Confirmed with Link: Axel Sandin-Pellikka signs three year entry level contract

[Lampedampe]

Looking at the top non-Ekblad RHD FA's next yr... and their averages over the last two seasons (thank you, Grok)

Brent Burns, 39, 6-5, 230.
22:27 toi. 0 games missed.
0.71 ppg. +22.5/season. 1.97 hits/game. Current Contract: 5.3M.
Projected Next: 3.5M, 2-3yrs.

Neal Pionk, 29, 6-0, 186.
22:49 toi. 0 games missed.
0.48 ppg. +8.5/season. 1.68 hits/game.
Current: 6M.
Next: 5.5M, 5yrs.

Adam Larsson, 32, 6-3, 215.
22:26 toi. 0 games missed.
0.32 ppg. +19.5/season. 2.72 hits/game.
Current: 4M.
Next: 4.4M, 4yrs.

Cody Ceci, 31, 6-3, 210.
18:17 toi. 0 games missed.
0.24 ppg. +5.5/season. 1.28 hits/game.
Current: 3.3M.
Next: 3M, 3yrs.

David Savard, 34, 6-1, 238.
19:32 toi. 5.5 games missed/season.
0.23 ppg. -5.5/season. 1.93 hits/game.
Current: 2.3M.
Next: 3.5M, 3yrs.

*****

Burns at 2yrs 3.5M would be a dream. Larsson could be nice if you could get him down to 2yrs.

Pionk is probably out of range, salary and term.

Ceci and Savard are kind of meh / maybe we could trade for someone instead.

Having Larsson for a couple years would be nice, even though it would continue the trend of signing defenders past their prime. He's still a solid defensive defenseman that can atleast handle the puck to some extent.

It would allow for ASP to take a 3rd pairing role with PP in his first year.

Pettersson-Seider
Edvinsson-Larsson
Chiarot-ASP

Pettersson on a 6m×6 contract.
Larsson on a 4m×2 contract.

Should be fine cap-wise?

 

[norrisnick]

Larsson already extended with Seattle. This is why you shouldn't trust AI. Especially shitty meme AIs....

 

[Lampedampe]

Larsson already extended with Seattle. This is why you shouldn't trust AI. Especially shitty meme AIs....

Shit

 

[Pavels Dog]

ASP - I am missing what others are seeing.

For a legitimate reply to this now that I have time:

I can't see him pinned in his own zone playing D.

Poor phrasing aside, while this might be an issue (like it is for 99% of young d-men initially) it's not really a major weakness of ASP's game. He handles it fine at the SHL level already. He's actually pretty physical, competes hard and generally keeps good positioning and is able to move the puck effectively when he gets it.

I can't see him skating his way through the neutral zone and I can't see him dominating on the PP from the point.

The end-to-end rushes isn't really his thing, because he's not the typical offensive d-man who plays like a 4th forward. He can certainly rush the puck on occasion, but don't expect it every other shift. He generally plays a pretty safe and effecient game.

As for the PP - not sure where you get the idea that he can't dominate from. Given that he's been dominant at every level so far.

 

[Lampedampe]

Larsson already extended with Seattle. This is why you shouldn't trust AI. Especially shitty meme AIs....

He signed for quite abit of money aswell, abit suprising. He's not having the best year and 5.25 until he's 36, quite steep.

 

[ElProfessor]

Larsson already extended with Seattle. This is why you shouldn't trust AI. Especially shitty meme AIs....

I actually had to google "2025 top FA's" to make the list...AI can't do that for some reason...grok just got me the stats. Must've been an old list mentioning Larsson.

 

[Lampedampe]

I actually had to google "2025 top FA's" to make the list...AI can't do that for some reason...grok just got me the stats. Must've been an old list mentioning Larsson.

Yeah, happens.

 

[ElProfessor]

Having Larsson for a couple years would be nice, even though it would continue the trend of signing defenders past their prime. He's still a solid defensive defenseman that can atleast handle the puck to some extent.

It would allow for ASP to take a 3rd pairing role with PP in his first year.

