GDT: Kent Hughes Mid-Season Presser (11:30AM ET)

[Paddyjack]

Just wait for the ramp up Reinbacher will need.. it's going to be ugly for him.

Hopefully he comes back during one of those 10 games, 2 pts, -15 stretches that Michkov gets on, just so its a little easier.

RB has the advantage over Dach that he can starts playing in Laval first, far from the spotlights.

 

[the]

This place needs more Kovacevic complaining.

 

[Pure Laine]

Who just asked that question about having too much faith in Barron and primeau and if it was Kent's fault

What a motherf***ing snake, I hope Kent remembers that guy

HE JUST REPEATED THE QUESTION TOO WOW

Good, enough with softball questions all the time.

 

[Guy Larose]

This place needs more Kovacevic complaining.

Well all these complainers are letting their frustrations out because they are usually the vultures that wait for a loss to complain in the PGT. Problem is, they can't lately because the team is winning, so they are taking their shots here.

 

[WeThreeKings]

RB has the advantage over Dach that he can starts playing in Laval first, far from the spotlights.

But the disadvantage that he was taken over a guy with a cult like following on this board.

 

[Hansman]

You're telling me. I only recently shook off something that had me out for a month.

Been fighting off the bug into 3rd week,its a bummer.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Many posters were adamant that we should be patient with Barron, who is very young, and has a lot of potential, and it is a rebuild, and so on and so forth

I was down on Barron, I thought he was a waiver risk. In the end it worked out reasonably well because Nashville didn't like Carrier at his cap hit and we can afford him at nearly 3.75m but that cap hit IS too high for a bottom-pairing d-man. So let's hope he has a Brett Kulak style mid-career growth.

Preds made that trade because they fell flat on their face this season and they were able to flip an effective NHL player for someone they believe will be better down the road.

Some of you think Barron sucks and nobody should believe in him. It might be true in the end but it's an opinion. Today? It's just false. He's a big boy with great skating and a good shot. Preds are going to do their best to get Barron in the best spot. None of us know if that will work or not. We can only pretend to know. Trotz probably looked at what comments he seen from our fan base about Barron and said, I'll take him.... Habs fans and media are too aggressive and derailing Barron's confidence in a hot market.

Read what Trotz said about both Carrier and Barron in this article...

Trotz Talks Acquisition of Barron, State of Preds as Season Continues | Nashville Predators

Nashville's General Manager Thanks Carrier for Time With Preds, Anticipates Barron's Arrival

www.nhl.com

 

[Andy]

I just want to know who actually saw potential in Barron after last season

He was 22 at the end of last season with under 100 nhl games played. He's got good size and is a great skater.

I don't think folks realize how young 22 is for a D-man. And I laugh that this is all brought up on a conversation that includes Jonathan Kovacevic who didn't sniff regular nhl time until the age of 25 (!).

Folks have become so incredibly impatient and unreasonable in their expectations.

 

[Habs Halifax]

He was 22 at the end of last season with under 100 nhl games played. He's got good size and is a great skater.

I don't think folks realize how young 22 is for a D-man. And I laugh that this is all brought up on a conversation that includes Jonathan Kovacevic who didn't sniff regular nhl time until the age of 25 (!).

Folks have become so incredibly impatient and unreasonable in their expectations.

100% agree. It's a rebuild and fans are already giving up on players around the age of 21-23. It's like they think this way... If they don't look like Caufield or Hutson right away, they suck.

Look at Evans and Heineman today. Then look at their journey to get to where they are today. We need to chill on the development of our secondary parts and Barron was a secondary part. Same applies to Roy, Beck, Kapanen, Mailloux and others. I feel Mailloux is the next one fans will target with Barron gone. Wait for it.

Barron's only issue is maturity. He has size, is a great skater, and has a great shot. Also a rare RD. Anybody throwing that under the bus because they wanted him to improve faster are what you said... impatient and unreasonable.

Pleky played 233 AHL games boys and girls. Barron has played 107. I believe 80 games for Pleky was during the 04/05 lockout. Regardless, it's still 153 AHL games and you can't argue that the extra year he played AHL (lockout) wasn't good for his development.

 

[Habnot]

Who just asked that question about having too much faith in Barron and primeau and if it was Kent's fault

What a motherf***ing snake, I hope Kent remembers that guy

HE JUST REPEATED THE QUESTION TOO WOW

That was Simon-Olivier Lorange - the same guy that went after MSL before a game about Primeau. Always tries to play the gotcha card.

