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Expansion Draft II

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Magua said:
Mrazek is definitely the goalie with the highest potential reward. He's 25 and has already flashed potential top 10 play. But he also comes with some risk coming off his terrible last year and cap hit. Given the fluky nature and often extended timeline of goalie prospects, you've gotta be careful assuming if/when you'll have your future starter. It's possible that we need more than a 2 year stopgap. That's where the youth and potential of Mrazek is most intriguing. Pickard is interesting too, though without quite that upside perhaps.

Thing about Mrazek is I'm not entirely comfortable having Neuvirth as the other goalie. If we had someone who I thought was more reliable and who could platoon or start as well, should the need arise, Mrazek is made more tempting. We just don't want to be in a situation where both goalies can't cut it again. But if we have Bernier/Neuvirth, I don't think we need worry about that!
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Because they both suck?
 
Magua said:
Mrazek is definitely the goalie with the highest potential reward. He's 25 and has already flashed potential top 10 play. But he also comes with some risk coming off his terrible last year and cap hit. Given the fluky nature and often extended timeline of goalie prospects, you've gotta be careful assuming if/when you'll have your future starter. It's possible that we need more than a 2 year stopgap. That's where the youth and potential of Mrazek is most intriguing. Pickard is interesting too, though without quite that upside perhaps.

Thing about Mrazek is I'm not entirely comfortable having Neuvirth as the other goalie. If we had someone who I thought was more reliable and who could platoon or start as well, should the need arise, Mrazek is made more tempting. We just don't want to be in a situation where both goalies can't cut it again. But if we have Bernier/Neuvirth, I don't think we need worry about that!
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That's where I am at. I think they're pretty good goalie prospects but I don't like just assuming they're not only going to make it but do so within the next two years in regards to Hart & Sandstrom. I look at Tampa with what they did with Vasilevskiy & Bishop over the years in terms of how to bring a young goalie along. They had Vasilevskiy in the pipeline as the best goalie prospect in the league when they acquired Bishop as a youngish NHL goalie with upside.
 
Still can't believe Florida protected Bjugstad. Like why? :laugh:

Between his multitude of terrible injuries, bad contract, noticeable decline in every stat, he just screams out, "Keeper!" And they left Smith and Marchessault available for him. I guess they have to be hoping Demers goes to Vegas, and he very well could.......but still. It seems like new boss same as the old boss Tallon, who drafted (his first ever draft pick) and signed Bjugstad, just wanted to keep "his guy" who he can't think clearly about.
 
GoneFullHextall said:
and he was a .920 goalie the prior 2 years. The guy had a poor season no doubt. But it is foolish to write him off.
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I wasn't writing off Mrazek completely; I was responding to the poster who said he wouldn't judge Mrazek's numbers last season because the Wings were a bad team. I don't think it should be disregarded that Howard played on that same team and didn't have anywhere near the same problem.

And while I'm not saying Mrazek can't bounce back, I am saying the market is flooded with way too many cheaper goalies than for me to spend $4M in cap space plus trade an asset taking a risk on one who was one of the very worst starters in the league last season. I have no idea if he'll bounce back or not. Not worth it to me considering there are so many other options available and that it's all such a crapshoot regarding which goalies have hot or cold seasons.
 
But f you bail on goalies after 1 bad year, you will never have a good one either. They all have bad years.

Who thought Cory Schneider would have a .908 SV% last year? If he was a UFA, do you walk away?

It comes down to trusting all of Mrazeks AHL and NHL seasons that show had IS a good goalie....vs 1 that says he is not.

In Mrazeks previous 6 seasons, he played in 10 different teams, and .916 SV% was his worst year. I trust those 6 years worth of info vs this past 1 year. If we could get him, I do it.

And at 4 million, he is currently 25th highest paid goalie. I have confidence he can outplay that contract ranking for us.
 
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there are obviously cheaper choices. Grubauer and Pickard for example. I think the Flyers will keep Mrazek as an option. I dont know where Mason is on their priority list on who is available. But I think if July 1 hits and Mason isnt here, then the Flyers will move on. It would be foolish for them to wait around for Mason to see what he can get on the open market.
 
I just think Mrazek has the highest reward potential.

If he has another WOAT year, we let him go and cut our losses no big deal. Can't be afraid to make a trade; fortune can favor the bold and I hope Hextall is aggressive in trying to get Mrazek (or on of the other guys).
 
