Around the League Thread | Post Purge

[Kryten]

The league was watered down with 30 teams and now theres 32. Not enough top talent to go around

 

[December5th]

The league was watered down with 30 teams and now theres 32. Not enough top talent to go around

and they want to add even more with new orleans. feels like its going to be a challenge for most teams to have a full top 6 roster and top 1 and 2 dmen. as we get more teams the number of contenders dont go up its just more bottom feeders or slightly above. to me thats the biggest problem with sports is having a team thats crap for way to long and maybe a couple good years. and now its just making it a bigger problem

 

[Hansen]

The league was watered down with 30 teams and now theres 32. Not enough top talent to go around

I think there is enough top talent but players should be hitting free agency earlier. Teams have so much control over a player for drafting them

 

[bossram]

This year's UFA class is generally 'weak', once you get past Marner. And I doubt he'd be going anywhere near Chicago.

The Hawks are in the same bind as a lot of bad hockey teams. They don't have enough quality veterans to round out their young roster; and there's no help on the UFA market. So it's down to 'draft and develop'. And as we've seen from the situation in Buffalo, Detroit and even Ottawa up until this season, sometimes all those high draft picks just die on the vine in a losing environment.

The 'inconvenient truth' is that the clock is ticking on Bedard's future in Chi-town; much as it is for Quinn Hughes in Vancouver. It's down to 'win or else'.

Yeah, which is why I didn't say to sign UFAs. I said to utilize their futures assets to acquire players. AKA trades.

There's a fine line between "draft-and-develop" and "being an abject failure of a hockey club" and I don't think Chicago should stomach being the latter for another season.

 

[StreetHawk]

They just need to generally get better. Idk if adding Benning-esque "culture carriers" really works unless they're actually good at hockey and contribute to winning on the ice.

I agree with the premise that they should probably use some of their futures assets to buy some good players, at this stage.

It's just a lot of losing in Chicago the past 4 seasons. 6th, 3rd, 2nd, and looking like 2nd worst overall.

Ducks are looking like they will get just under 80 points this season which is a massive jump from their roughly 60 from last season, but that would still leave them like 7/8th worst overall.

Ducks from 2019-2024 were: 8th, 5th, 2nd, 10th, worst, 3rd, over that 6 year stretch. Seems to be kind of what Chicago is in and this is year 4 of that run for them.

Once you tear it all down or simply have your top guys age out like Ana with new replacements on the horizon, it's a long process.

 

[Michael Dal Swolle]

I see journalist Jordan Manning on his site "NHL Trade Talk" is predicting that the Hawks could have a real tough time re-signing Connor Bedard, whose frustration is starting to boil over.

He points out that despite all the brave talk in Chicago about their prospect pool and the number of picks they've stockpiled--there's still nobody in the queue who's really going to change the Hawks outlook much over the next two or three seasons.

It is possible to turn a franchise around relatively fast, with the right trades, UFA signings, and 'hitting' on some of your high picks. But there's not much indication that is actually transpiring in Chicago.

If the losses continue to pile up--I could actually see Bedard and his agent issuing an ultimatum once his ELC is up. And a trade demand isn't out of the question. It's happened before with young players, who have a burning desire to 'win now'.

In fact when you look at Bedard's career, the one thing that stands out is that he's been on teams that have done a lot of 'losing'. The Regina Pats teams he played on really weren't very good. And of course two long years in Chicago.

Obviously it would be far too prohibitive for an NHL team to sign Bedard to an 'offer sheet'. But I'd be very surprised if a GM like Allvin isn't monitoring the situation closely.

I never realized this but Bedard's Regina Pats went 34-30-3-1 and lost in round one in 22-23 when he had 143 points in 57 regular season games and 20 points in 7 playoff games.

I mean...how do you even do that???

 

[StreetHawk]

I see journalist Jordan Manning on his site "NHL Trade Talk" is predicting that the Hawks could have a real tough time re-signing Connor Bedard, whose frustration is starting to boil over.

He points out that despite all the brave talk in Chicago about their prospect pool and the number of picks they've stockpiled--there's still nobody in the queue who's really going to change the Hawks outlook much over the next two or three seasons.

