Around the NHL — Episode XLXVII

The Blues are a feel good story of the season. A lot of questions around that team at the deadline on whether they should be selling off assets. They decided to stay with their group and it’s paid off big time. They are on an absolute tear.

The moves that Armstrong did were smart and strategic moves. They are proof that you can improve your team without compromising your lineup or futures if you play your cards right. They didn’t throw money at UFAs. They added Holloway and Broberg who are playing a huge role for them for pennies on the dollar. They added Cam Fowler on the cheap and he looks revived playing on that team over 20 minutes a night.

There will be some very strong candidates for GM of the year this season. MacFarland, Patrick, Amrstrong, Nill and then Staios and even Hughes (I’d even argue Grier but it’s easier to sell off players than to improve your team).

I see MacFarland winning this year but we’ve seen some real savvy GMing this season.
 
Blues have some absolute studs that are easy to cheer for. Robert Thomas is one of the most underrated guys in the game. Started off as a defensively responsible depth centre with a bit of playmaking skills who stepped up at every opportunity to show that he could score as well.
 
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Blues have some absolute studs that are easy to cheer for. Robert Thomas is one of the most underrated guys in the game. Started off as a defensively responsible depth centre with a bit of playmaking skills who stepped up at every opportunity to show that he could score as well.
Too bad their goalie makes them unlikable chuds
 
It's absolutely insane, and must be extremely unlikely, that the 5 teams all chasing the 1 wildcard spot have all been so garbage for an extended period of time.

Rangers - 4-5-1
Habs - 3 -4-3
BJ's - 3-6-1
Islanders - 3-4-3
Wings - 4-6-0

All a team had to do was be mediodcre or average to create some good space
 
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It's quite upsetting seeing, or soon to see, teams like the Blues and Caps add guys like Snuggerd and Leonard to a playoff push. Even the Wild with Buium, he will jump right in (obviously NCAA helps).

We don't have guys like that who are ready to be full time NHLers out of our prospcet pool, we missed out on those guys from 2021-2023, we "should", had the team been run by someone who had any idea what we were doing, have 2 guys in that type of situation right now with picks 10, 7 and 12. Seeing good, consistent playoff teams push guys out is rough.
 
It's quite upsetting seeing, or soon to see, teams like the Blues and Caps add guys like Snuggerd and Leonard to a playoff push. Even the Wild with Buium, he will jump right in (obviously NCAA helps).

We don't have guys like that who are ready to be full time NHLers out of our prospcet pool, we missed out on those guys from 2021-2023, we "should", had the team been run by someone who had any idea what we were doing, have 2 guys in that type of situation right now with picks 10, 7 and 12. Seeing good, consistent playoff teams push guys out is rough.
Not that Travis Green would even play them over Highmore and Hamonic. :eyeroll:
 
It's quite upsetting seeing, or soon to see, teams like the Blues and Caps add guys like Snuggerd and Leonard to a playoff push. Even the Wild with Buium, he will jump right in (obviously NCAA helps).

We don't have guys like that who are ready to be full time NHLers out of our prospcet pool, we missed out on those guys from 2021-2023, we "should", had the team been run by someone who had any idea what we were doing, have 2 guys in that type of situation right now with picks 10, 7 and 12. Seeing good, consistent playoff teams push guys out is rough.
To be fair, two of the picks we might have chosen those or other potential impact players with were eventually what brought in key players in Jensen and Ullmark.

We certainly overpaid to get those guys when you go through the trade tree though,

Frustratingly, you could probably add another 1st Rd pick to the list, albeit a future one, for the Dafanov fiasco. Dorion certainly caused some serious harm in his final years trying to fast track the rebuild
 
It's quite upsetting seeing, or soon to see, teams like the Blues and Caps add guys like Snuggerd and Leonard to a playoff push. Even the Wild with Buium, he will jump right in (obviously NCAA helps).

We don't have guys like that who are ready to be full time NHLers out of our prospcet pool, we missed out on those guys from 2021-2023, we "should", had the team been run by someone who had any idea what we were doing, have 2 guys in that type of situation right now with picks 10, 7 and 12. Seeing good, consistent playoff teams push guys out is rough.
To be fair, Dorion was absolutely fn horrible
 
I have said it before, but Draisaitl is so underrated!