 

[sampollock]

But the disadvantage that he was taken over a guy with a cult like following on this board.

sadly he will be comparted to Mickov for the rest of his life

 

[Andrei79]

Not many haters but a fair amount of fans who are low on him being a 2C. I think this is a classic case of dwelling when times are rough and being too gullible when times are good.

I would easily trade Dach++ for an improvement but just because I would do that, it don't mean I am low on Dach. It means I want an improvement now and prefer not to wait another 2 years before Dach becomes a consistent 60+ center.



Very good point. Style of play is very different between Carrier and Kova

I think this is true for the other trades too. For example, Barron could very well have been targeted for a few reasons. One is style of play MSL wants his team to adopt (quick transition, speed, good first pass). The other is they've mentioned in the past that all cup winners have a PMD (they were referring to Hutson at the time, saying winning teams have that style of player). If you're taking multiple swipes at players like that with interesting potential, you're more likely to have one hit. In this case, Hutson is the one who hit. Theres still a common denominator in all the acquisitions (Newhook, Heineman, Dach, Carrier, Barron, Pitlick), they're all good to great skaters and they paid a premium for those with size.

 

[LaP]

What the hell is the reporting talking about lmao

People were pissed Kent went to Russia??
Ffs

It's 2024 man i mean we are in the era of social media.

Some random guy on youtube : "People are offended by this movie"
Most people : "Who"
Youtube guy : "You know they, they are offended"
Most people : "yeah but they WHO?"
Youtube guy : "They they obviously"
Most people :

This is the 20ies in a nutshell. Social media made people dumb.

 

[Habnot]

The other dumb question was about Reinbacher. Aside that he is hurt, the question said something like - many picks are doing better picked afer Reinbacher. Only Michkov and Benson have played significant games in the NHL. This was a veiled Michkov dig.

 

[ReHabs]

Preds made that trade because they fell flat on their face this season and they were able to flip an effective NHL player for someone they believe will be better down the road.

Carrier was a cap dump. He was very bad for the Preds and overused in a role too big for him. They rated Barron's profile and did the swap. May it work out for everyone.

Some of you think Barron sucks and nobody should believe in him. It might be true in the end but it's an opinion. Today? It's just false. He's a big boy with great skating and a good shot. Preds are going to do their best to get Barron in the best spot. None of us know if that will work or not. We can only pretend to know. Trotz probably looked at what comments he seen from our fan base about Barron and said, I'll take him.... Habs fans and media are too aggressive and derailing Barron's confidence in a hot market.

Read what Trotz said about both Carrier and Barron in this article...

Trotz Talks Acquisition of Barron, State of Preds as Season Continues | Nashville Predators

Nashville's General Manager Thanks Carrier for Time With Preds, Anticipates Barron's Arrival

www.nhl.com

Today it's 100% true. Maybe in the future he won't suck, I wish him well. Today he sucks. His big body is useless if he's afraid of contact.

Assigning GM decisions on fan comments is wild, to me. It's 2025, there's not one GM who thinks the noise online is worth anything.

 

[Sorinth]

Good, enough with softball questions all the time.

Out of curiosity what did asking a "hard" question actually accomplish? Did you as a fan learn anything new because of this non-softball question?

 

[Redux91]

That was Simon-Olivier Lorange - the same guy that went after MSL before a game about Primeau. Always tries to play the gotcha card.

0 surprise thank you

It was obvious he just tries to ruffle feathers
Lil prick

It's 2024 man i mean we are in the era of social media.

Some random guy on youtube : "People are offended by this movie"
Most people : "Who"
Youtube guy : "You know they, they are offended"
Most people : "yeah but they WHO?"
Youtube guy : "They they obviously"
Most people :

This is the 20ies in a nutshell. Social media made people dumb.

I feel like a lot people are just dumb in general lol
Social media is just now broadcasting it to everyone

 

[sampollock]

The other dumb question was about Reinbacher. Aside that he is hurt, the question said something like - many picks are doing better picked afer Reinbacher. Only Michkov and Benson have played significant games in the NHL. This was a veiled Michkov dig.

the digs on Michkov will go on for years and years

 

[Ozmodiar]

Yes, Evans is getting signed 100%, there's just not a single doubt about that

It's just curious what they do with Armia
I only want to keep him if 1 of Gallagher or Anderson are shipped off finally

Yeah, might be tricky to offer Armia term when 2026-27 will see new contracts to Laine, Dach, Matheson, Hutson, Xhekaj … plus, likely Hage arrival.

