Pre-Game Talk: Countdown thread to 24-25 Season (T - 6 hours)

[LaP]

How do you balance giving the veterans time to find their game in training camp, with giving the rookies a genuine chance to displace them if they earn it?

If the kids continue out playing the bottom6 vets, at what point do you stop using the "veteran taking their time" argument?

It is my opinion that vets should not be evaluated at camp. They are known product and you have more than enough information while looking at their previous 3 seasons to evaluate them properly. For a vet camp should just be to get in shape peformance should not matter much. Armia, Dvorak, Evans, Pazetta should be evaluated using what they did in the lst 3 seasons.

 

[overlords]

Matheson has superior offensive instinct but has only shown us the sloppy part of his package,

 

[LaP]

Disagree with me if you want but camp this year doesn't seem like much of a competition for forwards. The entire bottom 6 is a lock , not sure where you guys are slotting kapanen or heineman or really anybody lol. Anderson Gallagher Dvo Armia and Evans are going to be playing , if anything its Roy who has the least amount of leeway which is pretty sad considering he's the only one in the bottom 6 with any sort of upside right now.


Man it would be fun to shoot at least 3 of the 5 vets out of a cannon and have the kids play

You have to try Heineman and Barron this year though. Maybe not to start the year but at some point we'll have to make room either thru injuries or by making trades. It's better to graduate kids in wave if we wait to much we'll have too many kids coming in at the same time. Outside of Matheson the vets we have are not worth holding back kids with potential.

 

[LaP]

He's not entirely wrong. Matheson was 9th for Points and 19th for Goals and 8th for PPP and 9th for PPG last year. That's good but there's still potentially 7 or 8 teams with a better QB/offensive dman then us. Matheson defensive game is not top of the league by any stretch of the imagination. If you want to win a cup you can't say too often there's 7 to 8 teams with a better player at a critical position. If Hutson is better at one point in the upcoming years he'll have to take over.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

You have to try Heineman and Barron this year though. Maybe not to start the year but at some point we'll have to make room either thru injuries or by making trades. It's better to graduate kids in wave if we wait to much we'll have too many kids coming in at the same time. The vets we have are not worth holding back kids with potential.

Yes I hope the plan is to ship at least two of Dvorak Armia and Evans , Andy and Gally are unmovable , the question is do they wait until trade deadline or do they try to get this done early in the season

 

[LaP]

Yes I hope the plan is to ship at least two of Dvorak Armia and Evans , Andy and Gally are unmovable , the question is do they wait until trade deadline or do they try to get this done early in the season

They probably wait like Allen last season.

 

[The Real Timo]

Ok, que pasa today? Any cuts yet? PP sucked last night. Look like MSL has been coaching it all along, haha

Let's do another trade! Something to get some excitement going.

 

[morhilane]

It is my opinion that vets should not be evaluated at camp. They are known product and you have more than enough information while looking at their previous 3 seasons to evaluate them properly. For a vet camp should just be to get in shape peformance should not matter much. Armia, Dvorak, Evans, Pazetta should be evaluated using what they did in the lst 3 seasons.

Vets aren't known product, otherwise MSL would have realized 2 years ago that Anderson doesn't have the hands to play on the PP.

 

[417]

HEAVY PAUSE + No Diddy

 

[Sorinth]

It is my opinion that vets should not be evaluated at camp. They are known product and you have more than enough information while looking at their previous 3 seasons to evaluate them properly. For a vet camp should just be to get in shape peformance should not matter much. Armia, Dvorak, Evans, Pazetta should be evaluated using what they did in the lst 3 seasons.

Vets are also not going 100% because they know how gruelling an 82 game regular season is and going hard in training camp leads to getting gassed during the season which is what happens to most kids their first few years in the NHL.

 

[Redux91]

I tried to found the tweet, but wasn’t able.

It was saying that we where getting news on Guhle status today too

It was the guy on antichambre reading his phone for what I assume is a Text from their old colleague Chantal
And yeah he was pretty much saying , Guhle update and cuts Thursday

Disagree with me if you want but camp this year doesn't seem like much of a competition for forwards. The entire bottom 6 is a lock , not sure where you guys are slotting kapanen or heineman or really anybody lol. Anderson Gallagher Dvo Armia and Evans are going to be playing , if anything its Roy who has the least amount of leeway which is pretty sad considering he's the only one in the bottom 6 with any sort of upside right now.