Every time McDavid is out, he steps up and even when they are together he can outperform him.

51 goals now, with his 2 last night being absolutely clutch snipes. The next closest for goals is 42. The guy is one of the top passers in the league, probably the best on the backhand currently, and wins Rocket Richard trophies.

An absolute unit.
 
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I have said it before, but Draisaitl is so underrated!

Every time McDavid is out, he steps up and even when they are together he can outperform him.

51 goals now, with his 2 last night being absolutely clutch snipes. The next closest for goals is 42. The guy is one of the top passers in the league, probably the best on the backhand currently, and wins Rocket Richard trophies.

An absolute unit.
The fact that Edmonton outside of one finals run has been so bad with the 2 best players in the world is a damning indictment of their management.
 
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Flames are a bottom 5 team being dragged into contending for a wild card slot by a rookie goalie.
And that annoys me as a Flames fan as well. We should be tanking both because we need a game breaking C, but also because if our pick this season is top 10, Montreal automatically gets Florida's first rounder for the the Monahan "cap dump" trade. Speaking of which, I think everyone on here would have rather taken Monahan as a cap dump than trade for DeBrincat.
 
And that annoys me as a Flames fan as well. We should be tanking both because we need a game breaking C, but also because if our pick this season is top 10, Montreal automatically gets Florida's first rounder for the the Monahan "cap dump" trade. Speaking of which, I think everyone on here would have rather taken Monahan as a cap dump than trade for DeBrincat.
No offense but that's a hindsight is 20/20 take.

In 2022 Debrincat was a 40 goal scorer and Monahan was an oft-injured, declining player. Yeah getting a 1st for a cap dump would have been good but at the time both Sens players and management wanted to take the next step.
 
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I have said it before, but Draisaitl is so underrated!

Every time McDavid is out, he steps up and even when they are together he can outperform him.

51 goals now, with his 2 last night being absolutely clutch snipes. The next closest for goals is 42. The guy is one of the top passers in the league, probably the best on the backhand currently, and wins Rocket Richard trophies.

An absolute unit.
He's the second best forward in the league after McDavid. MacKinnon and Kucherov are close, but Drai is overlooked because of his beast of a teammate.
 
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No offense but that's a hindsight is 20/20 take.

In 2022 Debrincat was a 40 goal scorer and Monahan was an oft-injured, declining player. Yeah getting a 1st for a cap dump would have been good but at the time both Sens players and management wanted to take the next step.
Cat wasn't just a 40 goal scorer in a vacuum. He played with the best playmakers of the 2010s and had a $9 million salary.

Acquiring him given our winger depth at the time was nonsensical. If given a chance to acquire Cat to make the team better or Monahan to get a 1st rounder, I pick the latter each time because it still gives us more assets to make moves in the event Monahan can't bounce back.
 
Cat wasn't just a 40 goal scorer in a vacuum. He played with the best playmakers of the 2010s and had a $9 million salary.

Acquiring him given our winger depth at the time was nonsensical. If given a chance to acquire Cat to make the team better or Monahan to get a 1st rounder, I pick the latter each time because it still gives us more assets to make moves in the event Monahan can't bounce back.
Again, this is a take done in hindsight. Our "winger depth" at the time wasn't THAT good, basically just Brady and Batherson(this was before we sign Giroux), and the team wanted to get better immediately, not take on a cap dump so that we get a 1st we could maybe trade later.
 
Cat wasn't just a 40 goal scorer in a vacuum. He played with the best playmakers of the 2010s and had a $9 million salary.

Acquiring him given our winger depth at the time was nonsensical. If given a chance to acquire Cat to make the team better or Monahan to get a 1st rounder, I pick the latter each time because it still gives us more assets to make moves in the event Monahan can't bounce back.
Especially after Norris went down permanently. Monahan would have given Pinto more time to ease himself as a 3C rather than forced to be a 2C ASAP.
 

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