Row I Goon
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- Nov 14, 2018
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Getting tiring and boring constantly making the same excuses for the same players - unless the franchise has become a charity there’s some decisions needing to be made.
Player Discussion Sammy Blais
- Thread starter duhmetreE
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HockeyBasedNYC
Feeling it
I love his physical play too, but at some point he needs to offer some meaningful possession time with the puck, or god forbid even a little offense, of any kind.
The terrible trade aside, I was a fan of his game before his injury. But it’s been a half a season. I’m all for letting a guy work his way back but it’s (been) obvious (for a while) that it shouldn’t be done on an NHL roster
And McKegg would pot a few goals here and there, with 7 goals in 96 games as a Ranger.
Sadly McKegg was more useful. Blais not sure what he is useful for
I dont see why Cuylle or Rempe couldn’t take his spot at a lower cap hit
haohmaru
boomshakalaka
McKegg, and his 0 NHL games this year, is probably not the best example of someone that's better than Blais.
That being said, the "recovering from injury" narrative has lost its luster after the season is half over. He should be sent down to keep rehabbing if that's really what's going on here.
- Apr 16, 2012
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Reading this board you can see the emotional trauma Drury inflicted on many of us when he traded Buchnevich. That bad trade broke so many of us it seems. I fear neither the board nor this team will EVER recover.
TopShelfSnipes
Snipes Like Tarasenkoooo
Bitter about it because you could always see the potential with Buch. He should have been consistently playing with Kreider and Zibanejad all the way back in 2018.
Then, he finally has his best season and gets traded for cap space the Rangers use to bring this useless grinder over here, as well as sign Goodrow and Patrik Nemeth, while hanging on to Strome for another year, and the people trying to justify the trade say that it was for the cap space we used to keep some of the kids.
It's not like the roster was finalized when the trade happened, and we'd have lost Igor, or K'Andre, or been unable to afford Fox unless Buch was moved. There WAS cap room, just the Rangers decided to prioritize overpaid depth (again) by paying Patrik Nemeth almost half of Buchnevich's eventual cap hit, and signing Goodrow to generally play on their bottom 6.
Meanwhile, Buchnevich is playing like everything we hoped he could be while we are stuck with a player who's going to make Gordie Dwyer look like a RIchard trophy candidate.
The Rangers have made some pretty awful trades over the years, and this one is definitely up there.
My point exactly. McKegg was a plug-in FA signing for the league minimum. Blais, cap dump or not, was traded (putting a late 2nd round pick aside) for a young 1st line player on our team, who we watched grow from a beanpole with moves into a bonafide 1st line winger, and who actually is homegrown prospect. We rarely see a forward that we draft develop into that. Plus he was well liked on the team and amongst the fanbase.
To me, that is all the difference. We dont expect much from the Rooney's, McKegg's, or any other fringe NHL player we sign to a minimum wage, possibly 2 way contract. If you are the lone roster player coming back for a prime Pavel Buchnevich, you have to show more than Ryan Hollweg type ability. At worst, I figured he would be a Brandon Prust type player. Thus far, I was wrong
- Apr 16, 2012
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All well and good except the trade wasn't for Blais... that is a mis framing of it. It was Buch for a 2nd rounder, Blais and cap space. Space used to bring in Copp, Vatrano and Motte for the playoff run. Saying there was cap room is revisionist, it was tight and something had to give. And the feeling around here was that it was also to make room for the young up and coming players. Now I'm not saying they made the right choice, just that a decision had to be made. Sure they could have held onto Buch, but he likely would have then been allowed to walk for nothing at the end of his contract. You think Blais, a second and cap space is bad asset management? Allowing him to walk would be worse.
Everytime I see someone scream "This is why we traded Buchnevich?!?" referencing Blais, I feel bad that this person has been so terribly wounded that rationality has been erased from the equation. Hahaha.
TopShelfSnipes
Snipes Like Tarasenkoooo
It's not revisionist.
Goodrow's cap hit was 3.7M(ish).
1-2 days later they trade Buch. Buch's cap hit 5.8M, Blais cap hit 1.5M - net savings 4.3M.
Less than a week after that they sign Nemeth at a 2.5M cap hit.
The saved space from Buch wasn't for Copp and Vatrano because it was already spent long before they got here. Those 3 moves actually put them 1.9M in the hole on cap space.
Better hope Elias Salomonsson turns into an absolute stud.
- Apr 16, 2012
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So if they kept Buch they have room for Copp, Vatrano and Motte? Come on.
The entire board acknowledged, and actually predicted, Buch would get moved both to free up cap and to make space for the young forwards. And that is exactly what happened. Was it a good trade? As it turns out, NO. Arguably we could have made a similar run keeping Buch, who knows? And the Kids didn't really get the benefit of too much top six time... But we all knew why the trade was made and it's revisionist by definition to pretend it was something different now.
