Speculation: Off-Season 2018

[MrJoshua]

Well, this will be the first full season with the team for Turris and Hartman, and it looks like Tolvanen will get every chance to make the roster, so that's basically one full line of forwards that haven't played a full season with the team. That's a lot of roster change from the beginning of last season, so I don't blame Poile for wanting to wait a bit before making any more tweaks.

I think the top six is pretty well set with the Forsberg-Johansen-Arvidsson line and the Fiala-Turris-Smith line. Then Tolvanen will get a good long look on the third line with Bonino, and I think the right wing spot will probably get rotated some between Jarnkrok and Hartman to see which one sticks.

Then the fourth line will be Sissons, whichever of Jarnkrok and Hartman don't stick on the third line, and presumably Watson unless his legal difficulties end up being worse than I hope. That leaves Salomaki as the healthy scratch.

Now, if Tolvanen simply can't cut it yet (which is possible - he's still a teenager) then the third line probably ends up being Bonino, Jarnkrok, and Hartman, which is still a decent third line. Then maybe Gaudreau (whose name I've probably misspelled) gets called up to compete with Salomaki for playing time on the fourth line.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Pretty disappointed. Poile has been great but good grief..not a single upgrade at any position?

And whatever Folin just signed for in Philly... I'll wish Poile gave him $250k more to sign here. Forwards, ok, I can accept a pass on that given the new-ish additions and the Tolvanen thing. D... meh, I am going to wear out this soap box until the last guy is crossed off the list.

 

[Enoch]

Ellis has been hit with injuries lately as well.... Just saying. So has Josi with concussions...

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

You can have too much of a good thing, especially when you look back at previous cup winners and figure out their D wasnt any better than ours was. Karlsson is an offensive upgrade, but I'm not sold he isnt a defensive loss. We would gain more from a stud RWer than we ever would from Karlsson.

That said, I dont think Ottawa would want either Ellis or Smith.

Only Ekholm is better in large samples than Karlsson defensively. Subban is usually better, but sometimes he isn't. Karlsson is better defensively than Josi and Ellis no matter how much you disagree. Offensively there is no comparable. Karlsson at 70% is still a bit better than Subban at his best offensively.

 

[FilthyScoresberg]

Karlsson at 70% is still a bit better than Subban at his best offensively.

Disagree

 

[Scoresberg]

Man, Folin and Sustr off the board today. Was really hoping we'd land Sustr. Solid 3rd pair D with size.

 

[Enoch]

Only Ekholm is better in large samples than Karlsson defensively. Subban is usually better, but sometimes he isn't. Karlsson is better defensively than Josi and Ellis no matter how much you disagree. Offensively there is no comparable. Karlsson at 70% is still a bit better than Subban at his best offensively.

I can’t disagree with you more on the defensive side. EK is an amazing offensive talent, though, without a doubt.

 

[Mortiest Morty]

Man, Folin and Sustr off the board today. Was really hoping we'd land Sustr. Solid 3rd pair D with size.

Sustr isn't good. I want to upgrade the 3rd pairing as much as anyone, but Sustr probably doesn't even do that at all and certainly not in any meaningful capacity. He has size, sure, but he doesn't really use it. And he's not any more "solid" than Matt Irwin.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Sustr isn't good. I want to upgrade the 3rd pairing as much as anyone, but Sustr probably doesn't even do that at all and certainly not in any meaningful capacity. He has size, sure, but he doesn't really use it. And he's not any more "solid" than Matt Irwin.

This. Soapbox notwithstanding, Sustr is one of those guys who has size. And only size. He has so much size that he made an NHL career out of it. But he is not an upgrade on our incumbents. He may be a downgrade.

