Around the NHL 2024-25 regular season Part II

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

TB did that with Hagel and now he's a monster. I admire JBB going for his guys and not caring about the price especially after he could've stopped doing such things after the Jeannot move

TWO firsts?!

oh yeah we aren't getting anyone

This is where the Markstrom trade hurts and if they got creative at goalie, it would've helped but it is what it is. They were desperate in net and needed to make that move

 

[Bone Density]

 

[MadDevil]

Calculated risk on their end, late firsts tend to be mixed results. Sharks had a similar mentality for their Thornton era teams but it caught up to them eventually.

Still see people harp on the Tanner Jeannot trade an all time bad trade. While I'm not arguing it was a good deal, it looks a lot less sexy when you swap in the names of the players that Nashville yielded.

I've got nothing against it. They've only got so many kicks at the can left with Hedman, Kucherov, etc. Might as well keep going for it while they're still good.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

TB did that with Hagel and now he's a monster. I admire JBB going for his guys and not caring about the price especially after he could've stopped doing such things after the Jeannot move



This is where the Markstrom trade hurts and if they got creative at goalie, it would've helped but it is what it is. They were desperate in net and needed to make that move

No it doesn't. The Markstrom trade is perfectly acceptable. He has been one of our best players this year and has helped to stabilize a position we haven't had stability at for a long time.

 

[MadDevil]

No it doesn't. The Markstrom trade is perfectly acceptable. He has been one of our best players this year and has helped to stabilize a position we haven't had stability at for a long time.

Yeah, at this point we just need to hope they can make some noise in the next 2 years and it doesn't go down as another "the cost was good but it just didn't work" move, which they seem to have made a lot of in recent years.

 

[Bleedred]

I don't at all regret the Markstrom trade, as I don't think we would have done too well this season with an Allen/Daws or Allen/Lankinen (god forbid Kahkonen lol) tandem. I don't think Allen would have played this well if you gave him the number of games Markstrom played while somebody else played the number of games Allen/Daws have played.

And suppose we signed Lankinen for a year, then just signed him a week or two ago to that contract Vancouver just signed him to?

I regret that even with the Markstrom trade, as well as having the best save percentage in the league when he was injured that we are still so close to not being in the playoffs.

Yeah, at this point we just need to hope they can make some noise in the next 2 years and it doesn't go down as another "the cost was good but it just didn't work" move, which they seem to have made a lot of in recent years.

That's precisely the Sharangovich for Toffoli deal.

The Toffoli deal could have been great if he helped us win a round or two in the playoffs, but we didn't go the playoffs the year we got him.

Granted, I would not have wanted to give him that deal San Jose did either. He was probably best off being just an entire year rental. Just not a one year rental in what become a JUNKED playoff-less season.

 

[Oneiro]

Yeah cup stays in Florida is my guess.

JBB = the two Bs stand for Big Cajones.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

No it doesn't. The Markstrom trade is perfectly acceptable. He has been one of our best players this year and has helped to stabilize a position we haven't had stability at for a long time.

Brother, that's what I said. I'm saying if they got more creative and were able to keep the first, it helps them here at the deadline but they weren't able to so it destroys their deadline plans somewhat. "Needed to make that move" lol

Yeah, at this point we just need to hope they can make some noise in the next 2 years and it doesn't go down as another "the cost was good but it just didn't work" move, which they seem to have made a lot of in recent years.

I'm not even arguing against it, it was a fine move but when you go into a deadline without your first it's gonna be obviously harder to get anything done since that's probably the first thing GM's that are sellers will ask for

Yeah cup stays in Florida is my guess.

JBB = the two Bs stand for Big Cajones.

The Atlantic is gonna be a gauntlet meanwhile the Metro bracket is gonna be a 3 legged race lol

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I don't at all regret the Markstrom trade, as I don't think we would have done too well this season with an Allen/Daws or Allen/Lankinen (god forbid Kahkonen lol) tandem. I don't think Allen would have played this well if you gave him the number of games Markstrom played while somebody else played the number of games Allen/Daws have played.

And suppose we signed Lankinen for a year, then just signed him a week or two ago to that contract Vancouver just signed him to?

I regret that even with the Markstrom trade, as well as having the best save percentage in the league when he was injured that we are still so close to not being in the playoffs.

Yeah, they had to make that move. All I was saying was that it makes the trade deadline a bit more difficult for Fitz/company. If they were able to get a goalie with different assets then it would open a better pathway to adding at the deadline.

 

[Oneiro]

Absolutely love that forward group for TB. Little bit of everything.

*sighs*

 

[JrFischer54]

Was looking up our old friend and woof. 12 shots in his last 13 games.

View attachment 987167

Bro got his contract and checked out

 

[Billdo]

Tampa paid a significant price but that makes them an even better team. Great work from them.

 

[JrFischer54]

To be fair, Tampa spends firsts like candy.

