How to turn things around

[Proust*]

1: no team in their right mind does that for Spezza. 2: Or trade him next deadline. 3: No one's available unless we overpay. 4: None of those guys have top 6 upside. Might as well let Milo go, no sense in giving him the money he will want to play 3rd line minutes.

1) You might be right, but you might be surprised. Spezza can still be a PPG guy in the right environment, and is cheap. That fact is going to be VERY seductive to a few teams.

2) If we can't re-sign him next summer, I would even consider dealing him before the season starts.... or at the deadline.. whatever.

3) Trade. We have assets.

4) He is injury prone and might go with a bit of term and less money. It totally depends on him.

Oh yah, everyone buries their hatchets and we sign Daniel Alfredsson to a 1 yr contract.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I agree to an extent, but not quite going as far as you in terms if quality or price.

Imagine just for a moment, even having a Filip Kuba on this team right now (no, not the 37yo version who got bought by the Panthers).

In 3 of his 4 years as a Sen (minus the year that he returned from back surgery, only to break his leg in training camp)... he played 23 mins a night in all situations, posted over a half a point per game average (42pt pace) and helped settle down some very young and inexperienced d-men (Picard, B.Lee and Karlsson).

That player alone would bump everybody behind Karlsson down a spot, knock Phillips off of the PP and take 2.5-3 mins of PK time away from somebody else.

31yo Kuba - Karlsson
Methot - Ceci
Cowen/Phillips/Wiercioch/Gryba

Somebody like that should be enough to keep us on the right side of the playoff bubble until the kids start moving into their peak.

I don't agree with Trent very often but he's spot-on here

We just need a good steady dman who can play 20+ minutes a night with Karlsson in order to bump down our inexperienced players and Phillips; that would allow Methot to play with Cowen which should be a solid pairing if Cowen progresses as management expects him to.

Looking at currently unsigned Dmen scheduled to be UFAs there isn't much I expect to be available: there's Niskanen and Klesla, maybe Orpik (he's a leader even if he isn't all that great)...

Ian White is not in the NHL so he's the kind of player we could use: he's 29, been around the NHL and has played for Team Canada at the WC. He's probably itching to get back into the NHL and might be had for cheap: I didn't see him in his Detroit days but he used to be a decent, dependable dman with a bit of offense. On his own he's nothing remarkable but, unless his game has regressed, I think he'd be a good option at playing alongside Karlsson

 

[Proust*]

Ian White is not in the NHL so he's the kind of player we could use: he's 29, been around the NHL and has played for Team Canada at the WC. He's probably itching to get back into the NHL and might be had for cheap: I didn't see him in his Detroit days but he used to be a decent, dependable dman with a bit of offense. On his own he's nothing remarkable but, unless his game has regressed, I think he'd be a good option at playing alongside Karlsson

I think you have the wrong Ian White. The Ian White that played in the NHL was good offensively and very bad defensively... not exactly a "dependable dman".

We can't use waiver fodder to plug the hole in the d corps. This team needs a bonafide defenseman and will have to acquire him in a Methot - Foligno type deal.

 

[Sun God Nika]

Paul Maclean won the adams cuz of alfie and goaltending, now that he doesnt have those assets we see him for him, a garbage coach.

 

[aragorn]

I don't see a good UFA defenceman available July 1 so unless BM trades for that experienced defenceman which would cost a lot I don't expect any changes to this D-corp. I'm hoping that another yr of experience will improve their overall play as I think this management team is also hoping for, otherwise they will need to make a trade sooner rather than later.

But it's not just the defence, these players need to reduce their penalties since they were one of the most penalized teams in the NHL last yr. They need to reduce their turnovers & giveaways which again I think they were one of the highest in the NHL. They need their goalies to be much better & not let in so many weak goals in the first period. And our best players have to score more, you can't win games unless you out score the opposition, we have to stop blaming hot goaltending & find ways to crash the net & score more goals.

 

[Icelevel]

I don't agree with Trent very often

i stopped reading there