It is possible to turn a franchise around relatively fast, with the right trades, UFA signings, and 'hitting' on some of your high picks. But there's not much indication that is actually transpiring in Chicago.

If the losses continue to pile up--I could actually see Bedard and his agent issuing an ultimatum once his ELC is up. And a trade demand isn't out of the question. It's happened before with young players, who have a burning desire to 'win now'.

In fact when you look at Bedard's career, the one thing that stands out is that he's been on teams that have done a lot of 'losing'. The Regina Pats teams he played on really weren't very good. And of course two long years in Chicago.

Obviously it would be far too prohibitive for an NHL team to sign Bedard to an 'offer sheet'. But I'd be very surprised if a GM like Allvin isn't monitoring the situation closely.

Chicago is a destination market. So, they will have a better chance to add players vs say Detroit, Buffalo, Columbus.

But, they will have to pay the premium to convince players to go there while they are still losing.

They need to be bold in the offseason.

It's not just Bedard's frustration, it's his development as well. Their social media team can attack Biz for his comments, but there is legit truth to them. You can't just say his play is that of a 19/20 year old and then think he's got a legit shot of making Team Canada for 2026. I'm guessing roughly 9 of the Forwards who were on the 4N team make it for 2026. So, 3 spots open plus 2 reserve spots. Not sure Bedard would make it as a reserve. Not ahead of Cellibrini at the moment.

Bedard needs to start playing a better overall game. Going to need better teammates to do that.

 

[RandV]

I see journalist Jordan Manning on his site "NHL Trade Talk" is predicting that the Hawks could have a real tough time re-signing Connor Bedard, whose frustration is starting to boil over.

He points out that despite all the brave talk in Chicago about their prospect pool and the number of picks they've stockpiled--there's still nobody in the queue who's really going to change the Hawks outlook much over the next two or three seasons.

It is possible to turn a franchise around relatively fast, with the right trades, UFA signings, and 'hitting' on some of your high picks. But there's not much indication that is actually transpiring in Chicago.

If the losses continue to pile up--I could actually see Bedard and his agent issuing an ultimatum once his ELC is up. And a trade demand isn't out of the question. It's happened before with young players, who have a burning desire to 'win now'.

In fact when you look at Bedard's career, the one thing that stands out is that he's been on teams that have done a lot of 'losing'. The Regina Pats teams he played on really weren't very good. And of course two long years in Chicago.

Obviously it would be far too prohibitive for an NHL team to sign Bedard to an 'offer sheet'. But I'd be very surprised if a GM like Allvin isn't monitoring the situation closely.

I don't think this really helps/effects the Canucks. While Bedard might have a preference for Vancouver as a UFA, if Bedard wants out now (which again is only speculative) Chicago is still going to make the most of the RFA years to their benefit. Offer sheets can be matched, and if it comes down to needing a trade they're going shop for the best offer they can get around the league which almost certainly isn't going to be Vancouver.

 

[Orr4Norris]

Would be awesome if Bedard followed Tavares’s footsteps. Pretty sure he owned Canuck Pjs at some point. But the best part would be stringing Chicago along and leaving them with nothing. One can dream.

 

[VanJack]

Would be awesome if Bedard followed Tavares’s footsteps. Pretty sure he owned Canuck Pjs at some point. But the best part would be stringing Chicago along and leaving them with nothing. One can dream.

A very good point. The Islanders offered Tavaras the sun, the moon and the stars to stay on Long Island, but as a Southern Ontario kid, he always had his heart set on playing for his home-town Leafs. The big difference of course is that Tavares was a legitimate UFA when he left the Islanders.

But Cutter Gauthier refused to sign with the Flyers and forced a trade, for reasons we'll probably never know. And of course Ryan Kesler gave the Canucks a trade ultimatum when he was a Canuck. So it does happen. In fact a lot of players get traded when their NHL team finds out they have no intention of ever signing an extension with the team that drafted them.

So Canuck fans can always 'live in hope'. What harm is there in it?

 

[I am toxic]

//

So Canuck fans can always 'live in hope'. What harm is there in it?

 

[kcunac]

Feels weird cheering for the Leafs but here we are.