant. This isn't a case of just ZLH flat lining, literally every forward we have brought up has. That's either bad drafting or bad coaching.

Agreed. Not demeaning any player. Point is this was Trotz’s direction when he coached Preds. Surround yourself with “trusted” players . That meant(means) all forwards play D first, then O. Ask yourself; does McDavid play D first? Draisaitl? MacKinnon?
Who cares? Oh, I know they’re probably good at D. But they are out there for O and plenty of it. And they can shoot the puck!
I believe that Trotz has always thought that his team can hold the opposition down, stop them, and he builds a team of players and instills that philosophy in them. “Trust’s” them.
I believe that teaching Smith how to shoot a puck may achieve more than teaching Svechkov to back check quicker.
Course, I know both are very important at this level and both should be coached diligently. But we’ve always heard forwards need to go through Milwaukee a couple of years to become “complete” players. That means D, D, D to the Preds(Trotz) philosophy. Forwards come up thinking if I’m a “trusted” player, that’s enough.
No, it’s not! You’re a forward, Score! ; make them stop you!
I got more crazy opinions but you already know that!

 

[hockey diva]

Agreed. Not demeaning any player. Point is this was Trotz’s direction when he coached Preds. Surround yourself with “trusted” players . That meant(means) all forwards play D first, then O. Ask yourself; does McDavid play D first? Draisaitl? MacKinnon?
Who cares? Oh, I know they’re probably good at D. But they are out there for O and plenty of it. And they can shoot the puck!
I believe that Trotz has always thought that his team can hold the opposition down, stop them, and he builds a team of players and instills that philosophy in them. “Trust’s” them.
I believe that teaching Smith how to shoot a puck may achieve more than teaching Svechkov to back check quicker.
Course, I know both are very important at this level and both should be coached diligently. But we’ve always heard forwards need to go through Milwaukee a couple of years to become “complete” players. That means D, D, D to the Preds(Trotz) philosophy. Forwards come up thinking if I’m a “trusted” player, that’s enough.
No, it’s not! You’re a forward, Score! ; make them stop you!
I got more crazy opinions but you already know that!

Unfortunately, that type of team will not win anything in today’s NHL.