Speculation: Roster Building Thread: Part XLVI

[Tawnos]

The Blues were in the running to win the Jack Hughes draft lottery on January. We had a thread there tracking the #1 pick. The Blues were in prime position.

I can't wait to hear about this over and over and over this summer... as if the Blues were not a team that was always supposed to contend this season and weren't massively underachieving for the first half of the year.

 

[Tawnos]

Yeah, the Blues do not support that "tank or else" team building theory in the slightest. This is a team that made the playoffs in 6 of the previous 7 seasons before this one. They hadn't "bottomed out" or "tanked" since 2005-06 or, arguably, 2007-08, and when they did, they drafted Erik Johnson who is no longer on their team, and Alex Pietrangelo, who is obviously a valuable piece, but still, he's just one guy taken at 4th overall.If you're gonna say the Blues are the model, we have already done everything they had done, and we've even exceeded that. There is not necessarily any reason to continue, if you are following the Blues. They had 9 first rounders in 6 years - we are gonna have 9 in 4 years.

The one key point here is that the Blues have "no big time free agents," but the Blues are also a small market, small coverage, non free agent destination.

Again, I'm relatively speaking a big time pro-tanker. The Blues did very well with their draft picks and trades to get to where they are, but there's just no replacing a player of Kakko's caliber. And there would be no replacing a guy like Byfield or Lafreniere if we were to get one of them next year. But with a bird in hand in Kakko, and the lottery odds so fickle, and with our roster of young talent already on the upswing in some respects (and thus we are unlikely to finish in the bottom-3 and get the best odds), we are gonna have to rely on luck striking again. If I can get a low-tread high impact FA, I'm not gonna pass on that and hope for lottery luck that's unlikely to strike twice. Especially when the impact that FA will have is probably not enough to dramatically move the needle anyway this season due to the team's overall youth.

There's a valuable lesson to take away from the Blues winning the Cup: nothing happens until it does. Which sounds like Yogi Berra, but is definitely accurate. The fact that something hasn't yet happened isn't indicative of it being impossible.

 

[Leetch3]

Shattenkirk

Blues - cup after he left
Caps - cup after he left
Rangers -

2 out of 3 aint bad

 

[Leetch3]

https://nypost.com/2019/06/12/rangers-already-keeping-eye-on-2021-seattle-expansion-draft/

we should be keeping an eye on it...but aside from pointing out again which players are and aren't exempt. there isn't much to see here at this point...we are in pretty good shape with little to worry about at this point.

but just noting that factoring in the expansion draft can work in different ways. lets take the idea of acquiring Trouba...trouba would add another D that we need to protect which means exposing another guy. so you can look at it 2 ways...first way is don't acquire guys before you need to to avoid needing to protect them. or the other way to look at it is, if we get trouba we'll have to expose ADA therefore I'm going to include him in the trade

 

[Off Sides]

Part of what the Blues did besides draft early, they made some picks where those players in hindsight, like in a redraft several years later, would have been picked earlier in their drafts.

Part of any good build is good luck, part of that is letting the organization be in position to get lucky. Whether luck means moving up in a lottery or just making some picks where the prospect(s) from that point beat out their perceived ceiling.

If they can incorporate good scouting, in theory it should increase the chances of them selecting players who in hindsight should have been drafted earlier. Yet given the hit and miss of that even with good scouting, the more picks the better odds.

It's not like it is a super advanced notion. Yet all they know at this point is they received luck to move up to #2 once. It's going to take some time to know if that #2 would be #2, #1 or somewhere later in a redraft several years from now, nor do they know that about any of their other picks.

They had some positive indicators from those prospects D+1 and D+2 seasons, yet until more positive contributions come out of that at the NHL level declaring that luck or scouting has favored them seems premature to me.

 

[Thirty One]

I love all of the anti-rebuild people saying you don't need to strip the team down and bottom out when the Rangers have essentially done that with their team. The Rangers had the fewest ROW's last season. A handful of players are left from the Rangers 2014-2015 teams. One of those remaining players might not be here before the start of the season. You need to have a discussion with Jeff Gorton.

The Blues were in the running to win the Jack Hughes draft lottery on January. We had a thread there tracking the #1 pick. The Blues were in prime position. The GM wanted to blow up the entire team but he couldn't find the right match or it wasn't the right point in the season. Jordan Binnington won them a Stanley Cup. He should won the Conn Smythe. That would be like Brandon Halverson leading the Rangers to the Cup. Back-up goaltender in the AHL. Fourth of the depth chart. That's crazy. I remember the Rangers played the Blues on New Year's Eve. The Blues thought about playing Bennington but they stuck with Allen. They were afraid to play Binnigton.