Also to be fair firsts that late are meh I won’t have a problem giving up two firsts for the right trade

 

[My3Sons]

I'm really trying not to be biased here because Fitz at this point could do an interview while wearing an ugly colored suit and I'd probably bitch about the ugly suit he wore on camera. And all these stories are way more serious than a hockey executive doing a poor job constructing a team. These have real life implications and victims.

But I'm not completely sure if he knew about all that's went on. There's enough evidence to suggest he was at least thinking about it though, as we saw with the one year McLeod extension, two year Bastian extension. Maybe the one year McLeod extension was just supposed to be a bridge? I don't know.

Now if someone like me can watch McLeod's interview on camera during 2022 training camp and come to the conclusion that he looked like he was hiding something and very uncomfortable, questionable body language, etc, then I wonder if Fitz watched that interview and thought ''Hmmm, we may have a problem on our hands?''. He had to have at least thought about the McLeod situation and the possibility that he was very much a culprit in this.

But I know a lot of people were not happy with the timing of the ''State of the union'' address last season and extension announcement. And it definitely felt like a pattern interrupt.

A lot of people also hated that he signed Cal Foote to a two way contract at the time, as he was another one caught up in it and it probably should have been looked at as not the greatest PR move, especially since Cal Foote wasn't a useful player anyway. Not that being useful or not matters when you're a rapist or sex offender. That's definitely not of any importance what kind of player they are. Just saying that it doesn't look very good to sign him for the possibility he was in on this and he'd be here in the organization when the names came to light. With McLeod, at least we already had him in the organization to begin with and there wasn't much evidence that he was in on any of it that early on, but I'm sure the Devils braintrust thought about it either individually or possibly by committee.

My own speculation is they knew there was an investigation and knew McLeod was involved and might have had some idea of the overall picture, but as I recall they reached out to the league for guidance and were told something like "business as usual" while the investigation was going on. At that point, if they do anything unusual with him, they risk a grievance with the union. Just an awful situation all around. At least Bastian can be quietly let go after this season and the team can let some other organization worry about the new investigation. Male teenage adolescent sports culture is flawed and the adults that turn a blind eye are often the ones in charge.

 

[guitarguyvic]

The two Florida teams are once again the front runners to come out of the East in my book. Washington with an outside chance if their good vibes continue in the playoffs. Everybody else is just a pretender.

 

[NJDevils17]

Wild overpay for Tampa. Like I get why but that’s a really hefty price

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Tampas really going all in huh. Honestly they’ll do well this year and possibly next, but they don’t have a 1st rounder till 2028.

 

[JrFischer54]

TB did that with Hagel and now he's a monster. I admire JBB going for his guys and not caring about the price especially after he could've stopped doing such things after the Jeannot move



This is where the Markstrom trade hurts and if they got creative at goalie, it would've helped but it is what it is. They were desperate in net and needed to make that move

“Creative” in goal? That’s what led us to the shit show last year. Could only imagine how much worse this team would be without Markstrom

Tampas really going all in huh. Honestly they’ll do well this year and possibly next, but they don’t have a 1st rounder till 2028.

Omg they don’t have a first rounder until 28?!?!?!? People gotta stop holding onto first rounders like they are sure fire locks

 

[njdevils1982]

Yeah cup stays in Florida is my guess.

JBB = the two Bs stand for Big Cajones.

 

[Billdo]

Also to be fair firsts that late are meh I won’t have a problem giving up two firsts for the right trade

It's a gamble to do that though considering where we've been the last two months.

 

[JrFischer54]

Wild overpay for Tampa. Like I get why but that’s a really hefty price

Is it because the firsts or is it because the players aren’t any good ?

 

[Bleedred]

The two Florida teams are once again the front runners to come out of the East in my book. Washington with an outside chance if their good vibes continue in the playoffs. Everybody else is just a pretender.

I know a lot of people will laugh at this and it certainly sounds like a hot take as of today, but I could somehow see this finally being Carolina's year and they make the cup finals, now that no one expects it. Much like the 2018 Capitals.

I'm not saying I think the odds are high, but it wouldn't really shock me.

Other than that, I think you gotta favor Tampa and Florida.

And if that's the case, one of them probably has to go out in round 2, while the winner faces the survivor of the Capitals/Hurricanes. Assuming neither of them are upset.

 

[JrFischer54]

It's a gamble to do that though considering where we've been the last two months.

Unprotected if it gets a better return even

The two Florida teams are once again the front runners to come out of the East in my book. Washington with an outside chance if their good vibes continue in the playoffs. Everybody else is just a pretender.

That’s a lot of hockey both of them played most recent Florida to run it back 3x in a row after Tampa did it.

 

[Bleedred]

Good call yesterday @Bleedred

After going through the goal highlights last night and thinking about how Edmonton has the Skinner/Pickard tandem, I wondered if they were a dark horse for another goalie. And maybe they still are.

Pickard's numbers really aren't insanely bad (better than Skinner slightly, albeit in far fewer games played), but I'm not sure how much they trust a 30-something year old guy who coming into this year was on his first year starting the season on an NHL roster in probably 8 years,

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Brooks says Hughes injury is significant so there's that