GDT: Free Agent Frenzy 2024

[Viqsi]

Couldn't resist picking up some trash eh?

BLANKS IS NOT TRASH DON'T YOU EVER CALL HIM TRASH he is bae and I love him forever

 

[herzausstein]

Ahl vet depth. They need some with the young fellas down there

 

[101st_fan]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1807914093291909494

AHL depth moves.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

That is really going to be huge for Milwaukee. Lucchini and Hinostraza will be quality veteran forwards for the Ads, Blankenburg will help replace Stastney/Del Gaizo (although I'm not sure he was really needed given Ufko is already down there), and Murray is a great replacement for Grosenick. Good pick ups! It shows the organization is still committed to keeping Milwaukee at the top of the league. Having a strong farm team is definitely good for development too IMO.

 

[Predsanddead24]

TIL there’s a second goalie named Matt Murray

 

[FFWRX]

TIL there’s a second goalie named Matt Murray

Same. I was really confused until I looked him up.

 

[Viqsi]

Silly fangirling aside, I honestly love Blankenburg to death and was crushed when he was allowed to leave the Jackets. He's not a superstar no matter how much my inner stan wants to claim otherwise, but he's a surprisingly good two-way guy. Going by highlights alone it'd be easy to assume he's got top-4 upside. His big problem, though, is that he's not big enough or consistently healthy enough to play the all-out fearless game he tries to play and so ends up losing a lot of time to injury as a result, and he's not been able to find a way to adjust such that he can stay simultaneously healthy AND capable.

That same style makes it incredibly easy to become irrationally attached to him, though. If he could find a way to fix the health issue, he'd be a regular NHLer. As it is, he'll probably have to retire before age 30 and go into coaching or something.

but omg I love him so much

 

[bdub24]

What is happening?????

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Yeah I mean look I was team tear it down and rebuild through the draft. And while I still think that is the right direction for this team to win a cup and have a long window to do it, clearly Trotz and Brunnette disagree with my assessment and think this team can win.

At the end of the day, Preds are my #1 team and I'm always going to stand by them, but what I couldn't condone is the mushy middle. Either go in or get out. Today they went in.

The cup window is now 3-4 years. Let's hope they do it. I certainly do.

I still have concerns about the blueline, I don't think we are strong enough on the right side and not sure I LOVE the Carrier deal (would've preferred Adam Boqvist or Jani Hakanpaa) but it's not the worst.

What I would like to see now is Tomasino/Glass packaged for a d man or to clear cap space to bring in one more d man.

I still think there is a chance Fabbro is traded as well.

But overall how could you not be excited? How could you not hope this gamble pays off? Trotz did a masterful job today in actually opening a cup window for the Preds in the next three years.

That window only gets bigger next year with Joey's contract coming off the books and Nyquist, Fabbro and Glass all coming off the books. That lets you really go big game hunting for a forward or D.

 

[Viqsi]

not sure I LOVE the Carrier deal (would've preferred Adam Boqvist

Given our needs at RD this is going in the opposite of the direction we ought to be.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Boqvist didn't receive a qualifying offer from the Blue Jackets; a team that's not exactly loaded on the blue line.

 

[Viqsi]

Boqvist didn't receive a qualifying offer from the Blue Jackets; a team that's not exactly loaded on the blue line.

Boqvist was bought out; he didn't need a QO. You're possibly thinking of Bean. The problem up here was that nobody particularly stood out amongst the crowd, not that there weren't enough people.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Given our needs at RD this is going in the opposite of the direction we ought to be.

Had a feeling you would chime in lol. Look, he's just 23 years old with great underlying numbers for a puck moving defenseman, something the Preds need on that 3rd pairing, and something that hurt them in the Vancouver series, with Lauzon and Carrier not being able to clear the puck at all.

He had his first ever negative corsi for % this year, and still was on par with Lauzon, Schenn and Carrier this year (a little worse) but was significantly better than Lauzon and Schenn at having a positive high danger chances for % than against.

As far as risks go, taking a chance on a 23 year old seems like a better play to me than Schenn, Fabbro or Carrier and seeing what happens. Probably for cheaper than any of those guys as well.

Still a chance the Preds can get him. I'd like to see Glass dumped and Boqvist brought in.

But we are talking about a small thing in the grand scheme of things. Very excited about what we did do, even if I'm not convinced on our blueline.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Just to further my point, Boqvist has a 79% score on cap friendlys comparable score for a third pairing d man.

Fabbro 80%
Statsney 81%
Schenn 75%
Lauzon 77%
Carrier 87% (WOW)

So comparable to what we currently have outside of Carrier with more offensive upside and younger.

 

[Viqsi]

Had a feeling you would chime in lol. Look, he's just 23 years old with great underlying numbers for a puck moving defenseman, something the Preds need on that 3rd pairing, and something that hurt them in the Vancouver series, with Lauzon and Carrier not being able to clear the puck at all.

He had his first ever negative corsi for % this year, and still was on par with Lauzon, Schenn and Carrier this year (a little worse) but was significantly better than Lauzon and Schenn at having a positive high danger chances for % than against.

As far as risks go, taking a chance on a 23 year old seems like a better play to me than Schenn, Fabbro or Carrier and seeing what happens. Probably for cheaper than any of those guys as well.

Still a chance the Preds can get him. I'd like to see Glass dumped and Boqvist brought in.