Pettersson-Seider
Edvinsson-Larsson
Chiarot-ASP

Pettersson on a 6m×6 contract.
Larsson on a 4m×2 contract.

Should be fine cap-wise?

Larsson already extended with Seattle. This is why you shouldn't trust AI. Especially shitty meme AIs....

-Burns would be sweet for 2yrs. He played for McLellan for a couple of yrs.
-I don't think we'll call ASP up unless it's to play in the top-4 though.
-If we find our long-term partner for Seider between now and next season (Chychrun, Pettersson, Provorov, trade), great.

2025-26

Chychrun/???---Seider
Edvinsson---Burns (ASP mid-season)
Chiarot---Johansson (Burns mid-season)

2026-27

Chychrun/???---Seider
Edvinsson---ASP
Johansson---Burns
Wallinder

2027-28

Chychrun/???---Seider
Edvinsson---ASP
Wallinder---Johansson
Buium

 

[14ari13]

Ahhh, I get it. As I said, terrible grammar.

"I can't see him pinned in his own zone playing D."


I meant to say I can't see him handling playing defense against NHL level talent while pinned in his own zone, nor handling the forecheck.

I understood what you meant from the context, but as I pointed you wrote the opposite. I guess everyone understood what you meant.

English is not my 1st language and I am terrible at learning languages, so I had to study the grammar very hard.

 

[splot]

I understood what you meant from the context, but as I pointed you wrote the opposite. I guess everyone understood what you meant.

English is not my 1st language and I am terrible at learning languages, so I had to study the grammar very hard.

-Burns would be sweet for 2yrs. He played for McLellan for a couple of yrs.
-I don't think we'll call ASP up unless it's to play in the top-4 though.
-If we find our long-term partner for Seider between now and next season (Chychrun, Pettersson, Provorov, trade), great.

2025-26

Chychrun/???---Seider
Edvinsson---Burns (ASP mid-season)
Chiarot---Johansson (Burns mid-season)

2026-27

Chychrun/???---Seider
Edvinsson---ASP
Johansson---Burns
Wallinder

2027-28

Chychrun/???---Seider
Edvinsson---ASP
Wallinder---Johansson
Buium

I think it would be a

-Burns would be sweet for 2yrs. He played for McLellan for a couple of yrs.
-I don't think we'll call ASP up unless it's to play in the top-4 though.
-If we find our long-term partner for Seider between now and next season (Chychrun, Pettersson, Provorov, trade), great.

2025-26

Chychrun/???---Seider
Edvinsson---Burns (ASP mid-season)
Chiarot---Johansson (Burns mid-season)

2026-27

Chychrun/???---Seider
Edvinsson---ASP
Johansson---Burns
Wallinder

2027-28

Chychrun/???---Seider
Edvinsson---ASP
Wallinder---Johansson
Buium

I do not think we should expect any major changes like this to the blueline next year, replacing Petry with ASP is the only thing that makes sense. Like it or not, Chiarot, Gustafsson and Holl are probably a part of the blueline for one more year.

 

[dtown77]

I've posted a little over 300 messages in around 20 years. So I barely post.. But why in the world would you waste your time arguing that a prospect is going to be a bust day in and day out? I can at least understand if someone is excited about a prospect why they might do it.

 

[ElProfessor]

I think it would be a

I do not think we should expect any major changes like this to the blueline next year, replacing Petry with ASP is the only thing that makes sense. Like it or not, Chiarot, Gustafsson and Holl are probably a part of the blueline for one more year.

I guess we'll see. Hopefully ASP will get an audition in Detroit at the end of this yr. If they think he'll be ready to start the yr in DET, great.

Chiarot---Seider
Edvinsson---ASP
Johansson---???

But you CANNOT go into next season expecting Holl/Gustafson to be more than a 7th D. If that's what you are doing, then you are planning to waste another yr.

Acquire a new 3rd pair partner for Johansson, or, ideally, acquire your long term partner for Seider and drop Chiarot to the 3rd pair for his last yr.

 

[13to40]

I'll try and find it this evening but it was Mike Johnson. He was saying ASP doesn't possess great speed, elite skating and his defensive skills are in question as the NHL is trending toward bigger d'men.

