GDT: Game 40: Sharks vs. Flyers 5:00pm NBCSCA

[Star Platinum]

I don’t think he traded Blackwood because they were doing too well - I promise you he’d love it if the team shocked everyone and made a playoff run. It’s not only good for his rookies, it’s good for his career. He traded Blackwood because Grier sticks to his vision even when it’s painful. A 2nd and Kovalenko is a fantastic deal for Blackwood who he wasn’t going to sign, he took it while the offer was standing.

Georgiev is being played because they don’t want to throw Askarov to the wolves but I suspect he’s quickly going to take the starting role here.

As much as I want a bottom of the league finish to ensure that we get one of the impact players, I part ways with the "Grier was the second GM on the grassy knoll" folks who think that he wanted to get Georgiev because he was so bad that he'd ensure the tank was successful. I'm sure he would have been quite happy to take no contracts back and call Askarov up sooner than he was planning. He got Georgiev because that was part of the price of doing the deal. But the timing of the deal was purely because a lot of things can happen between now and then. We're down a goalie right now because he got hit in the face with a puck on the friggin' bench. When you get a good deal offered for a guy you know you're gonna lose for nothing, you take it while it's there.

I don't really think they're worried about playing Askarov and damaging his confidence, but I do think that they do hold out some hope of performing some sort of magic on Georgiev so that they can trade him in two months for even a late round pick, but I think that's a real long shot. I think there's truth to the position that as long as he's here, they figure they'll play him and either we'll lose a lot (better draft position) or he'll straighten himself out and maybe someone will need an overpriced backup goalie at the deadline. I'd let him straighten out in sessions with Speer and play Askarov more as long as he's here, but nobody at the Sharks seems to solicit my opinions.

 

[The Nemesis]

Grier traded Blackwood because he's an expiring contract who was unlikely to re-sign with the Sharks at an amount that would've made sense and to play a role that the team needed. And there was a market (or at least a team in the Avs) that was willing to give up a solid price for him.

Grier took back Georgiev because his cap hit helped make the math work and because the Avs needed to unload a goalie to make space for the incoming Blackwood.

Georgiev plays games because the plan appears to have always been to season Askarov in the minors this season with occasional starts and an eye on him coming into camp this fall to stake his claim to hte starter spot once the NHL crease had spaces cleared for him and was set up for him to take his place. And then Vanacek got hurt and you kind of don't have any other options besides a) riding Askarov in the NHL harder than was the plan and thus exposing him to this team's awful defence, b) promoting Romanov who does not have any runway on which to declare him NHL capable for any length of time or c) promoting Dell, lol.

Do all of these things also end up helping the tank? Sure, they absolutely do. Was Grier aware of this when he made the choices above? Probably. He'd be stupid not to be. But does that make them motivating factors in those decisions? Not necessarily.

It's possible for the moves to both help the tank and have their own reasons for going down. Both things can be true.

 

[Jargon]

Grier traded Blackwood because he's an expiring contract who was unlikely to re-sign with the Sharks at an amount that would've made sense and to play a role that the team needed. And there was a market (or at least a team in the Avs) that was willing to give up a solid price for him.

Grier took back Georgiev because his cap hit helped make the math work and because the Avs needed to unload a goalie to make space for the incoming Blackwood.

Georgiev plays games because the plan appears to have always been to season Askarov in the minors this season with occasional starts and an eye on him coming into camp this fall to stake his claim to hte starter spot once the NHL crease had spaces cleared for him and was set up for him to take his place. And then Vanacek got hurt and you kind of don't have any other options besides a) riding Askarov in the NHL harder than was the plan and thus exposing him to this team's awful defence, b) promoting Romanov who does not have any runway on which to declare him NHL capable for any length of time or c) promoting Dell, lol.

Do all of these things also end up helping the tank? Sure, they absolutely do. Was Grier aware of this when he made the choices above? Probably. He'd be stupid not to be. But does that make them motivating factors in those decisions? Not necessarily.

It's possible for the moves to both help the tank and have their own reasons for going down. Both things can be true.

So you’re saying Grier is Keyser Soze.

 

[Star Platinum]

So you’re saying Grier is Keyser Soze.

 

[gaucholoco3]

Grier also didn’t want to risk Blackwood having a bad month with the difficult schedule in December and tanking his value.

 

[coooldude]

Other than Celebrini, I wouldn't call anybody on the team fast.

Zetterlund is fast, and Ceci actually has a pretty fast top speed and lots of bursts.

Sturm is above average in top speed.

 

[coooldude]

Zetterlund is fast, and Ceci actually has a pretty fast top speed and lots of bursts.

Sturm is above average in top speed.

Following this for more interesting info about team speed:

• We're just below 50th percentile in team's top speed, and well below league average in 22mph+ bursts.
• However, we're average at 20-22mph bursts and we're 77th %ile at 18-20mph bursts. So, the team is playing hard, but is not particularly fast.
  
  

A couple other notables:

• Mack's top speed still 22.44 (71%ile), but he's gotten close to it 5 times (over 22mph), good for 89%ile for 22+ bursts... also, 87%ile for 20-22 bursts and 91%ile for 18-20 bursts. Mack plays very fast even though he's not blazing fast at his fastest.
• Kunin's top speed is 63rd %ile and his bursts are all a shade above average.
• Walman's top speed is 70th %ile, and his bursts are pretty good. Walman is fast.
• Eklund's top speed is below 50%ile but his bursts are well above average. He plays hard and fast for his speed but he is not fast.

 

[weastern bias]

• Mack's top speed still 22.44 (71%ile)

Hell yeah, branding