Around the NHL

[Porter Stoutheart]

I don't think it was because Wedgewood was cheaper, I think it was because Wedgewood was willing to play in Milwaukee and Lankinen wasn't. I don't even think he traded Wedgewood because he sucked, he traded him because Colorado offered a younger guy they liked.

That Wedgewood contract also worked out that most of the cap hit could be buried.

The real mistake was giving Saros that contract early. I think Askarov wants out regardless of the Wedgewood signing.

Totally disagreed. There is no way Wedgewood "was willing to play in Milwaukee". That is a red herring. He is an established NHL BUG, and he was fully expecting to be #2 in Nashville. There is some posthumous revision of history going on here. Trotz had no intention whatsoever of playing Askarov in Nashville. He signed Wedgewood to be the new #2. We should know by now not to trust any words that come out of Trotz's mouth, right?

Askarov's camp correctly sussed this out.

There were multiple errors made on the whole goaltending issue. Giving Saros the contract extension early was certainly the worst. Acquiescing to Askarov's trade request was probably the next worst. Both of those choices were totally unnecessary. But then past them, thinking that signing Wedgewood was better than retaining Lankinen was also a bad read. They definitely intended to keep Wedgewood in the NHL, though. Anything contrary to that is some ass-covering revisionism - oh sure, if Askarov totally outplayed him and stole the show, they could have doubled back on things. But they definitely didn't convince Wedgewood to sign with us by telling him he might end up in Milwaukee. That definitely could not have happened... for all that he sucked briefly out of the gate for us, he has a better reputation around the league than that.

 

[bdub24]

Lanky and Saros. What a pair

 

[herzausstein]

Might be seeing Saros here soon

We gonna buy him out in summer?

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Lanky and Saros. What a pair

I mean, they are still "World Starters" for Finland, I guess. Despite both of them getting pumped in this tournament.

It's not totally "best on best" without Russia and Czechia/Slovakia, but it's the closest we get. I was wrong and surprised by how seriously the NHL players would take things. But I guess - unless you play D for Finland - there is still some honor in just making these teams?

 

[Kat Predator]

It's not uncommon across the league for BUGs to have some weaknesses in their games. If your defensive system is to give up a ton of odd-man rushes a game, I think you can count on your BUG looking below average overall. Maybe swinging back and forth from a good streak of games to a terrible streak of games.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

It's not uncommon across the league for BUGs to have some weaknesses in their games. If your defensive system is to give up a ton of odd-man rushes a game, I think you can count on your BUG looking below average overall. Maybe swinging back and forth from a good streak of games to a terrible streak of games.

And, sadly for us... Saros is kind of playing like a BUG the last couple season. Like one of the really good ones. But still...

He was soooo good (and our Team MVP) in a couple of prior seasons. He doesn't look "physically broken" or anything. So I dare to hope he figures out whatever it is that's going on. It would be awesome if it was just eyesight. But even past the factor of our D looking unspeakably awful... something is still "off" with him, right?

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Lanky and Saros. What a pair

Finland is way outmatched here. Any goalie was gonna look shaky.

 

[Viqsi]

I volunteer Andrew Brunette as the projectile.

Technically, he'll be the target on April 1.

No, really. Some of the Cannon Crew, when chatting with kids, will tell them that the cannon's "shot" is aimed at the opponents' bench. Obviously there's no actual shot to aim to begin with... but the cannon does point in that general direction.

 

[Armourboy]

Totally disagreed. There is no way Wedgewood "was willing to play in Milwaukee". That is a red herring. He is an established NHL BUG, and he was fully expecting to be #2 in Nashville. There is some posthumous revision of history going on here. Trotz had no intention whatsoever of playing Askarov in Nashville. He signed Wedgewood to be the new #2. We should know by now not to trust any words that come out of Trotz's mouth, right?

Askarov's camp correctly sussed this out.