This guy is one of the worst hockey analyst/commentators of this decade.

He makes a lot of head scratching comments and is always super biased towards anything that benefits the Canadian market.

Total dud in my eyes, just like his playing career…. He’s a warm body/roster filler.

 

[Our Lady Peace]

This guy is one of the worst hockey analyst/commentators of this decade.

He makes a lot of head scratching comments and is always super biased towards anything that benefits the Canadian market.

Total dud in my eyes, just like his playing career…. He’s a warm body/roster filler.

Strongly disagree. He's not the best, but he's far from one of the worst. Especially as a National network analyst he's generally pretty fair. Maybe he hasn't strictly watched ASP this season, but then again it seems many around here and the other fanbases haven't either

He's also not entirely wrong about the NHL "trending toward bigger d-men". He means that in a general sense. Previous cup winning D-cores have been loaded with big D. If ours has ASP and he's surrounded by 5-6 other big defensemen that are 6'1+ then that's totally fine

Below is a link and a chart of the previous five cup winners (Pre-2024) and finalists in a ranking with the 16 playoff teams in each of those years:

Playoff Predictions using Defensemen Height and Weight – Hockey Analysis

Cup Winner​	Height (in)​	Weight (lbs)​
Vegas Golden Knights​	75.0 (4th)​	215.4 (2nd)​
Colorado Avalanche​	73.3 (12th)​	199.7 (13th)​
Tampa Bay Lightning​	75.2 (3rd)​	224.5 (1st)​
Tampa Bay Lightning​	75.0 (1st)​	222.8 (1st)​
St. Louis Blues​	75.7 (1st)​	213.7 (3rd)​

Cup Finalist​	Height (in)​	Weight (lbs)​
Florida Panthers​	73.4 (13th)​	203.0 (12th)​
Tampa Bay Lightning​	75.6 (1st)​	224.5 (1st)​
Montreal Canadiens​	75.4 (2nd)​	216.2 (2nd)​
Dallas Stars​	74.8 (3rd)​	210.0 (6th)​
Boston Bruins​	73.9 (11th)​	209.7 (7th)​

 

[Reddwit]

Strongly disagree. He's not the best, but he's far from one of the worst. Especially as a National network analyst he's generally pretty fair. Maybe he hasn't strictly watched ASP this season, but then again it seems many around here and the other fanbases haven't either

He's also not entirely wrong about the NHL "trending toward bigger d-men". He means that in a general sense. Previous cup winning D-cores have been loaded with big D. If ours has ASP and he's surrounded by 5-6 other big defensemen that are 6'1+ then that's totally fine

Below is a link and a chart of the previous five cup winners (Pre-2024) and finalists in a ranking with the 16 playoff teams in each of those years:

Playoff Predictions using Defensemen Height and Weight – Hockey Analysis

Cup Winner​	Height (in)​	Weight (lbs)​
Vegas Golden Knights​	75.0 (4th)​	215.4 (2nd)​
Colorado Avalanche​	73.3 (12th)​	199.7 (13th)​
Tampa Bay Lightning​	75.2 (3rd)​	224.5 (1st)​
Tampa Bay Lightning​	75.0 (1st)​	222.8 (1st)​
St. Louis Blues​	75.7 (1st)​	213.7 (3rd)​

Cup Finalist​	Height (in)​	Weight (lbs)​
Florida Panthers​	73.4 (13th)​	203.0 (12th)​
Tampa Bay Lightning​	75.6 (1st)​	224.5 (1st)​
Montreal Canadiens​	75.4 (2nd)​	216.2 (2nd)​
Dallas Stars​	74.8 (3rd)​	210.0 (6th)​
Boston Bruins​	73.9 (11th)​	209.7 (7th)​

Posting this without posting the previous sizes of cup winners doesn’t prove anything without seeing what those numbers allegedly trend from.

And it’s pretty irrelevant overall when ASP is the context. He’s not going to be used as a crease-clearer or a stay at home type. The league is replete with undersized defenseman dominating the league offensively these days.