JD went to the Blues in 2006. They already had the #1 pick in the draft that year. John was in the broadcast booth with Sam in 05-06. The team was awful. The Blues had two #1 picks in 2006. They traded Weight for the later 1st in 2006. Three 1st round picks in 2007. Tkachuk and Guerin were traded for the two later 2007 1st's. They took Pietrangelo 4th overall in 2008. Another ****ty season. Some of the people make it seem the Blues weren't bad. They took Rundblad in 2009 and flipped him to Ottawa for 1st in 2010 to select to Tarasenko who was a top 5 talent. Schwartz was their other 1st in 2010.

They sucked. They traded older players. They had multiple 1st round picks. Sounds familiar.

It just took them forever to win. The fourth or fifth string goaltender won them a Cup. They traded for Halak and Ryan Miller. Didn't win.

I was wondering how long it would take for you to advocate for Brandon Halverson to take over.

 

[Vitto79]

Brodie csn play Rd correct ?

Why are the Flames Moving a Dman ? Cap space?

If not offer a vesey , Namestnikov type package ... 50 off on Smith or Shatty

 

[GAGLine]

Brodie csn play Rd correct ?

Why are the Flames Moving a Dman ? Cap space?

If not offer a vesey , Namestnikov type package ... 50 off on Smith or Shatty

Brodie is 29 and has 1 year left on his contract. Are we re-signing him at age 30?

 

[Avery16]

Delete

 

[Vitto79]

Brodie is 29 and has 1 year left on his contract. Are we re-signing him at age 30?

Yes? He’s very good and need to start adding slowly

I think some fans are gonna be surprised by these types of moves . Player for player no picks / prospects

 

[Avery16]

Yes? He’s very good and need to start adding slowly

I think some fans are gonna be surprised by these types of moves . Player for player no picks / prospects

This isn’t slow enough

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Yes? He’s very good and need to start adding slowly

I think some fans are gonna be surprised by these types of moves . Player for player no picks / prospects

No hes not.

 

[Alluckks]

There is no scenario where Winnipeg trades Trouba and gets better right now*. Their fans don’t seem to understand that.

*Based on their current situation, not in a vacuum.

 

[bobbop]

He could also be a Mike Komaserik. The injury history is a substantial concern for someone on the cusp of signing the longest and highest dollar amount contract of his career.

Imagine we sign him 8x7 and 5 of those years are spent anchoring 10% of the cap and we get limited 3rd pair minutes out of him ~50 games a season.

The injury history is a myth. He’s played virtually the full season in three of the last four years. One year he missed 20+ games he was holding out.

What if Lias turns out to be Ulf Sterner? (Look that one up kids)

 

[Tawnos]

There is no scenario where Winnipeg trades Trouba and gets better right now*. Their fans don’t seem to understand that.

*Based on their current situation, not in a vacuum.

Depends on what you mean by better.

Which is better a the better D group?

Morrissey-Byfuglien
Kulikov-Trouba
Beaulieu-Niku

or

Morrissey-Byfuglien
Skjei-Myers
Kulikov-Niku

They're going to cost about the same in cap dollars. This is definitely debatable. The former has a better top-3, the latter is a more solid group top-to-bottom.

 

[Avery16]

Very happy for the Blues, but also happy the season is over. We need to overhaul Hartford, and need to get ready for the draft, and the moves we are likely to make at the draft.

 

[RangerBoy]

It’s a tough fit because the next contract for Trouba is going to be a big one. The expectation is that unrestricted free agent defenseman Jake Gardiner is going to get a deal worth at least $6 million annually depending on the term. Trouba is going to come in higher than that, likely starting north of $7 million annually.

“For sure,” said one NHL team executive. “That would be his expectation. I think this guy is all that much or more.”

It’s not lost on teams that Trouba is represented by Overhardt, universally known for driving a hard bargain. Ryan Kesler, Ryan Johansen, Kyle Turris — these are all KO Sports clients being paid healthy contracts.

“His agent is one of the king ballbusters of all time,” said one NHL source. “If you’re a player, I guess you want that guy in your corner. But it could also be problematic when you have such a powerful guy.”