Man it would be fun to shoot at least 3 of the 5 vets out of a cannon and have the kids play

Yeah I mean really we've known since August
Team was full
It was only about:
-will they make room for Roy, which they are
- who's grabbing #3RD, which is most likely Barron , for now

It was always going to be 25-26 that was REALLY gonna tell us something roster wise

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

The opening lineup is already set IMO

Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovský
Alex Newhook - Kirby Dach - Patrik Laine
Joshua Roy - Christian Dvorak - Brendan Gallagher
Josh Anderson - Jake Evans - Joel Armia

Mike Matheson - Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson - David Savard
Arber Xhekaj - Justin Barron

Samuel Montembeault
Cayden Primeau

Pezzetta and Struble as extras with RHP on IR. Sadly Kapanen will probably go back to Sweden unless we keep 2 extra forwards up. If Mailloux and Reinbacher both go back to the AHL maybe he can stay, if not we need 2 extra D.

The only 2 questions are:

1. Who wins the 3RW spot between Gallagher, Anderson, and Armia

2. Who wins the 3RD spot between Barron, Mailloux, and Reinbacher

 

[The Real Timo]

Vets aren't known product, otherwise MSL would have realized 2 years ago that Anderson doesn't have the hands to play on the PP.

Does he know it now?

 

[Adriatic]

This whole season hinges on Dach being healthy. He he's not we're back to square one lol.

 

[WeThreeKings]

The opening lineup is already set IMO

Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovský
Alex Newhook - Kirby Dach - Patrik Laine
Joshua Roy - Christian Dvorak - Brendan Gallagher
Josh Anderson - Jake Evans - Joel Armia

Mike Matheson - Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson - David Savard
Arber Xhekaj - Justin Barron

Samuel Montembeault
Cayden Primeau

Pezzetta and Struble as extras with RHP on IR. Sadly Kapanen will probably go back to Sweden unless we keep 2 extra forwards up. If Mailloux and Reinbacher both go back to the AHL maybe he can stay, if not we need 2 extra D.

The only 2 questions are:

1. Who wins the 3RW spot between Gallagher, Anderson, and Armia

2. Who wins the 3RD spot between Barron, Mailloux, and Reinbacher

I'd say you are likely right, I think they see this line up as a luxury that can afford us the ability to develop our young talent further in the case of Beck, Heineman and Kapanen.

Barron will win over Mailloux, again it allows Barron a chance to establish or even update his trade value while giving Mailloux more reps at the AHL level.

I think Anderson wins 3RW over anyone, I think they know the only way out of that is through, and that means continuously hoping to find ice time and combos that make him impactful enough to provide talent to the team and maybe reinvigorate trade possibilities across the league. Gallagher is immovable.

 

[BergevinBurner]

There's been 27 preseason games so far and we have the only 2 shutouts, not too bad.

 

[Hannibal]

The opening lineup is already set IMO

Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovský
Alex Newhook - Kirby Dach - Patrik Laine
Joshua Roy - Christian Dvorak - Brendan Gallagher
Josh Anderson - Jake Evans - Joel Armia

Mike Matheson - Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson - David Savard
Arber Xhekaj - Justin Barron

Samuel Montembeault
Cayden Primeau

Pezzetta and Struble as extras with RHP on IR. Sadly Kapanen will probably go back to Sweden unless we keep 2 extra forwards up. If Mailloux and Reinbacher both go back to the AHL maybe he can stay, if not we need 2 extra D.

The only 2 questions are:

1. Who wins the 3RW spot between Gallagher, Anderson, and Armia

2. Who wins the 3RD spot between Barron, Mailloux, and Reinbacher

That bottom 6 is depressing. Makes me sad and mad.