There were multiple errors made on the whole goaltending issue. Giving Saros the contract extension early was certainly the worst. Acquiescing to Askarov's trade request was probably the next worst. Both of those choices were totally unnecessary. But then past them, thinking that signing Wedgewood was better than retaining Lankinen was also a bad read. They definitely intended to keep Wedgewood in the NHL, though. Anything contrary to that is some ass-covering revisionism - oh sure, if Askarov totally outplayed him and stole the show, they could have doubled back on things. But they definitely didn't convince Wedgewood to sign with us by telling him he might end up in Milwaukee. That definitely could not have happened... for all that he sucked briefly out of the gate for us, he has a better reputation around the league than that.

There is no revising history, that was the statement made by the GM. You can take it up with him if you don't agree with it. Neither Wedgewood nor his Agent refuted the statement when he was here or after he left, so that either means it was true or Wedgewood just kept his mouth shut and moved on.

We also have zero clue on what they intended to do. They apparently weren't so tethered on him being here that they didn't bail on him after a couple of starts. That doesn't sound like someone you've made a definite anything on.

Unless you recently started working for the Preds front office you don't have a clue what their intentions were. At the end of the day it was the Saros contract that made Askarov bail, not the Wedgewood one.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

There is no revising history, that was the statement made by the GM. You can take it up with him if you don't agree with it. Neither Wedgewood nor his Agent refuted the statement when he was here or after he left, so that either means it was true or Wedgewood just kept his mouth shut and moved on.

We also have zero clue on what they intended to do. They apparently weren't so tethered on him being here that they didn't bail on him after a couple of starts. That doesn't sound like someone you've made a definite anything on.

Unless you recently started working for the Preds front office you don't have a clue what their intentions were.

Yup, I 100% do not believe any word that the GM utters. You're foolish if you do at this point, sorry. You don't sign a UFA to a 2x$1.5M contract with the expressed intention of playing him in the AHL, that has never been done in the history of the NHL. Go ahead and believe this was the first time that's ever happened if you want to.

 

[Armourboy]

Yup, I 100% do not believe any word that the GM utters. You're foolish if you do at this point, sorry. You don't sign a UFA to a 2x$1.5M contract with the expressed intention of playing him in the AHL, that has never been done in the history of the NHL. Go ahead and believe this was the first time that's ever happened if you want to.

I mean with some of the dumb things Trotz has done this season you sure he wouldn't be the first to sign that contract to a guy to play in the AHL some? I mean it could be worse, he could be paying Cal Peterson 5 million a season to do it.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Nice performance by Saros today actually to get Finland back into it. It was just too little too late for them unfortunately.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I mean with some of the dumb things Trotz has done this season you sure he wouldn't be the first to sign that contract to a guy to play in the AHL some? I mean it could be worse, he could be paying Cal Peterson 5 million a season to do it.

If it walks and talks and quacks like a duck... I'm willing to believe it's a duck. FA Frenzy day is a bit crazy, I'm sure both GMs and players have all kinds of stuff flying at them from all directions. But at the end of the day, you don't give an established NHL player a 2x$1.5M NHL contract without anticipating that he's playing in the NHL.

As a GM you can secretly in the back of your mind wonder if your stud AHL goalie prospect might step up and steal the spot, but... you aren't saying that out loud to the other guy you just signed, and he's not buying off on that as any kind of likely outcome. Sure, ANY player in a bottom pairing, 4th line, backup goalie spot understands that if they suck they could get beat out for a job by a hungry kid. But that's not part of the contract negotiation, it's 100% implicit, never stated out loud.

Trotz f'ed up; he has also lied to us on many occasions. I don't think we ought to rely on his posthumous version of events.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Nice performance by Saros today actually to get Finland back into it. It was just too little too late for them unfortunately.

What if... Granlund is also actually good?

I don't know, here he always seemed to get fairly heavily over-utilized by Hynes, and thrust into roles which he had trouble really living up to? He was fairly awful overall for us for a couple seasons after the trade, and it took him a couple years to have that one-off 64-pt season, although there were a lot of "coat-tail" assists in there when the top group went crazy down the stretch in 2022.

Anyway, I thought he hustled pretty well most of the time, had some vision, but overall lacked the talent to warrant the kind of icetime the team invested in him? Pittsburgh fans certainly seemed to think he sucked.

But he seems to be rebounding lately in San Jose / Dallas / Finland-4N?