Crease
Chief Justice of the HFNYR Court
- Jul 12, 2004
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The Rangers traded Buchnevich in July 2021, the day after acquiring Goodrow.
The Rangers went on to acquire Nemeth, Tinordi, and Reaves later that offseason. They also extended Zibanejad and Fox, though those raises didn't kick in immediately.
The Rangers sold the Buch trade as making room for the kids in 2021-22 and for raises beginning 2022-23. In hindsight, it was more about becoming more "North American." Which is ironic because Buch was probably their most physical top-six forward.
The Rangers went on to acquire Nemeth, Tinordi, and Reaves later that offseason. They also extended Zibanejad and Fox, though those raises didn't kick in immediately.
The Rangers sold the Buch trade as making room for the kids in 2021-22 and for raises beginning 2022-23. In hindsight, it was more about becoming more "North American." Which is ironic because Buch was probably their most physical top-six forward.
EdJovanovski
#RempeForCalder
Not to mention that Buch is as American as apple pie.
TopShelfSnipes
Snipes Like Tarasenkoooo
As I just showed a few posts above, yes, if they don't sign Goodrow and Nemeth.
As a matter of fact, they would have had even more cap space - 1.9M worth, to be exact.
But whatever it takes I guess to justify looking at this deal as "kinda sad, not that bad" instead of one of the worst deals made by any team in the NHL in the post lockout era...pretty much right up there with Montreal giving us McDonagh for basically Gomez and Ottawa giving up Zibby for Brassard and picks, and us giving up McDonagh and Miller for the brutal package of AHLers we got.
Again, if the cap space was "for the kids" why was the full cap savings (and more) from trading Buch spent on depth veterans +/- 7 days of the trade with nary a kid contract mentioned anywhere?
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barriers
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barriers
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This guy is never going to score as a Ranger but he's gonna sign with Tampa or somewhere for league minimum and stumble into being a 15-20 goal scorer hext year ain't he?
Blais needs to come back and have a great month. If not he’s dumped at the deadline in order to bring others in
Shocking... When the game is slowed down to a pace that suits Blais' lack of foot speed he becomes effective.
I hope he's traded before playing another NHL game so maybe some poor GM misjudges his ability.
I hope he's traded before playing another NHL game so maybe some poor GM misjudges his ability.
Wait so you mean a guy recovering from a bad acl tear/surgery has bad foot speed?
Who would've thought?
Blais had his surgery December 15th 2021.
Let's stop acting like he's still recovering. This is just the way he is now.
So you've never heard that it takes 2 full years to recover from that type of surgery?
Average recovery time is 9 months for an ACL tear.
Blais isn't recovering from the surgery. It killed his NHL career. He'll end up in the the AHL or overseas.
And let me be clear. I thought the player that we initially got in Blais was wonderful and a breath of fresh air. His energy, hitting, and even his shot was quite good.
The version of Blais that we have now is not the player he was. No amount of wishing or hoping will change that. His knee is shot and his skating will never be the same.
Could I be wrong? Yeah sure... But as time goes on it becomes more and more likely that I'm correct. 1+ year after surgery and the dude is still skating at about 50%.
The version of Blais that we have now is not the player he was. No amount of wishing or hoping will change that. His knee is shot and his skating will never be the same.
Could I be wrong? Yeah sure... But as time goes on it becomes more and more likely that I'm correct. 1+ year after surgery and the dude is still skating at about 50%.
Lion Hound
@JoeTucc26
We know the Offensive side of his game diminushed significantly since he arrived in NY. At least from a goal scoring perspective. The weird thing about Blais is this. Some areas actually increased. He doesn't appear to be nearly effective as he was early on as a physical forward, yet the date is showing something else.
Post injury with less icetime his hitting actually increased as did his shot blocks.
2021 36GP He averaged 2.8 Hits per game. (Pre Injury) TOI 12:04 10 Blocked Shots
2022 14GP He averages 2.6 hits per game (Pre Injury) TOI 13:28 37 Blocked Shots
2023 38GP He averages 2.9 Hits per game. (Post Injury) TOI 9:42 15 Blocked Shots
I guess what we aren't seeing is the big open ice hits he used to deliver and for a player who dosn't score goals you need that other "something". Doubt he is ever going to go back to the reckless forechecking style of play we saw in the small sample but I is interesting to see that he is still throwing the body.
Post injury with less icetime his hitting actually increased as did his shot blocks.
2021 36GP He averaged 2.8 Hits per game. (Pre Injury) TOI 12:04 10 Blocked Shots
2022 14GP He averages 2.6 hits per game (Pre Injury) TOI 13:28 37 Blocked Shots
2023 38GP He averages 2.9 Hits per game. (Post Injury) TOI 9:42 15 Blocked Shots
I guess what we aren't seeing is the big open ice hits he used to deliver and for a player who dosn't score goals you need that other "something". Doubt he is ever going to go back to the reckless forechecking style of play we saw in the small sample but I is interesting to see that he is still throwing the body.
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