Hannibal is sad asf

 

[waitin425]

The opening lineup is already set IMO

Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovský
Alex Newhook - Kirby Dach - Patrik Laine
Joshua Roy - Christian Dvorak - Brendan Gallagher
Josh Anderson - Jake Evans - Joel Armia

Mike Matheson - Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson - David Savard
Arber Xhekaj - Justin Barron

Samuel Montembeault
Cayden Primeau

Pezzetta and Struble as extras with RHP on IR. Sadly Kapanen will probably go back to Sweden unless we keep 2 extra forwards up. If Mailloux and Reinbacher both go back to the AHL maybe he can stay, if not we need 2 extra D.

The only 2 questions are:

1. Who wins the 3RW spot between Gallagher, Anderson, and Armia

2. Who wins the 3RD spot between Barron, Mailloux, and Reinbacher

I think this is 100 percent accurate.

I would like to see Kap in for Dvorak, and Dvorak shipped out.

Mailloux in the A until we find a trade partner for Savard, and then we can call him up.

Next year.....Evans and Dvorak gone, we have Kap and Beck as 3C and 4C.

Matheson possibly gone, Guhle to left side, and Mailloux and Rein full time in the NHL.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

I think this is 100 percent accurate.

I would like to see Kap in for Dvorak, and Dvorak shipped out.

Mailloux in the A until we find a trade partner for Savard, and then we can call him up.

Next year.....Evans and Dvorak gone, we have Kap and Beck as 3C and 4C.

Matheson possibly gone, Guhle to left side, and Mailloux and Rein full time in the NHL.

Yep - I'm not against just keeping Kapanen and Pezzetta as our 13th and 14th forwards with Struble as the only extra D. The worst that can happen is we end up losing Pezzetta or RHP to waivers in a couple of months. Even then we could probably cheese AHL conditioning stints with him for another couple weeks until someone gets hurt or we figure out a solution.

That bottom 6 is depressing. Makes me sad and mad.

Hannibal is sad asf

Well at least they aren't our top-6 anymore

 

[lamp9post]

The opening lineup is already set IMO

Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovský
Alex Newhook - Kirby Dach - Patrik Laine
Joshua Roy - Christian Dvorak - Brendan Gallagher
Josh Anderson - Jake Evans - Joel Armia

Mike Matheson - Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson - David Savard
Arber Xhekaj - Justin Barron

Samuel Montembeault
Cayden Primeau

Pezzetta and Struble as extras with RHP on IR. Sadly Kapanen will probably go back to Sweden unless we keep 2 extra forwards up. If Mailloux and Reinbacher both go back to the AHL maybe he can stay, if not we need 2 extra D.

The only 2 questions are:

1. Who wins the 3RW spot between Gallagher, Anderson, and Armia

2. Who wins the 3RD spot between Barron, Mailloux, and Reinbacher

I'd say you are likely right, I think they see this line up as a luxury that can afford us the ability to develop our young talent further in the case of Beck, Heineman and Kapanen.

Barron will win over Mailloux, again it allows Barron a chance to establish or even update his trade value while giving Mailloux more reps at the AHL level.

I think Anderson wins 3RW over anyone, I think they know the only way out of that is through, and that means continuously hoping to find ice time and combos that make him impactful enough to provide talent to the team and maybe reinvigorate trade possibilities across the league. Gallagher is immovable.

I agree with both of you, however I think there is a real chance that Kapanen stays for a few reasons:

- Dvorak and Evans will be gone next year, likely replaced by Kapanen and Beck. Do we want that much turnover at C at one time if one of these guys can start to integrate into the team now, in what is likely still a rebuilding season?
- Injuries will definitely happen and when that happens do we want to rush Beck to fill that hole when an NHL-ready Kapanen is biding his time in Europe? This isn't just a hot camp from Kapanen, he's proved himself against men for the last two seasons, impressively in the worlds and in last year's playoffs in Liga. Beck would benefit from playing top line minutes in Laval. Keeping Kapanen would ensure that.

I think wingers will be victims of the numbers game, but I'm not sure that's necessarily the case at C.

