Miscellaneous NHL Discussion CXIII: 2026 Offseason Happenings

[Beef Invictus]

It goes on, and on, and on. It goes on

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Time to watch every other team trade better and draft better than the Flyers.

 

[pit]

Time to watch every other team trade better and draft better than the Flyers.

Hey now, I'm pretty sure we've done better than the Kraken and, uh...

Ummm...

Ooh ooh, the Canucks!

If we were in the Pacific Northwest, we'd be the best in that region!

 

[GKJ]

It goes on, and on, and on. It goes on

 

[Beef Invictus]

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

Another reason to hate Rogers in Canada.

CBC, which has broadcasted Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays since the beginning of time, will no longer show games on Saturdays.

Hilariously, CBC retains the "Hockey Night in Canada" rights, so Rogers will have their own branded Saturday broadcasts going forward on Sportsnet.

 

[GKJ]

Another reason to hate Rogers in Canada.

CBC, which has broadcasted Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays since the beginning of time, will no longer show games on Saturdays.

Hilariously, CBC retains the "Hockey Night in Canada" rights, so Rogers will have their own branded Saturday broadcasts going forward on Sportsnet.

They already did. They just shortened it to Hockey Night.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

 

[Magua]

The difference between “Ryan Merkley is a top 10 prospect” and “Ghost is good” is not something I trust Pronman to think about.

I mostly have a negative reaction to the idea any player type is inherently good or bad based on the ebbs and flows of a few top teams. Nothing lazier than building last year’s Cup team. The Canes valued DeAngelo too at a certain price/usage — it meant nothing for the next team acquiring the same player.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

 

[CutOnDime97]

 

[Magua]

Hold on. I clicked on it while drinking muh coffee. It’s not really a think piece; it’s mostly NHL “scouts” vomiting on themselves. @JojoTheWhale — come quickly, rage bait!

This is why NHL scouts view players like Fox, Bouchard and Hutson as luxury pieces rather than foundational pillars.

"They can't be your best defenseman," an NHL scout said. "Maybe your second- or third-best."

"I think you can win with one of those guys," an NHL executive countered, "But you can't have several of them."

Second or third best! I’m dying. Is this an NHL team or a US/Canadian Olympic roster? Ugh, I guess you could win with one of them…ugh, if you made me…..

Hutson skates and competes well, but lacks the premium explosiveness evaluators would want at his size.

Hutson was consistently faster than Quinn this year. It’s like saying MacKinnon lacks McDavid’s explosiveness.

Defensemen who are elite skaters and/or elite competitors like Charlie McAvoy, Zach Werenski, Moritz Seider and Brock Faber were heavily favored over the highly skilled types who lacked those attributes.

Faber was so good his team had to acquire and staple Quinn to him. Fire on site anyone who would take him over a Norris nominee. The rest are all top 10ish defenders. Werenski is in the running for the 4th most skilled D? You can spin anything if you pretend to not understand it.

A 70-point power-play quarterback is highly valuable in November, but when the game gets fast, heavy and the whistles disappear in the spring, the demands change.

"At some point, someone will win with a defenseman like that," another NHL executive said. "It's all about playing the odds. If you study what has historically won in the playoffs, it's big, mobile, competitive blue liners who can also move pucks."

No NHL team in history has won with a 70 point defenseman. At some point, maybe in the year 2389, they’ll win.

"You don’t want to be too rigid; you still need to just draft good players, and can't go past high-end skill, even if they don’t fit a certain mold. If the Bruins had won an extra game in 2019, they would have won a Cup with Torey Krug and Matt Grzelcyk," noted another scout, referencing Boston's Game 7 loss to St. Louis.

Holy moly. Whisk this f***er away to a reeducation camp.

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

Hold on. I clicked on it while drinking muh coffee. It’s not really a think piece; it’s mostly NHL “scouts” vomiting on themselves. @JojoTheWhale — come quickly, rage bait!



Second or third best! I’m dying. Is this an NHL team or a US/Canadian Olympic roster? Ugh, I guess you could win with one of them…ugh, if you made me…..



Hutson was consistently faster than Quinn this year. It’s like saying MacKinnon lacks McDavid’s explosiveness.



Faber was so good his team had to acquire and staple Quinn to him. Fire on site anyone who would take him over a Norris nominee. The rest are all top 10ish defenders. Werenski is in the running for the 4th most skilled D? You can spin anything if you pretend to not understand it.



No NHL team in history has won with a 70 point defenseman. At some point, maybe in the year 2389, they’ll win.



Holy moly. Whisk this f***er away to a reeducation camp.

Why would you subject yourself to reading that?

To be fair, it provides significant insight into how morons are heralded as bright minds in professional sports.

 

[Magua]

Why would you subject yourself to reading that?

Know thine enemy.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

Defensemen who are elite skaters and/or elite competitors like Charlie McAvoy, Zach Werenski, Moritz Seider and Brock Faber were heavily favored over the highly skilled types who lacked those attributes

There is zero doubt in my mind that at least one person spoken to for this story lumped both Werenski and Faber into a grouping and thought it was illustrative. I’m going to quote myself.

This has got to be the dumbest league on the planet. There's a guy running a youth soccer team on the Isle of Man right now who could be a top half NHL GM inside of 6 weeks.

 

[Curufinwe]

Another reason to hate Rogers in Canada.

CBC, which has broadcasted Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays since the beginning of time, will no longer show games on Saturdays.

Hilariously, CBC retains the "Hockey Night in Canada" rights, so Rogers will have their own branded Saturday broadcasts going forward on Sportsnet.

Puck Night in Canada

 

[Curufinwe]

Brian Leetch and Sergei Zubov did OK in 1994. Maybe that scout wasn’t alive then.

 

[MacDonald4MVP]

This is why NHL scouts view players like Fox, Bouchard and Hutson as luxury pieces rather than foundational pillars.

That's why Ceci and Chiarot still have value around the league.

It's not just the execs, but scouts too. They are all cut from the same cloth and why every draft we get to hear those Pronger comparisons no matter how devoid of talent Reinhart, Morin or Stanley are.

The issue with that kind of player is they can't be 80 percent of Lane Hutson," the scout said. "They have to be exactly Hutson, or a coach won't even consider playing them.

Rick Tocchet actually played against freaking Rafalski and would probably still bench him for the likes of Seeler or Juulsen so that's completely understandable.

 

[GKJ]

Yikes

 

[ajgoal]

Yikes

He looks like Carl Frederickson would if he lost his glasses.

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Gotta admit I completely misread the last name in that tweet at first

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Gotta be nice to be an NHL head coach. You get one gig and nine times out of ten, you're guaranteed employment by SOMEONE for 20-30 years.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Surprised Buffalo barely used him this past year.

 

[Hurricane28]

That seems like a lot to move up 7 spots