 

[NoNecksCurse]

One thing for certain I think most hockey fans would agree on is that the NHL should adopt the same point system as the 4 Nations tournament. OT wins are not the same as regulation wins.

Regulation wins should be 3 points. OT wins 2 points. OTL 1 point.

 

[bdub24]

Nice performance by Saros today actually to get Finland back into it. It was just too little too late for them unfortunately.

Was that Saros or Canada relaxing a bit?

 

[Marty Party]

Was that Saros or Canada relaxing a bit?

We're trying to have a parade here.

On another note, I'm thinking I'll pick one of these up with my discount.

 

[Kat Predator]

If it walks and talks and quacks like a duck... I'm willing to believe it's a duck. FA Frenzy day is a bit crazy, I'm sure both GMs and players have all kinds of stuff flying at them from all directions. But at the end of the day, you don't give an established NHL player a 2x$1.5M NHL contract without anticipating that he's playing in the NHL.

As a GM you can secretly in the back of your mind wonder if your stud AHL goalie prospect might step up and steal the spot, but... you aren't saying that out loud to the other guy you just signed, and he's not buying off on that as any kind of likely outcome. Sure, ANY player in a bottom pairing, 4th line, backup goalie spot understands that if they suck they could get beat out for a job by a hungry kid. But that's not part of the contract negotiation, it's 100% implicit, never stated out loud.

Trotz f'ed up; he has also lied to us on many occasions. I don't think we ought to rely on his posthumous version of events.

Trotz did say that if he didn't see a lot of improvement by the Christmas break, he was going to give the kids all the ice time and see what they could do.

Oh, wait...

 

[Softball99]

2 things
Lank's choice. Wanted a chance to be a starter or split. IF you traded Saros you could offer him 2M and 50/50 starts with Annunen he'd probably re-sign. He's FA this summer.

Win 3 ...OTW 2 ...OTL1 ...SO 1 for the winner only

 

[Soundgarden]

Sweden with an all Preds line with Arvidsson-Nyquist and Ekholm? as a forward?

 

[Gh24]

Was that Saros or Canada relaxing a bit?

Both I think. Canada was a step ahead in every aspect of the game so they kept getting good opportunities.

But man, Granlund, a gift that keeps on giving in international games

 

[Gh24]

Counting out Russia (awesome individual talent, but still f those guys) these are the top 4 nations in the world right now. Lots of individual talent in Europe who belong to a tournament they sell as best on best, but they're all representing their respective countries that aren't exactly hockey countries. Finland with a population couple million less than Tennessee keeps producing NHL talent, where out of Germany's 84 million population only couple can be called even stars. Then again, it's probably just a number of states that produce most of the NHL talent in USA as well, right?

The unfortunate (from this tournament pov) thing is that even the odd star out of an unlikely state represents USA where Draisaitl for example is "stuck" with Germany and their lack of hockey talent.

Therefore it's never truly going to be best players facing each other. It's going to be some of the best and whatever Finland is able to scrape from the bottom of the barrel for defense

 

[Top 6 Spaling]

I saw a suggestion on the main boards to form Germany, Switzerland, and Czechia into a fifth team for next time: The Holy Roman Empire.

I think that, plus either Russia if they become acceptable on the world stage again or a "Team North America U24" again could expand it a bit and get just about every all star included.

 

[Gh24]

I saw a suggestion on the main boards to form Germany, Switzerland, and Czechia into a fifth team for next time: The Holy Roman Empire.

I think that, plus either Russia if they become acceptable on the world stage again or a "Team North America U24" again could expand it a bit and get just about every all star included.

I'm afraid that kind of all star roster would come at the expense of intensity that comes from national pride. National level all star game kinda.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

WTF happened to goaltending in Canada when your national team has Jordan Binnington starting, backed up by Adin Hill and Sam Montembault? No disrespect intended to any of those guys, but they are more "garden variety" NHL starters. There isn't a star goalie anywhere from Canada anymore.

Can we do anything it takes to get Brady Tkachuk here, please? Remember when there were sort of rumors he might be asking out? Have those all gone away now that Ottawa is semi-competitive?