Rumor: Rumours and Proposals PART6 for 2016/2017-Complaint window 1 is now open

[oobga]

I don't really care that much about losing Versteeg because after the good game he had against Calgary's D lineup, he did absolutely nothing in the next two games.

What bothers me is that they are forcing Puljujarvi into the lineup, Drake at #3C which is a position he's still learning since he's been a winger the majority of his career and this insistence to move Drai to RW. He could have at least picked up PAP, why not? There's little room for error now when injury does hit and/or Pulju shows that he can't handle the workload.

I guess Stauffer is pretty plugged in because he said last week sometime that he wouldn't offer Versteeg a deal but would offer one to Gryba and most of us were dismayed at the time. It turns out that he was right.

Yup, Stauffer is right on the money. And all his ranting about how Pulju would be our 2nd best RW by the end of the season was a solid indication of how management feels about rushing him. Looks like Pulju is here to stay and that has been the plan all along. Shades of Drai's rookie year, he's gonna have to do very poorly for an extended period to finally get sent down.

 

[CupofOil]

It is not. The goal tending scares the hell out of me. We don't have a backup goalie, and Talbot had a bad streak to start last season.

The right side defence is still weak.

BTW, Nurse for Trouba please. Nurse will break a lot of hearts in this town, trading for Trouba gets us a better player and fixes a glaring hole.

I don't usually agree with you but you're right about the goaltending being a question mark. I'm honestly suprised (or maybe not) that so many are confident in Talbot to be "the guy". Outside of a nice stretch in garbage time last season (sound familiar? Dubbie, Scrivens etc.), Talbot has proven nothing as a #1. He's still a question mark until proven otherwise and if he falters, it's Gustavsson and Brossoit as the fall back plans. Yikes

 

[McSuper]

Insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Then throw out the old saying . Practise makes perfect . You just proved it doesn't

 

[russ99]

It's not about Versteeg, it's about rushing an 18 year old to the NHL again, this time one from Finland who seems to have zero offensive capability on the smaller ice at this point, and made a horrible giveaway and flailed in the D-zone trying to make up for it.

Said it before and I'll say it again, we're not a playoff team until we can let our top picks develop rather than shoehorning them in regardless of they're rediness.

 

[Seachd]

The ones who develop in the NHL are exception to the rule not the norm. McDavid for example is an exception. Not many guys like him are around.

How many times we asked ourselves, imagine RNH, Hall, Yak, Schultz had more AHL time to develop their game. There's a good chances their game would have been better long term. Caggiula and Pulju should not be any different.

The exception would have been actually sending those guys to the AHL. You can ask yourself if that would have been better, and then you can ask yourself at the same time if the NHL experience is helping them more. It's nowhere near definitive.

 

[ujju2]

Versteeg, top line RW... right. Ok. Fine. Just make sure we beat them tomorrow.

 

[McJadeddog]

3 cheers for rushing Pulju! And Drai burning out by Dec playing tough minutes with Nuge!

uggg.... what a stupid decision

hopefully its just a temporary thing until pak/hendricks comes back from injury, and then pulj is in the AHL for the rest of the year.... still though, signing versteeg made WAAAAAY more sense

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

To pull a projected Flames roster from the Versteeg signing thread:

Gaudreau - Monahan - Versteeg
Tkachuk - Bennett - Brouwer
Ferland - Backlund - Frolik
Bouma - Stajan - Chiasson

Unless I'm missing something, I count ONE rookie in that starting lineup. So basically the Flames decided it was a bad idea to throw multiple rookies (one of which has never played centre before...) to fill spots.

The cup-winning Penguins will likely be running at most 1 rookie to fill in temporarily on the 4th line with Crosby out.

Looking at Dallas, I don't see any rookies:
Benn-Seguin-Eaves
Hudler-Spezza-Sharp
Roussel-Faksa-Ritchie
McKenzie-Korpikoski-Shore-Cracknell

Faksa? I thought he played on the big club last year, but even if not, that's one rookie.

I'm not going to go through every other team, but there you have 3 teams that play systems similar to what I'd hope Edmonton is running since they have McDavid. Each team is at a different stage of maturity/winning, but they all have one thing in common: they're not relying on rookies to save the day. Yet somehow Edmonton is doing this YET AGAIN.

Woof! Apart from Monahan/Gaudreau that is a horrendous looking forward corps. How are these idiots still paying Matt Stajan to play?

 

[McXLNC97]

And they had Fleury ready to go in case he faltered. We have Talbot and basically nobody given the Monster's track record the last few years. What's our backup plan?

They still relied on a rookie to save the day.

 

[NoDust33]

The ones who develop in the NHL are exception to the rule not the norm. McDavid for example is an exception. Not many guys like him are around.

How many times we asked ourselves, imagine RNH, Hall, Yak, Schultz had more AHL time to develop their game. There's a good chances their game would have been better long term. Caggiula and Pulju should not be any different.

What team in the salary cap era would have started RNH or Hall in the AHL in their rookie season?

