Rumor: AVS Proposals/Rumors/Free Agents & Roster Moves (related topics)

[Bender]

Some harsh criticism of Larsson here. Good player, not worth Taylor Hall. I don't think he's as bad as some make him out to be, but he still won't be a savior in Edmonton.

I don't know if being compared to Nik Hjamamrladmaldrossssson is actually 'bad' as he is quite a good d-man. It's just not the same thing as people saying he's 'a stud' and a true #1 d-man.

Just because he played on the 1st pairing for the Devils, doesn't really mean anything. Matt Hunwick played on the top pairing here for the Avs and I think he did it for the Leafs as well last year for a while. Doesn't mean Hunwick wasn't on waivers and it doesn't mean he's not a borderline bottom pairing guy.

The year Larsson was drafted, I compared him to Roman Hamrlik and suggested that at best, that's the type of career he'd end up having. I don't think it's that far off to what he's shown so far. He's still young and still has some room to grow to possibly reach Hamrlik's peak at some point but that time has not arrived yet.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Seems like you are a stat guy... Here are the devils rankings in goals scored over the last 4 years.... Last, 3rd to last, 4th to last, and 3rd to last. Sprinkle that in with DeBoer almost ruining him the first few years and there is your low goal total. Lets see what the offensive stats look like playing on an offensive minded Edmonton team.

I think many here can tell you, I most certainly am not a stat guy. Much prefer the eye test. In which Larsson fail...offensively anyway.

 

[Avs44]

I'd say that's a pretty accurate assessment of this player and where could be at if all goes well. Those thinking it was a pretty even swap for Taylor Hall are going to be proven wrong, this coming year. I realize there are notable omission on every team but Sweden actually preferred Mattias Ekholm and Anton Stralman to Adam Larsson on their World Cup roster...if he was the #1 D-man stud some people seem to think, that would never have happened...not even close.

I'm not going to disagree or agree with your overall point, but what Team Sweden does and does not do doesn't mean all that much. That's the team that had the brilliant idea of taking an aging Henrik Tallinder over Hedman. In the same line of thinking I don't feel that team USA not taking Faulk, for example, should be an indicator of his abilities, when team USA took Jack Johnson instead.

 

[Freudian]

I don't know if the game will ever slow down enough for Larsson to be a #1D. Seems to play the game a bit to leisurely for me to be sold on him. But I don't religiously watch Devils so perhaps things have clicked for him lately.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Wait, people dont think Larsson is even a Top pairing D at this stage?


Interesting. Gonna have to strongly disagree with that. He's one of the best pure shut down guys in the entire league already, faces the toughest minutes in the league. From an offensive standpoint it's hard to do much with the lacking talent New Jersey had up front for so many years.


Larsson will almost definitely evolve into a #1D this year. He'll continue with his very strong defensive play, but now he has the opportunity to let his offense show some more with quality forwards on the ice to feed the puck to.

 

[CobraAcesS]

Wait, people dont think Larsson is even a Top pairing D at this stage?


Interesting. Gonna have to strongly disagree with that. He's one of the best pure shut down guys in the entire league already, faces the toughest minutes in the league. From an offensive standpoint it's hard to do much with the lacking talent New Jersey had up front for so many years.


Larsson will almost definitely evolve into a #1D this year. He'll continue with his very strong defensive play, but now he has the opportunity to let his offense show some more with quality forwards on the ice to feed the puck to.

I think people expect a #1 to have a bit more offensive ability. We'll see if we see more of that with a more offensive team.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Wait, people dont think Larsson is even a Top pairing D at this stage?


Interesting. Gonna have to strongly disagree with that. He's one of the best pure shut down guys in the entire league already, faces the toughest minutes in the league. From an offensive standpoint it's hard to do much with the lacking talent New Jersey had up front for so many years.


Larsson will almost definitely evolve into a #1D this year. He'll continue with his very strong defensive play, but now he has the opportunity to let his offense show some more with quality forwards on the ice to feed the puck to.

I agree with all this. But as someone above said, it'll be interesting to see how he deals with the pressure of being almost who's supposed to save this EDM defense and guy who was traded for Hall. I think he's a fantastic defenseman and is getting some unnecessary criticism. But getting to play with McDavid, Draisaitl, Eberle, and Lucic should really help his numbers offensively, even though he'll never be some offensive dynamo. Regardless he's a top pairing defenseman right now pretty easily I'd say.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I think Larsson is well on his way to becoming every bit as good of a Dman as Vlasic. Vlasic has been looked at as a #1D for the last 2-3 years at least now and his offensive production(Up until this past year) was very similar to that of Larsson.

 

[Pokecheque]

I think Larsson is well on his way to becoming every bit as good of a Dman as Vlasic. Vlasic has been looked at as a #1D for the last 2-3 years at least now and his offensive production(Up until this past year) was very similar to that of Larsson.

Whoa...I don't think that's gonna happen. I'm guessing he'll be a lot like EJ. A good defenseman who just didn't quite live up to the hype of his draft status. Of course I think Larsson will be more well-rounded than EJ but I don't see him hitting MEV level.

 

[tigervixxxen]

If Larson is as good as y'all are saying then that's absolutely worth Hall.

 

[Bubba Thudd]

If Larson is as good as y'all are saying then that's absolutely worth Hall.

Especially to a team in EDM's position.

 

[The Abusement Park]

If Larson is as good as y'all are saying then that's absolutely worth Hall.

I think he's a top pairing guy. Not an elite one, but a top pairing guy. I think it's hard to get over trading arguably a top 5 LW for a guy that's most definitely not top 5 in his position. However Larsson is still only 23... So he has room to grow if that's still possible.