GoneFullHextall said:
I could see them leaving Smith on the list. He is making 5 million on his new contract. Marchessault is definitely baffling.
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Smith has shown he can hit 50 points though, and even though he had a down year scoring, he has always been a strong possession player. Personally I trust that Smith can be a consistent 45-50 point, strong 2-way player for most of the next 5 years. Maybe $ .5-.75 mil overpaid or something, but he's a quality 2nd line winger. Bjugstad is signed for 4 years @ $4.1 mil, and his stats jumped off a cliff in every way. I'm not sure I'd even have faith he can be a 30 points non black hole possession player. He's scary. And his peak, pre-injuries, wasn't even as good as Smith's.
 
Tripod said:
But f you bail on goalies after 1 bad year, you will never have a good one either. They all have bad years.

Who thought Cory Schneider would have a .908 SV% last year? If he was a UFA, do you walk away?

It comes down to trusting all of Mrazeks AHL and NHL seasons that show had IS a good goalie....vs 1 that says he is not.

In Mrazeks previous 6 seasons, he played in 10 different teams, and .916 SV% was his worst year. I trust those 6 years worth of info vs this past 1 year. If we could get him, I do it.

And at 4 million, he is currently 25th highest paid goalie. I have confidence he can outplay that contract ranking for us.
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Then why not just sign brian elliott to a short term contract for a lot less than $4M? you can chalk up his down last season (which was still better than mrazek's) to just an off year, and point out that elliott at his best has had better than NHL seasons than Mrazek's best?
 
Ghosts Beer said:
Then why not just sign brian elliott to a short term contract for a lot less than $4M? you can chalk up his down last season (which was still better than mrazek's) to just an off year, and point out that elliott at his best has had better than NHL seasons than Mrazek's best?
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Elliott is older and played behind a much better defensive team. It's obvious the Blues served as a bit of a stat inflater, not to say he didn't do well. But I'd say that Mrazek's breakout year was better than any year Elliott had. He was the full starter too. Elliott has always been and will seemingly always be a platoon guy at best.

As was already mentioned, a Mrazek-Elliott tandem could be not uninteresting. Doubt Elliott signs for any more than Neuvirth.
 
For me Elliot is 32 & has been garbage whenever away from St. Louis & Ken Hitchcock. Even then he was always a split starter in his best years playing around 40 or so games.
 
Ghosts Beer said:
Then why not just sign brian elliott to a short term contract for a lot less than $4M?
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You have to look at potential best case & worst case scenarios.

If Mrazek can play like he plays when he plays, then there is a chance Mrazek could be our starter for the next 5-10 years. If he crumbles again next year, then we just cut our losses. But if he pans out, he's the exact age of goalie we should be trying to get and it would solve a huge hole in the lineup as we hopefully become Cup contenders in the next couple of years.

Elliot would be a 2-year bandaid at best, and then we're doing this dance all over again aka the same dance this organization has been doing for the last 25 years.

So long as the price isn't completely unreasonable, go for the homerun. I'm tired of trying to hit a single or a double with goalies.
 
Mrazek is a great option. call LV up, get them to select him and trade him to us. cause i can't see the Wings trading him if he doesn't get selected. this could be a big opportunity. Mrazek has great potential. he just had a down year on a really bad Wings team.
 
i really really hope they dont take fleury. I want fleury to get traded or something and for vegas to take a player lol. I would take bonino/hags. Vegas can have two of the fastest players in the nhl in hagelin/grabner
 
Magua said:
Smith has shown he can hit 50 points though, and even though he had a down year scoring, he has always been a strong possession player. Personally I trust that Smith can be a consistent 45-50 point, strong 2-way player for most of the next 5 years. Maybe $ .5-.75 mil overpaid or something, but he's a quality 2nd line winger. Bjugstad is signed for 4 years @ $4.1 mil, and his stats jumped off a cliff in every way. I'm not sure I'd even have faith he can be a 30 points non black hole possession player. He's scary. And his peak, pre-injuries, wasn't even as good as Smith's.
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I wasnt trying to say Smith isnt a good player. he is. Just trying to think of Florida's reason for doing it. He is a little overpaid, but it isnt that much of a big deal. I think if Florida is healthy next year down the middle he will bounce back. provided he is there of course
 
For the record, I'm not saying I want Elliott and I have long said his success had a lot to do with Hitchcock.

I'm just saying people are giving Mrazek a hell of a lot of credit for two seasons in the NHL where he was still only 26th and 16th in the league in save percentage, and being very willing to write off his most recent season where he was 56th (and dead last among starters). Meanwhile, there are players out there for a lot cheaper who also have had some really good NHL seasons, in addition to some off ones, yet for some reason Mrazek is being rated as a much surer thing.
 
The water in Florida must make EVERYONE stupid, not just the citizens and politicians.
 
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