Friedman: Oliver Bjorkstrand & Andre Burakovsky

I think part of the reason is math. Kraken have a high payroll while being 11 pts out of the playoffs. Gotta think Seattle may do what we could call a soft reboot of the roster. Burakovsky has underperformed since arriving. Bjorkstrand will have a few teams taking a good look at him
 
Does Bura seem like he could potentially regain form somewhere else or is he absolutely cooked?
I don’t actually think the drop off is that shocking all things considered. People forget that Bura wasn’t even in the top 6 for significant parts of the Avs 2022 playoff squad despite career highs in the regular season.

Sure he put up some some amazing plays, namely game 1 of the SCF with the game-winner, but wasn’t exactly a key player in the cup win.

Like many players around him; he benefitted from playing with MacKinnon, Makar, and a peak season from Kadri.
 
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Does Bura seem like he could potentially regain form somewhere else or is he absolutely cooked?
I would say he is partly cooked. Bura needs someone on his line to go against the boards and/or in the dirty areas. We really don't have many players like that on our team and that is one of the reasons (among many) for our struggles. He has looked decent at times with Wright because Wright has been doing the dirty work but Bura is pretty useless without the puck.
 
Friedman has heard their name out there, so they might be available. What is their value?

I think the Devils would be interested in Bjorkstrand if the price is right.


I want my Devils to get Bjorkstrand . Because I like the way he plays plus it keeps him away from lighting us up every single time he plays us. I swear he has at least 2 points per game against every time we play him
 
I don’t actually think the drop off is that shocking all things considered. People forget that Bura wasn’t even in the top 6 for significant parts of the Avs 2022 playoff squad despite career highs in the regular season.

Sure he put up some some amazing plays, namely game 1 of the SCF with the game-winner, but wasn’t exactly a key player in the cup win.

Like many players around him; he benefitted from playing with MacKinnon, Makar, and a peak season from Kadri.

I disagree. I think Burakovsky was just always wildly incosistent player. It's easy to just "blame" his last year with the Avs on MacKinnon, etc, but MacKinnon was actually injured a lot that year. Same for many other Avs players. Hence larger roles for Burakovsky, and also for Kadri who also had a nice year for himself with MacK out a lot.

As for whether he is cooked, again, he is just crazy inconsistent, going back to his Washington days. He has some great peaks, and also awful valleys, and just strikes me as a very very moody player. Not sure what it takes to keep him happy thou.
 
I disagree. I think Burakovsky was just always wildly incosistent player. It's easy to just "blame" his last year with the Avs on MacKinnon, etc, but MacKinnon was actually injured a lot that year. Same for many other Avs players. Hence larger roles for Burakovsky, and also for Kadri who also had a nice year for himself with MacK out a lot.

As for whether he is cooked, again, he is just crazy inconsistent, going back to his Washington days. He has some great peaks, and also awful valleys, and just strikes me as a very very moody player. Not sure what it takes to keep him happy thou.

He can still skate so in that sense he is not cooked, but like many Kraken vets he is kinda ghosting much of the time, he seems to be there but isn't really. Will he check in again if he is moved? Who knows.
 
He can still skate so in that sense he is not cooked, but like many Kraken vets he is kinda ghosting much of the time, he seems to be there but isn't really. Will he check in again if he is moved? Who knows.
Like a number of players with inconsistent production and effort he will probably start well with a new team but if the new team does not cater to him or the team is not as competitive as it could be he will fall back. Unless Seattle wants to retain he would likely have to be traded for a similar player in need of a change of scenery.
 
I don’t actually think the drop off is that shocking all things considered. People forget that Bura wasn’t even in the top 6 for significant parts of the Avs 2022 playoff squad despite career highs in the regular season.

Sure he put up some some amazing plays, namely game 1 of the SCF with the game-winner, but wasn’t exactly a key player in the cup win.

Like many players around him; he benefitted from playing with MacKinnon, Makar, and a peak season from Kadri.
I remember when he was traded telling Kraken fans he was a healthy scratch a few games in the playoffs our cup year. They thought I was making it up and that he was a game breaker. Truth is he was always really streaky and injury prone. I do miss his ability to enter the zone but we have many guys who can do that.
 
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