Now Folin on the other hand... I see him signed 1yr/$800k... he may or may not be an upgrade... I have a hunch he would be an upgrade. Not a huge huge upgrade, but he does have some size too and uses it at times. He could have been a pleasant surprise. Or if it turned out that he wasn't, no harm - at 1yr/$800k that's not interfering with anything except maybe Anthony Bitetto's plans.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I can’t disagree with you more on the defensive side. EK is an amazing offensive talent, though, without a doubt.

He is an amazing offensive talent, and he has also benefited for many years from having absolutely no constraints on his play whatsoever, he has had completely free reign, and probably a lot of offensive-minded defensemen would say that's a rare and lucky thing to have found. But he's not good defensively. When he had a good partner to mind the fort, that's when he was at his best. Not that it matters overall... "a good offense is a good defense" works here.

Frankly, I wish Josi at least, and maybe Subban, were given more room to maneuver like that. If Josi was up on basically every single rush - or effectively leading every single rush, the way Karlsson is able to, then he'd probably get a lot more attention than he does too. Once in a while he does take charge, and it's a lot of fun to watch. But he's not constantly used as The Man to give the puck to with the full expectation that he's going up ice every time with it. Of course there may be chicken and egg there... maybe he's just not good enough to do that. Certainly he doesn't have an ideal backup partner for it when he's with Ellis. But he also doesn't seem to have benefited from quite the same freedom either.

 

[PredsV82]

Only Ekholm is better in large samples than Karlsson defensively. Subban is usually better, but sometimes he isn't. Karlsson is better defensively than Josi and Ellis no matter how much you disagree. Offensively there is no comparable. Karlsson at 70% is still a bit better than Subban at his best offensively.

False.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Salomaki filled for arbitration...Ok

 

[Drake744]

Salomaki filled for arbitration...Ok

12 dollars

 

[predwings]

12 dollars

You sell him, short, throw in some coupons for top golf and a bag of pucks.

 

[BigFatCat999]

12 dollars

A one way ticket to Sweden?

 

[BigFatCat999]

Just going to leave this here, The two worst PK's are in the East.

 

[GoldOnGold]

If Salomaki leaves I wouldn't be particularly heartbroken TBH. Maybe Gaudreau would get a shot with real NHL players instead of McLeod.

 

[BigFatCat999]

The worst case is if Watson is in deep trouble and Tolvanen does not make the team.

JOFA
FiST

Then

Hartman-Hook-Bones

Then....

?-Sissons-?

Brickley-He who must not be named-Gaudreau-Grimaldi-Pettersson-Camp invite/trade/Guy who brought skates and tried out.

 

[terim6]

I just want to say that it irks me watching Yzerman continually look to upgrade his team, whether being in on Tavares or trying to trade for Karlsson, Meanwhile Poile who has far more cap space to work with would rather stand pat and not upgrade anything on the roster at all, especially our awful 3rd pair.

 

[Smashville Stroke]

If Tampa gets Karlsson, hopefully they will need to move a talented winger to make room.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

I just want to say that it irks me watching Yzerman continually look to upgrade his team, whether being in on Tavares or trying to trade for Karlsson, Meanwhile Poile who has far more cap space to work with would rather stand pat and not upgrade anything on the roster at all, especially our awful 3rd pair.

Poile should've kidnapped Tavares to force a meeting imo.

 

[Armourboy]

I just want to say that it irks me watching Yzerman continually look to upgrade his team, whether being in on Tavares or trying to trade for Karlsson, Meanwhile Poile who has far more cap space to work with would rather stand pat and not upgrade anything on the roster at all, especially our awful 3rd pair.

Yeah cause Poile has a history of not upgrading anything

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Yeah cause Poile has a history of not upgrading anything

Yeah, odd complaint for a GM that's added a 1 and 2C and upgraded his #1D over the last few seasons.

 

[Smashville Stroke]

Looking like Karlsson to TB is a done deal.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

I truly believe a lot of people on this forum undervalue Erik Karlsson both offensively and defensively.

He's arguably the third best player in the world when healthy, under Crosby and McDavid.