 

[ABasin]

The avs didn't get a Landeskog or a Duchene though? Mind you that is a ridiculous proposal.

They didn't, but they didn't take back $7.5M in salary either.

Given the time of year, the Avs would have to dump a sum of salary equal to Trouba's tbd salary, and match up the talent as well. That means Landeskog or Duchene.

 

[Avs_19]

Has Kris Russell fired his agent yet?

 

[Drij]

Duchene played with a separated shoulder in the WHC.

 

[Pokecheque]

Has Kris Russell fired his agent yet?

Kinda should at this point, huh?

 

[dahrougem2]

I think Adam Larsson is going to make a believer out of a lot of people this season. He's been pretty good the last couple of seasons for New Jersey, and now he's going to get to play 1st pairing minutes with a hopefully healthy Oscar Klefbom. His points are going to go up playing with all that offensive talent in Edmonton, that's just a given. They don't necessarily need that to happen, either. They just need him to be able to play 25 minuets per night against top competition, which I think he is fully capable of doing.

Let's not forget, he's 23 years old. He's not even near his prime yet. Is he the second coming of Victor Hedman? Probably not; very few players are. But can he be a legitimate 1st pairing defensemen? Absolutely. I think he already is now, and will continue to be for a very long time if he can stay healthy.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

If Larson is as good as y'all are saying then that's absolutely worth Hall.

I strongly believe the Oilers did come out on top in that deal.


Hall is a good winger, but he reminds me a lot of Kessel in that he doesn't seem to give it 100% all the time, isn't great defensively, and when he's not scoring he doesn't add much at all.


I think for EDM to have gotten a Dman like Larsson back, on the contract that he's on with the potential he still has(And already being at least a great #2 in my eyes) I think they easily came out on top.


I know that's a minority opinion, but in 2-3 years I think that trade will be looked at a lot differently then it was this summer.

 

[Pokecheque]

I strongly believe the Oilers did come out on top in that deal.


Hall is a good winger, but he reminds me a lot of Kessel in that he doesn't seem to give it 100% all the time, isn't great defensively, and when he's not scoring he doesn't add much at all.


I think for EDM to have gotten a Dman like Larsson back, on the contract that he's on with the potential he still has(And already being at least a great #2 in my eyes) I think they easily came out on top.


I know that's a minority opinion, but in 2-3 years I think that trade will be looked at a lot differently then it was this summer.

What!? That is the absolute last thing I'd say about Hall.

It was a stupid deal for Edmonton to make, but it might not matter on a club that still has McDavid, Draisaitl, and now Pulijarvi.

I'm not sure you're right about Kessel either.

 

[McMetal]

Trading a star forward for a defenseman is a deal that a lot of teams have to make at some point when they're top heavy on the front end. It may not be popular at the time because forwards are sexier, but it's usually the right thing to do and makes your club better in the long run. It's not always about simple value, it's simply about restoring balance on your team and addressing an urgent need. Yes, Edmonton gave up the better player. But the value they "lost" is made up for in the sense that they're a step closer now to being a contender. On a team with such a wealth of star forwards, Hall was frankly expendable, no matter how good of a player he is.

 

[Pokecheque]

Trading a star forward for a defenseman is a deal that a lot of teams have to make at some point when they're top heavy on the front end. It may not be popular at the time because forwards are sexier, but it's usually the right thing to do and makes your club better in the long run. It's not always about simple value, it's simply about restoring balance on your team and addressing an urgent need. Yes, Edmonton gave up the better player. But the value they "lost" is made up for in the sense that they're a step closer now to being a contender. On a team with such a wealth of star forwards, Eberle was frankly expendable, no matter how good of a player he is.

Fixed.

 

[dahrougem2]

I strongly believe the Oilers did come out on top in that deal.


Hall is a good winger, but he reminds me a lot of Kessel in that he doesn't seem to give it 100% all the time, isn't great defensively, and when he's not scoring he doesn't add much at all.

I think the Oilers come away just fine in the trade with Larsson but you've got the wrong idea of Hall. He might have been the one Oiler who didn't quit during his tenure there. The knack on Hall is that sometime he tries too hard and develops Eric Lindros syndrome by playing with reckless abandon.

I also disagree about Kessel.

Fixed.

Jordan Eberle was not going to bring them back anything. Peter Chiarelli no doubt wanted to move Eberle before Hall. Heck, he probably would have moved Nugent-Hopkins before Hall. But Eberle wouldn't bring anything significant back, and the Oilers were desperate and the Devils knew this, hence asking for Hall and getting him.

However, there are other reasons for moving Hall. His on-ice play was never in question. What was in question was how he acted in the locker room and away from the rink. I can't speak for others, but from the people I'm close to in this city it's no secret Hall isn't well liked, and it's also no secret Hall was sick of the organization. His move was inevitable if you ask me.

 

[Balthazar]

Hall is a good winger, but he reminds me a lot of Kessel in that he doesn't seem to give it 100% all the time, isn't great defensively, and when he's not scoring he doesn't add much at all.

Not sure who you were watching but you pretty much described Eberle, who's basically PAP deluxe.

Hall is one of the fastest skater in the league and usually plays with intensity. Most Oilers fans thought he was captain material.

 

[Ivan13]

So Yakupov could hit waivers, I wouldn't mind us sending something to the Oilers to get him. He probably won't turn out well, but still worth a shot I reckon.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

So Yakupov could hit waivers, I wouldn't mind us sending something to the Oilers to get him. He probably won't turn out well, but still worth a shot I reckon.

I think they'd rather see if someone would claim him on waivers than take on another contract for him. Who could we even trade? Comeau? Gelinas? Mitchell? I don't think I'd do either of those and we don't have the cap space to just trade a pick.