GDT: GAME ONE, MIDDAY EDITION: St. Louis Blues (0-0-0) at YOUR SEATTLE KRAKEN (0-0-0), 1:30pm PDT, 9:30pm Morocco Time

[Bear of Bad News]

On the bright side, thanks y'all for an entertaining GDT. Missed you over the summer.

 

[kihei]

Will they ever learn with Gru. Daccord has been the far better goaltender in my opinion

Seems like the Ron and whoever is signing the checks are just being stubborn, not wanting to admit the signing has proved a failure. Like if we just keep playing him, he will justify the money and the commitment eventually. Well, we're in year four now and the evidence seems incontrovertible, so maybe it is time to throw in a losing hand. Statisticallly, Daccord was no worse then the fifth best goalie in the league if you combine save % and GAA.

 

[Renopucker]

Gru's lack of a pokecheck on Kyrou's goal is unforgiveable. It opened the gates.

 

[RainyCityHockey]

Just trashing Grubauer and making him the scapegoat for this loss seems a bit strange to me.

We all know he's nowhere near worth what the team is paying him and was a bad signing.

The 2nd goal was just bad and needs to be saved,
The first and third one will be given up by many, many goalies in the league.
That, to me, was way more of really bad defense and Oleksiak being about as agile as a cone.

 

[finnishflash13]

Starting goalie decision absolutely Killed them as well. Joey starts it’s likely a 2-1 win.

that is quite the copium.

 

[The Marquis]

Just trashing Grubauer and making him the scapegoat for this loss seems a bit strange to me.

We all know he's nowhere near worth what the team is paying him and was a bad signing.

The 2nd goal was just bad and needs to be saved,
The first and third one will be given up by many, many goalies in the league.
That, to me, was way more of really bad defense and Oleksiak being about as agile as a cone.

The bolded is exactly how I feel. Oleksiak gave those players the space. He looks like a guy playing in the alumni game at the heritage classic. Watching him during those goals and other pivotal moments of the game makes me question every aspect of advanced stats.

 

[Scomerica]

Just trashing Grubauer and making him the scapegoat for this loss seems a bit strange to me.

We all know he's nowhere near worth what the team is paying him and was a bad signing.

The 2nd goal was just bad and needs to be saved,
The first and third one will be given up by many, many goalies in the league.
That, to me, was way more of really bad defense and Oleksiak being about as agile as a cone.

No but field your best line up. Daccord is the better goaltender period. Gru can have great moments but isn't consistent.

 

[violaswallet]

How did Monty look?

 

[PocketNines]

The whole reason the Blues wound up with the freaking 16th pick last year (ugh!!!!) is that when they are down 2-0, Binnington is too competitive and would make these freaking saves to keep them in games and then the next thing you know it would be tied. Last year was a lot of this, trying to survive games where long stretches of dominance happen and then coming back by playing into the nature of hockey which is cruel momentum swings. This did not feel like a game the Blues should have won, it felt like a game both teams kind of deserved to lose because both teams displayed their weaknesses

 

[RainyCityHockey]

No but field your best line up. Daccord is the better goaltender period. Gru can have great moments but isn't consistent.

Sure, but you can't start your goalie 82 times a season.

The whole reason the Blues wound up with the freaking 16th pick last year (ugh!!!!) is that when they are down 2-0, Binnington is too competitive and would make these freaking saves to keep them in games and then the next thing you know it would be tied. Last year was a lot of this, trying to survive games where long stretches of dominance happen and then coming back by playing into the nature of hockey which is cruel momentum swings. This did not feel like a game the Blues should have won, it felt like a game both teams kind of deserved to lose because both teams displayed their weaknesses

Well it was a game of two "playoff bubble teams" and it showed.

BTW: I still can't understand how we have a cap situation in which we can't field a full roster because of financial reasons.
Especially if that roster includes huge doubts of how the heck it will score consistantly.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Just trashing Grubauer and making him the scapegoat for this loss seems a bit strange to me.

We all know he's nowhere near worth what the team is paying him and was a bad signing.

The 2nd goal was just bad and needs to be saved,
The first and third one will be given up by many, many goalies in the league.
That, to me, was way more of really bad defense and Oleksiak being about as agile as a cone.

I agree 100%. Oleksiak was terrible. His lack of mobility screws over the team every time he is out of position. Which is why I really want to shelter Oleksiak. Put him with Borgen on the 3rd pairing and tell him to not even bother crossing the red line.

That being said, Gru lets in goals at the most inopportune times. Its something that has gone on for a while now. When the team gets scored on, there is a lack of confidence overall and we need the G to step up and weather the storm. Unfortunately Gru does that few and far between.

To me, the re-signing of Daccord just confirms that the team has finally given up on the Gru experiment and are likely to play him as our #1. Hopefully shelter him against poor competition this season, whatever that is for us.

Just looking at the cap picture for 2025-26, we have 8.8M available (assuming flat cap). We need to fill in our bottom D pairing and our bottom line as well.

