Armchair GM Thread

[Porter Stoutheart]

He was 5th in TOI among their forwards, 5th in PP time, spent 40% of his time with a combo of Boldy, Zuccarello, Kaprizov, and another almost 20% with a mix of Boldy, Kaprizov, Johansson, Hartman, and Foligno. I'm sure there are quirks and weird stretches, it's Hynes after all, but there's nothing egregious there. Sounds entitled. Probably pissed he wasn't stapled to Kaprizov and PP1 more to bloat his numbers for a bigger extension.

I think it was the playoffs only where that issue cropped up. He got reasonable utilization in the regular season, hence his nice numbers, but then got shuffled back in the playoffs - that was the way I read things. (haven't checked the stats)

If that's true, I don't think it's pure entitlement if you go from being de facto top-6 regular season and putting up good numbers to suddenly shuffled back to bottom 6 in the playoffs for no apparent reason? (other than size/age)

Regardless, nobody is getting Rossi in the 2nd rounder compensation salary range, so it's a totally moot point. He is worth $7M+, and he'll get it. Either from Minnesota or some team who is able to give up their 1st - we're not such a team.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Tkachuk was the final piece. Other shrewd moves were acquiring the two Sam's, signing Verhaege, Rodrigues and Bob as FA's, and countless other moves. The Tkachuk trade put them over the top for sure. It gave them two legit top lines, a third line that is playoff ready. They added quality depth defensemen and when they lost OEL and Montour this past offseason, they went out and added Jones once they realized they needed another piece to make it work.

The comments Jones made about his teammates say a lot about the types of players they've acquired and the culture they have. It all starts with their best player and captain and trickles down to the rest of the roster.

They also made a coaching change that seemingly had a huge effect.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

When it comes to Florida and building teams you can't overlook how they sucked for so long and got to pick Ekblad and Barkov.

Well, but they also made trades and signings above par. Tkachuk, Reinhart, Jones, Bobrovsky - despite how that contract was panned at the time - and "found money" sometimes on castoffs like Verhaege, Forsling, Rodrigues... I wouldn't even say the Entry Draft was the main factor in their ascension. It was nice to get Ekblad and Barkov, but to be honest they hit even more on other aspects of team-building outside the draft.

 

[Softball99]

I think it was the playoffs only where that issue cropped up. He got reasonable utilization in the regular season, hence his nice numbers, but then got shuffled back in the playoffs - that was the way I read things. (haven't checked the stats)

If that's true, I don't think it's pure entitlement if you go from being de facto top-6 regular season and putting up good numbers to suddenly shuffled back to bottom 6 in the playoffs for no apparent reason? (other than size/age)

Regardless, nobody is getting Rossi in the 2nd rounder compensation salary range, so it's a totally moot point. He is worth $7M+, and he'll get it. Either from Minnesota or some team who is able to give up their 1st - we're not such a team.

He was replacing EE while he was injured and got sent to the 4th after he came back

 

[Scoresberg]

Well, but they also made trades and signings above par. Tkachuk, Reinhart, Jones, Bobrovsky - despite how that contract was panned at the time - and "found money" sometimes on castoffs like Verhaege, Forsling, Rodrigues... I wouldn't even say the Entry Draft was the main factor in their ascension. It was nice to get Ekblad and Barkov, but to be honest they hit even more on other aspects of team-building outside the draft.

Agreed. And to be honest, Ekblad was and is just the 3rd best defenseman on that team.

 

[Armourboy]

Well, but they also made trades and signings above par. Tkachuk, Reinhart, Jones, Bobrovsky - despite how that contract was panned at the time - and "found money" sometimes on castoffs like Verhaege, Forsling, Rodrigues... I wouldn't even say the Entry Draft was the main factor in their ascension. It was nice to get Ekblad and Barkov, but to be honest they hit even more on other aspects of team-building outside the draft.

Those two let them concentrate on the other pieces though, the hard ones to find were out of the way. They also didn't waste assets or cap trying to find a Barkov or Ekblad. They also didn't sign a guy like Huberdeau that they didn't feel had a complete game.

 

[hido]

They also made a coaching change that seemingly had a huge effect.

That's really funny.