They might have to jettison Gally or Andy just to get Laine re-signed. … unless Matheson leaves to make room for Mailloux.

Plus cap unknown that season. CBA expires just before that season.

So, Armia … 1 year term or much lower cap hit.

 

[ReHabs]

100% agree. It's a rebuild and fans are already giving up on players around the age of 21-23. It's like they think this way... If they don't look like Caufield or Hutson right away, they suck.

Not exactly. It's a rebuild and there will be churn and only so many opportunities and so much TOI to give around -- we have too many D prospects still. This is good churn and fans shouldn't be afraid of it. You want the cream to rise to the top.

 

[WeThreeKings]

the digs on Michkov will go on for years and years

Bad time to do it.. 2 powerplay points, a pile of minuses, over his last 10 games.

 

[LaP]

Still don't get why people want to sign Armia. Recency bias i guess.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Not exactly. It's a rebuild and there will be churn and only so many opportunities and so much TOI to give around -- we have too many D prospects still. This is good churn and fans shouldn't be afraid of it. You want the cream to rise to the top.

What you do is allow the players to earn their way into core spots (Hutson and Caufield). Demidov will be next. We have many others who should not be rushed (secondary parts).

You just wait for the next prospect attack after Barron. His name is Mailloux. Fans get emotionally attached to this idea that he will be a top 4D stud and want it to happen as fast as Hutson/Caufield. Those are anomalies. Exceptions to the general rule but the exception is not the rule.

You just wait for the comments made when Beck, Kapanen, Roy, Mailloux, Reinbacher, Hage, Fowler take too long to get to where we want them to be.

I will say 99% of our fan base supported the rebuild. But probably 25% of them don't have the patience for the rebuild and they are loud and noisy with their comments.

Still don't get why people want to sign Armia. Recency bias i guess.

My reasons would be to allow Roy, Beck, Kapanen to play one more AHL season. Maybe Kapanen makes the roster.

We are being guilty of wanting to move up the standings but think we are going to do that with prospects filling all the holes. Same as thinking Barron will fill a RD hole for this season. Wrong.

We need to consider that not all of our roster will be Suzuki and under in age. We will need guys like Matheson, Armia, Evans.

 

[sampollock]

Bad time to do it.. 2 powerplay points, a pile of minuses, over his last 10 games.

yup
so many feel the habs screwed up...
time will tell

 

[Andy]

What you do is allow the players to earn their way into core spots (Hutson and Caufield). Demidov will be next. We have many others who should not be rushed (secondary parts).

You just wait for the next prospect attack after Barron. His name is Mailloux. Fans get emotionally attached to this idea that he will be a top 4D stud and want it to happen as fast as Hutson/Caufield. Those are anomalies. Exceptions to the general rule but the exception is not the rule.

You just wait for the comments made when Beck, Kapanen, Roy, Mailloux, Reinbacher, Hage, Fowler take too long to get to where we want them to be.

I will say 99% of our fan base supported the rebuild. But probably 25% of them don't have the patience for the rebuild and they are loud and noisy with their comments.



My reasons would be to allow Roy, Beck, Kapanen to play one more AHL season. Maybe Kapanen makes the roster.

We are being guilty of wanting to move up the standings but think we are going to do that with prospects filling all the holes. Same as thinking Barron will fill a RD hole for this season. Wrong.

At the end of the day, fans just have unreasonable expectations.

I would really encourage folks to look around the league and look at how many roster spots are filled by draft picks of that team over the last 10 years and to further look at how many of those picks are actually consistent producers.

Expecting Guhler, Mailloux, Hutson, Struble, Kapanen, Hutson, Engstrom, Reinbacher, Beck, Hage, Fowler, Mesar, Slaf, Demidov, Davidson, Roy, Dobes, Florian, to all hit is completely unreasonable. You'll likely get 1-3 stars, 1-3 solid contributors, and the rest as tweeners.

And this has nothing to do with development, but just the averages. There is this crazy expectation that everyone has to be a contributor. It's just so dumb.