Acquiring teams will have to be comfortable with the knowledge that they’re going to have to give up good assets to acquire Trouba and then pay a premium to keep him. That would be easier if the consensus was that he’s a No. 1 defenseman but that’s not necessarily the case.

“He’s good. He’s big. He’s strong,” said an NHL source. “If you’re prepared to overpay him, God bless you.”

As for potential destinations, that still remains open even if you remove Canadian teams. Trouba has long been connected in the past to a return home to Detroit and the Red Wings could certainly use a top pair defenseman to anchor the rebuild around. But new GM Steve Yzerman has also preached patience since arriving and may not be eager to use young assets on a player who could hit the open market in a year as a free agent anyways. After this season, Detroit will have a ton of cap flexibility on defense with only $5 million committed to any defenseman in 2020-21 (Danny DeKeyser).

Trouba’s fiancé is attending medical school in Florida and there are some who believe he’d love to end up in either Tampa or with the Panthers. Lightning GM Julien BriseBois would have to do some salary cap gymnastics to pull it off but a top pair of Victor Hedman and Trouba would be pretty darn good and the Lightning could use the right-shot.

Florida is also interested in upgrading its defense, has money to spend and the assets to pull it off, although there are a couple other high profile targets this summer for GM Dale Tallon that might take priority. And it wouldn’t be surprising if the Jets asked about 2018 first-round pick Grigori Denisenko as part of a deal, a player the Panthers aren’t exactly eager to move.

Another option would be the Philadelphia Flyers, where GM Chuck Fletcher is searching for a potential right-shot partner for Ivan Provorov. Again, that would be a formidable pair. The Flyers have the cap space to pull it off and want to be a player this summer.

 

[darko]

Yes? He’s very good and need to start adding slowly

I think some fans are gonna be surprised by these types of moves . Player for player no picks / prospects

Player for player is fine but Brodie doesn't make sense. Almost 30 and about to become a free agent.

 

[RangerBoy]

I can't wait to hear about this over and over and over this summer... as if the Blues were not a team that was always supposed to contend this season and weren't massively underachieving for the first half of the year.

They were dead last in the entire NHL on January 3 and they won the Cup on June 12. Five months.

The Blues did it with a goaltender who was loaned to the Bruins organization in 2017-18. They didn't have a spot for him at their own AHL team. He was 4th/5th on their depth chart.

There was some mystical shit happening with this team.

 

[Avery16]

They were dead last in the entire NHL on January 3 and they won the Cup on June 12. Five months.

The Blues did it with a goaltender who was loaned to the Bruins organization in 2017-18. They didn't have a spot for him at their own AHL team. He was 4th/5th on their depth chart.

There was some mystical **** happening with this team.

Yeo a bad coach

 

[LiveLongandProspal]

Adam Herman
@AdamZHerman
It appears that the Rangers have offered Tanner Glass a front office position in a developmental role.



Haha, this is pretty funny. Tanner Glass for Hartford HC!

 

[Greg02]

I'm going to pretend that we're doing this to spite the Flyers.

 

[SA16]

Well it's time to go all in and end the rebuild because our prospects will never amount to anything with Glass developing them.

 

[NoQuitInNewMexico]

Tanner Glass prend sa retraite

The blurb on the French team's site about Tanner is really cute, especially in Google Translate-ese.

Announced as one of the flagship merchants of the Bordeaux mercato last season during Fan Day, Tanner will have played the last season of his career in France in the Boxers ! A phrase you would never have thought of writing, as his resume impresses with nearly 600 NHL games ! The one who was the most penalized player of the Synerglace Magnus League 2018-2019 by his impact play and his agitator profile was delighted to have spent his last moments on the ice in the South-West of France ! Team player, humble, always smiling, Glass will have made a mark on the club !
At age 35, he focused on his post-career career, where he was offered a position by the New York Rangers to accompany and develop the newly recruited recruits to the Draft and he will follow them until their the prestigious NHL! He will continue to travel the world to watch over his young prospects, and who knows, maybe he will stop by Bordeaux during a future trip to Europe?
Thank you for this season Tanner!

Not surprised about him getting a job like this, and not surprised Rick Nash is joining Columbus's front office either

 

[NYR Viper]

Tanner Glass for all of the shit he is given was, I'm sure, one of the harder working guys on most of his teams. It wasn't his skill. Ortmeyer is a similar guy who is now involved in the organization. Many front office or scouting positions are often roles that require a lot of travel and a grind to the every day so finding guys who have that mentality and work ethic is key. Good for Tanner