 

[the pen is mightier]

uggg.... what a stupid decision

hopefully its just a temporary thing until pak/hendricks comes back from injury, and then pulj is in the AHL for the rest of the year.... still though, signing versteeg made WAAAAAY more sense

He was offered contracts from both and he took the situation that was better for him. Life goes on.

 

[Aerrol]

How many rookies did Pittsburgh start last year?

Setting aside the huge difference that they were a winning team with winning vets to shelter them and not a dumpster fire of a team that's looking to struggle to break bottom 10 again, those rookies broke onto the team as the season went on. They weren't on the starting lineup on day 1. Again, they had a backup plan. I watch the Pens as much as the Oilers, and they had 1 slot for the 3 rookies who were competing for a spot.

From last summer:
http://thehockeywriters.com/predicting-the-penguins-2015-16-starting-lineup-forwards/

 

[North]

Puljujaarvi may not put up a lot of offence this first season, but he already has good defensive instincts and some grit to his game.

Mark Scheifele (Jets fan so picking him as an example) started out on the lower lines and is now a legit first line option.

Sometimes learning in the NHL in the bottom 6 actually isn't bad for a player.

 

[Ninety7]

Imagine if Ebs goes down with an injury *knock on wood*. I know i don't want to.

 

[Seachd]

And they had Fleury ready to go in case he faltered. We have Talbot and basically nobody given the Monster's track record the last few years. What's our backup plan?

I'm not sure what this means. What's anyone's backup plan? Not every team has a young AHL superstar waiting in the wings.

 

[McXLNC97]

It's not about Versteeg, it's about rushing an 18 year old to the NHL again, this time one frim Finland who seems to have zero offensive capability on the smaller ice at this point, and made a horrible giveaway and flailed in the D-zone trying to make up for it.

Said it before and I'll say it again, we're not a playoff team until we can let our top picks develop rather than shoehorning them in regardless of they're rediness.

Look, you give him his 9 games...if he's not performing, you send him down. People act like he can't go down now that he's on the opening day roster.

 

[McFlyingV]

What team in the salary cap era would have started RNH or Hall in the AHL in their rookie season?

None, because neither were allowed to play in the AHL in their rookie season.

 

[Aerrol]

They still relied on a rookie to save the day.

If you can't see the difference between a rookie forcing their way onto the roster and making a rookie your go-to plan from day 1, I don't have anything else to discuss with you.

 

[Canovin]

The exception would have been actually sending those guys to the AHL. You can ask yourself if that would have been better, and then you can ask yourself at the same time if the NHL experience is helping them more. It's nowhere near definitive.

Yak, Gagner, Cogs, MPS etc. What did NHL experience from the get go do for them?

 

[Spawn]

There's a reason the Avs had to add a 5th round pick to move Parenteau for Briere, who at that point in his career was a 4th line player. PAP just isn't very good and he's a massive floater.

Yeah our depth will be fine. No risk at all with relying on both Caggiula and Puljujarvi in the top 9. I mean if one of them fail at least we've got Pitlick or Slepyshev

This organization is allergic to mitigating risk. And the fans lap it up.

 

[AVE MAN]

Yeah this is Versteeg we're talking about. They can have him!
I don't think there's a big drop off (if any) from Versteeg to Slepeshev. No one to blame here. Calgary is the team closer to winning this year. If you're Versteeg you want to go where you can win.

 

[herestohoping]

I don't usually agree with you but you're right about the goaltending being a question mark. I'm honestly suprised (or maybe not) that so many are confident in Talbot to be "the guy". Outside of a nice stretch in garbage time last season (sound familiar? Dubbie, Scrivens etc.), Talbot has proven nothing as a #1. He's still a question mark until proven otherwise and if he falters, it's Gustavsson and Brossoit as the fall back plans. Yikes

And Condon was available for free yesterday... I would have been more comfortable with him than the Monster..

Our forward right side is empty right now too, letting Calgary outbid for Versteeg at 950K is terrible. also could had PAP if he knew Versteeg was thinking about signing somewhere else.

Hopefully McIlarth goes on waiver and we pick him up. but then why offer Gryba contract we're near the limit.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Yeah our depth will be fine. No risk at all with relying on both Caggiula and Puljujarvi in the top 9. I mean if one of them fail at least we've got Pitlick or Slepyshev

This organization is allergic to mitigating risk. And the fans lap it up.

I mean the Flames needed Versteeg a lot more than the Oilers did. That's some putrid stuff there in Calgary.

If Versteeg wants to sign in Calgary (and he did) then that's that.

 

[Aerrol]

Woof! Apart from Monahan/Gaudreau that is a horrendous looking forward corps. How are these idiots still paying Matt Stajan to play?

I don't disagree that their forward lineup is unimpressive, but I'd probably wait to mock the Flames until after we've actually proven we're not somehow crappier than them.

Yet again. Despite starting our rebuild years before them.

 

[McFlyingV]

Yeah our depth will be fine. No risk at all with relying on both Caggiula and Puljujarvi in the top 9. I mean if one of them fail at least we've got Pitlick or Slepyshev

This organization is allergic to mitigating risk. And the fans lap it up.

Yup need more floaters who are allergic to physical play and defence.