But we are talking about a small thing in the grand scheme of things. Very excited about what we did do, even if I'm not convinced on our blueline.

If you're evaluating based just on Corsi, you're going to get a mistaken impression of the guy, because he's primarily an offensive defenseman and so is unduly favored by such simple event-based stats. He's gotten better over the years but fundamentally is still a defensive liability compared to the likes of Fabbro or Carrier. He'd need the same sort of sheltering, but even moreso, and we don't have the shutdown types needed to make that work.

EDIT: Some charts for him versus Carrier:

Short version: yes, he's more offensively capable, but that's more than "compensated for" by his lack of defensive prowess.

 

[Enoch]

We have a dead cap of 11 million which will alleviate around the time many are worrying for a drop off. Not to mention we have traded none of our recent first round picks, acquired other first round drafted players, and have acquired multiple first, 2nd, and 3rd round picks.

All of these first rounders still have some shine to them and have not arrived:
Svechov, L'Heureux, Kemell, Wood, Molendyk, Surin

This ignores last years 2nd rounders and recent acquisition of Gibson.

It ignores some of the players we acquired as well as Askarov.

We also have two firsts, two seconds, and two (or is it three) thirds in 2025.

....

I said with Hynes: He was a bad coach who couldn't coach a very talented roster. He had goo talent and couldn't figure it out. He was a nightmare. He stunted development and forced Poile to take a roster ready to compete and continue to try and retool it in a different direction. It just didn't work.

Trotz has taken that roster and added to it, with a few well placed scalpel excisions (still disagree with Duchenne but not after this offseason's moves). He is snapping up some of the older but still productive veterans that are being forgotten, while keeping young talent.

We are set up to get into the playoffs and have a recipe to fix two of the major problems: PP and goal scoring. We aren't quite there on defense, but he tried.

We still have the players, draft capital to be a force later.

We have dead money coming off the books with a rising cap and nothing egregious.

----

And bottom line, this team will be fun again. I will pay to watch stars play. I'm getting a chance to watch Stamkos? Sign me up. I don't care that he is 34. I don't care that he may be overpaid by 1-2 million (he isn't for this year, he had 41 goals last year). I want to watch a team compete, score, and have fun.

 

[Predsanddead24]

So we will have 3 of the top 15 goal scorers from last season on our roster next year.

 

[BigFatCat999]

What is happening?????

Bruce Wayne lost his wallet at Bridgestone.

 

[101st_fan]

We have a dead cap of 11 million which will alleviate around the time many are worrying for a drop off. Not to mention we have traded none of our recent first round picks, acquired other first round drafted players, and have acquired multiple first, 2nd, and 3rd round picks.

All of these first rounders still have some shine to them and have not arrived:
Svechov, L'Heureux, Kemell, Wood, Molendyk, Surin

This ignores last years 2nd rounders and recent acquisition of Gibson.

It ignores some of the players we acquired as well as Askarov.

We also have two firsts, two seconds, and two (or is it three) thirds in 2025.

....

I said with Hynes: He was a bad coach who couldn't coach a very talented roster. He had goo talent and couldn't figure it out. He was a nightmare. He stunted development and forced Poile to take a roster ready to compete and continue to try and retool it in a different direction. It just didn't work.

Trotz has taken that roster and added to it, with a few well placed scalpel excisions (still disagree with Duchenne but not after this offseason's moves). He is snapping up some of the older but still productive veterans that are being forgotten, while keeping young talent.

We are set up to get into the playoffs and have a recipe to fix two of the major problems: PP and goal scoring. We aren't quite there on defense, but he tried.

We still have the players, draft capital to be a force later.

We have dead money coming off the books with a rising cap and nothing egregious.

----

And bottom line, this team will be fun again. I will pay to watch stars play. I'm getting a chance to watch Stamkos? Sign me up. I don't care that he is 34. I don't care that he may be overpaid by 1-2 million (he isn't for this year, he had 41 goals last year). I want to watch a team compete, score, and have fun.

Skjei goes a long way to addressing what we need on the backend ... size and can skate. If Lauzon could ever find those left and right limits to play within ... damn. Gibson, Matier, Prokop have the height ... just need the bulk and to develop the skills.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Relentless frenzy

 

[PredsV82]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1807914093291909494

All for Milwaukee, presumably

 

[Osprey]

McDonagh: $6.75M
Zucker: $5.3M
Barrie: $4.5M
Beauvillier: $4.15M
---------------------
Total: $20.7M

Stamkos: $8M
Skjei: $7M
Marchessault: $5.5M
----------------------
Total: $20.5M

Nice re-allocation. Even if Stamkos and Marchessault really drop off (due to age, role or whatever) and score only 25 goals each going forward, that'll still be 50 combined compared to 19 between Zucker and Beauvillier last season.

 

[predhead1]

So we will have 3 of the top 15 goal scorers from last season on our roster next year.

That's a crazy swing in firepower. Obviously prior year performance is no guarantee of what is to come, but for everyone hollering about improving our secondary scoring (including me), Trotz just turned two of our best weapons from last season into secondary scoring.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Bruce Wayne lost his wallet at Bridgestone.

Well the Batman Building is close...

 

[Enoch]

Skjei goes a long way to addressing what we need on the backend ... size and can skate. If Lauzon could ever find those left and right limits to play within ... damn. Gibson, Matier, Prokop have the height ... just need the bulk and to develop the skills.

Agree. Losing McD hurt though, but I definitely agree with that trade off going forward