I think we gave him the benefit of the doubt in the off-season. The problem is he doesn't look much different now. I feel like it's been a long time since Callahan was objectively better than JT Brown.
Player Discussion: Ryan Callahan
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I think we gave him the benefit of the doubt in the off-season. The problem is he doesn't look much different now. I feel like it's been a long time since Callahan was objectively better than JT Brown.
Sky04
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How doesn't it help my point? Do we stop paying Callahan because he played injured? Did he take up any less cap space playing injured? All you're doing is rationalizing why he played poorly, when the issue is that his production vs capspace hasn't been anywhere close to good value in recent years.
Unless their play when healthy is equal to or less than the same as when they are injured...like this case here, which could be indicating something bigger.
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I don't know how anyone can criticize Callahan, guy is the heart and soul of the team, dare I say best forward as well. Nobody PK's like him, hits like him, screens goalies like him or block shots like him. You might say but where's the offense? That's not on him, it's Cooper's fault he's not playing with Kucherov and Johnson, Cooper's fault he's not on the ice the full 2 minutes on the PP, it's the defensemen's fault they aren't hitting him or his stick in the proper spot to get a deflection, it's the other teams goalies fault for making saves against him. He would win the Ross every year if everyone wasn't conspiring against him so he doesn't, it's also a testament to Callahan that he allows all that to happen and he just goes along being an amazing team player. I feel he's actually underpaid, top 5 contract in the league.
I don't think he's amazing but I do think he's contributing. Last year he seemed more like an anchor. This year he's playing physically again, making some plays, etc. I'm not arguing that he's worth his cap hit. He's not. But he's not dragging the team down either which is how I felt about him last year(and Filppula who also seems to be rebounding a little). That's what I mean when I say he's doing better.
And I think people are being unnecessarily harsh on him. He might be the most overpaid player but he's not the worst player on the team right now.
I've never really thought he was hurting the team. It was always about the cap-hit for me. Well, that, and Cooper's insistence on chaining our top scorers to him when he clearly should have been playing a bottom-six role.
To me, Callahan's a weird kind of one-dimensional. He cycles the puck, and that's about it. Which is fine for grinding down the clock, but rarely does that cycle ever progress to a genuine scoring chance when Cally's on the ice. It's not so much that he's "bad" as he's "easily replaceable."
Sky04
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Not with Nesterov on the roster, but he's pretty damn near the bottom of the list.
The entire top-9 along with Paquette and Boyle have been better than him, he and Brown are in contention for worst forward. Don't take that the wrong way, I don't think any forward has really been a net negative this year. But if you ranked them, Callahan and Brown would be at the bottom.
Nesterov is appropriately paid and he's still disappointing lol
I 100% understand Sky's and your arguments about him being overpaid. He definitely is. But since he's not going to get less overpaid as the year goes on I guess I'm just trying to be optimistic about him. And his buyout caphit is only 1m next year
Volodya Krutov
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So we're going to have Flip and Callahan on the team next year I guess. The first because his supposed replacement in Namestnikov is so far not up to the task and Callahan because, well you know why.
I understand Flip is having a great season so far and that's the one good news, but the combination of Namestnikov and Callahan playing poorly is likely to force our hand to keep 2 cap-space killers contract.
I understand Flip is having a great season so far and that's the one good news, but the combination of Namestnikov and Callahan playing poorly is likely to force our hand to keep 2 cap-space killers contract.
I think we're gonna deal Filppula after the expansion draft regardless. Between Namestnikov, Point, Richard, and Peca, we should find someone who can play 3C, at least up the standard that Flip was last year.
IMO, the main positive of Flip's play is that it unties Yzerman's hands. We can't keep him on the team only to lose a more valuable piece (Johnson, Palat, or Drouin). We don't have replacements for those guys either.
If 3C is our biggest weakness next year, we're still not in bad shape.
Brie
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Old thread but thought this was great news for Cally and his family, huge congrats to them.
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If we look at how he's played this season I think he's been really good althougha bit snakebiten but he keeps working hard which is great.
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If we look at how he's played this season I think he's been really good althougha bit snakebiten but he keeps working hard which is great.
Sky04
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To be snakebitten don't you actually have to produce scoring chances...? Half his points are from an empty net goal.
That kids name is weird, it's a mix of two of his fan boys the Dom and Nick of Time. I think he's trolling all of us with that name.
The Macho King
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This. Gourde is snake bitten. Callahan isn't creating quality chances.
Look - he's playing fine in the role he's in right now (minus the fact that bottom line accounts for almost half of our damn penalties it seems like). No one's saying anything about Kunitz or Brown or him right now because they're getting pucks deep, keeping possession, and banging bodies - and they're doing it against whoever they're lined up against. That's fine for a fourth line in today's game. But you slide him up one spot in the lineup and suddenly his logo seekers aren't positive plays anymore that gives us an offensive zone draw with higher skilled players - they're wasted opportunities.
These Are The Days
I need about tree fiddy
VoluntaryDom
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Stormbreaker
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Sky04
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The Macho King
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Both of his hips, right? And now one shoulder. One more shoulder and he's basically the Black Knight from Monty Python.
The Macho King
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Buying him out this offseason would be a mistake. We'd be stuck with his cap hit for 4 years of 2.66m for the first two years, and 1.566 for the next two years, and we're not in a cap crunch now. If we buy him out next offseason, we're only stuck with it for three total seasons - 5.8m next season (with no cap crunch), 2.66 and 1.56 in the following two seasons. Basically, carrying his carcass for one more season buys us 1.56 in cap space later when we'll need to have fit new contracts for Kucherov, Point, Vasilevskiy, and Sergechev, while dealing with no contracts for any of our other D (except Hedman).
Todd1a
Kucherov or prospect
thats got to be yzerman's plan buy him out the last season or pawn him off with assets to the next expansion team coming
The Macho King
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He f***ing sucks. He's the most overpaid player in the league.
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