Re-sign Evans: Short term deal (maybe 2M, depending how this season goes)
Re-sign Kartye: Small raise. Maybe 1.2M AAV. (optional)

I expect the 4th line can be filled by our CV prospects for sure. That plus Kartye if we re-sign him.

Not so much confidence on the 6D and 7D spots. Ottavainen is likely ready for atleast the 7D spot but we may need someone for the bottom pairing with Oleksiak. We can make do without buying out either Gru or Oleksiak, who in my minds are the most likely candidates if we need to create cap space. But not doing so, will make things extremely tight and we will struggle to have more than a 21 player roster.

 

[Scomerica]

Sure, but you can't start your goalie 82 times a season.



Well it was a game of two "playoff bubble teams" and it showed.

BTW: I still can't understand how we have a cap situation in which we can't field a full roster because of financial reasons.
Especially if that roster includes huge doubts of how the heck it will score consistantly.

We can't but i'd have saved Grubauer for back to backs/weaker teams, not opening day.

Starting to think Francis is in YOLO mode to save his job. Win as much now due to ownership pressure and worry about tomorrow later given the cap situation.

I agree 100%. Oleksiak was terrible. His lack of mobility screws over the team every time he is out of position. Which is why I really want to shelter Oleksiak. Put him with Borgen on the 3rd pairing and tell him to not even bother crossing the red line.

That being said, Gru lets in goals at the most inopportune times. Its something that has gone on for a while now. When the team gets scored on, there is a lack of confidence overall and we need the G to step up and weather the storm. Unfortunately Gru does that few and far between.

To me, the re-signing of Daccord just confirms that the team has finally given up on the Gru experiment and are likely to play him as our #1. Hopefully shelter him against poor competition this season, whatever that is for us.

Just looking at the cap picture for 2025-26, we have 8.8M available (assuming flat cap). We need to fill in our bottom D pairing and our bottom line as well.

Re-sign Evans: Short term deal (maybe 2M, depending how this season goes)
Re-sign Kartye: Small raise. Maybe 1.2M AAV. (optional)

I expect the 4th line can be filled by our CV prospects for sure. That plus Kartye if we re-sign him.

Not so much confidence on the 6D and 7D spots. Ottavainen is likely ready for atleast the 7D spot but we may need someone for the bottom pairing with Oleksiak. We can make do without buying out either Gru or Oleksiak, who in my minds are the most likely candidates if we need to create cap space. But not doing so, will make things extremely tight and we will struggle to have more than a 21 player roster.

Do you think Borgen is gone next year/traded later this year?

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Do you think Borgen is gone next year/traded later this year?

Not sure if he will be traded, but we are unlikely to be able to afford to re-sign him. His next contract is likely to be in the 3.5M-4M AAV range and too much for a bottom pairing D man for us. If the team decides to engage in buyouts, then maybe they bring him back. But even then, it's too much to pay for how we will use him.

 

[majormajor]

Just looking at the cap picture for 2025-26, we have 8.8M available (assuming flat cap). We need to fill in our bottom D pairing and our bottom line as well.

Re-sign Evans: Short term deal (maybe 2M, depending how this season goes)
Re-sign Kartye: Small raise. Maybe 1.2M AAV. (optional)

I expect the 4th line can be filled by our CV prospects for sure. That plus Kartye if we re-sign him.

Not so much confidence on the 6D and 7D spots. Ottavainen is likely ready for atleast the 7D spot but we may need someone for the bottom pairing with Oleksiak. We can make do without buying out either Gru or Oleksiak, who in my minds are the most likely candidates if we need to create cap space. But not doing so, will make things extremely tight and we will struggle to have more than a 21 player roster.

I might not be understanding you correctly, how are you spending the $8.8m? It reads to me like you have barely used any of it - a couple minor raises for Kartye and Evans and some CV prospects stepping in to fill holes. And you're assuming Borgen is gone and yet you still run out of money before filling out a 22 or 23 man roster. I might have missed something. Also the cap is going way up.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

I might not be understanding you correctly, how are you spending the $8.8m? It reads to me like you have barely used any of it - a couple minor raises for Kartye and Evans and some CV prospects stepping in to fill holes. And you're assuming Borgen is gone and yet you still run out of money before filling out a 22 or 23 man roster. I might have missed something. Also the cap is going way up.

My assumption is a flat cap. You bring Kartye and Evans back with the raises I mentioned. You take into account Daccord's raise. And we still need another D-man and 2 forwards just to have 12F and 6D. I assumed we bought up Ottavainen for the 6th D and some combination of Winterton, Morrison, or other young prospect for that. That only left us with a little over 3M cap space. If you want to have a 23 player roster, that 3M may be enough but not for anything else.

Edit: This leaves 3.08M assuming the flat cap for a 20 man roster. You add whatever the cap raise is to that but I doubt it will make that much of a difference.

https://puckgm.puckpedia.com/rosters/125163

 

[The Marquis]

It kind of feels ugly in a way, but I’d rather have D’accord than lose him until he makes me feel otherwise.