 

[WeThreeKings]

I agree with both of you, however I think there is a real chance that Kapanen stays for a few reasons:

- Dvorak and Evans will be gone next year, likely replaced by Kapanen and Beck. Do we want that much turnover at C at one time if one of these guys can start to integrate into the team now, in what is likely still a rebuilding season?
- Injuries will definitely happen and when that happens do we want to rush Beck to fill that hole when an NHL-ready Kapanen is biding his time in Europe? This isn't just a hot camp from Kapanen, he's proved himself against men for the last two seasons, impressively in the worlds and in last year's playoffs in Liga. Beck would benefit from playing top line minutes in Laval. Keeping Kapanen would ensure that.

I think wingers will be victims of the numbers game, but I'm not sure that's necessarily the case at C.

I would guess they think that Dvorak gone by deadline, Beck gets called up and finishes the season in Dvoraks role. Kapanen comes over next season and they introduce him with Demidov into the lineup. That staggers the inclusion of too much youth up front at one time because Beck will have played at least a third of the season in the NHL and Kapanen would have 3 professional seasons including one at the second best pro league in the world.

 

[Hannibal]

I would guess they think that Dvorak gone by deadline, Beck gets called up and finishes the season in Dvoraks role. Kapanen comes over next season and they introduce him with Demidov into the lineup. That staggers the inclusion of too much youth up front at one time because Beck will have played at least a third of the season in the NHL and Kapanen would have 3 professional seasons including one at the second best pro league in the world.

We have to add at least Tuch in next season in the place of Armia la grosse vache. We need that. I need that.

 

[Treb]

I agree with both of you, however I think there is a real chance that Kapanen stays for a few reasons:

- Dvorak and Evans will be gone next year, likely replaced by Kapanen and Beck. Do we want that much turnover at C at one time if one of these guys can start to integrate into the team now, in what is likely still a rebuilding season?
- Injuries will definitely happen and when that happens do we want to rush Beck to fill that hole when an NHL-ready Kapanen is biding his time in Europe? This isn't just a hot camp from Kapanen, he's proved himself against men for the last two seasons, impressively in the worlds and in last year's playoffs in Liga. Beck would benefit from playing top line minutes in Laval. Keeping Kapanen would ensure that.

I think wingers will be victims of the numbers game, but I'm not sure that's necessarily the case at C.

I would guess they think that Dvorak gone by deadline, Beck gets called up and finishes the season in Dvoraks role. Kapanen comes over next season and they introduce him with Demidov into the lineup. That staggers the inclusion of too much youth up front at one time because Beck will have played at least a third of the season in the NHL and Kapanen would have 3 professional seasons including one at the second best pro league in the world.

I think we keep Evans next year as the 5th C unless he prices himself out.

Run Kapanen in the bottom 6 wings taking draws here and there until Dvorak is traded and then run Kapanen and Evans as your bottom Cs (order tbd by merit).

Next year, Beck fight with Kapanen and Evans for C spot 3,4,5.

 

[Hannibal]

I think we keep Evans next year as the 5th C unless he prices himself out.

Run Kapanen in the bottom 6 wings taking draws here and there until Dvorak is traded and then run Kapanen and Evans as your bottom Cs (order tbd by merit).

Next year, Beck fight with Kapanen and Evans for C spot 3,4,5.

I hope for godsakes Evans is out this summer.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

The opening lineup is already set IMO

Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Juraj Slafkovský
Alex Newhook - Kirby Dach - Patrik Laine
Joshua Roy - Christian Dvorak - Brendan Gallagher
Josh Anderson - Jake Evans - Joel Armia

Mike Matheson - Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson - David Savard
Arber Xhekaj - Justin Barron

Samuel Montembeault
Cayden Primeau

Pezzetta and Struble as extras with RHP on IR. Sadly Kapanen will probably go back to Sweden unless we keep 2 extra forwards up. If Mailloux and Reinbacher both go back to the AHL maybe he can stay, if not we need 2 extra D.

The only 2 questions are:

1. Who wins the 3RW spot between Gallagher, Anderson, and Armia

2. Who wins the 3RD spot between Barron, Mailloux, and Reinbacher

If Kapanen doesn't make the team, then the bottom 6 is set
Roy - Dvorak - Anderson
Gallagher - Evans - Armia

Gallagher - Armia showed good chemistry last season, so I don't see them breaking them up to start the season. The Dvorak line also isn't necessarily the 3rd line. It could be the 4th line depending on how the Evans line perform.