The Out of Town Thread CVIII - Free Agency Edition

[Saundies]

Canucks board is pissed about this trade, especially after the Prust-Kassian fiasco. Seems like Benning just loves throwing picks onto deals. Anyway.

Pittsburgh's really top heavily offensively and super thin defensively... We're really top heavy defensively and meh offensively.. Wonder if there's a deal to be made in the not so distant future (I'm looking at you, Emelin and Gilbert)

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Canucks board is pissed about this trade, especially after the Prust-Kassian fiasco. Seems like Benning just loves throwing picks onto deals. Anyway.

Pittsburgh's really top heavily offensively and super thin defensively... We're really top heavy defensively and meh offensively.. Wonder if there's a deal to be made in the not so distant future (I'm looking at you, Emelin and Gilbert)

Both teams do have compatible needs. Semin's signing made ours a bit less pressing though and I'd like us to keep a top 9 spot open for the pro ready prospects to battle for. If we can put one of our bottom 6 forwards in the deal, packaged with let's say Emelin, then targeting Perron might be a good idea. We don't really have a player his style and he'd make the inevitable DD departure more palatable for the media.

 

[LaP]

I like Bonino a lot more than Sutter.

Two solid additions for Pittsburgh today, if they didn't trade away Despres I'd like their team a lot for next year but unfortunately they did, what an awful trade.

The Despres trade was such a bad trade. I could not believe it when they announced it. To me Lovejoy has always been a borderline AHL dman. I still can't believe a NHL caliber GM made this trade.

 

[LaP]

That's nothing new

Actually pens always had bad 3rd and 4th lines. Their 3rd line will be good this year with Fehr, Bonino and Plotnikov/Dupuis and if they can sign Lapierre for a 1 year i want to win the cup deal then the 4th line wont be bad too.

Let's not forget when they won the cup Malkin was playing with Fedotenko and too old Satan/Sykora if i remember well.

 

[Lebowski]

Canucks board is pissed about this trade, especially after the Prust-Kassian fiasco. Seems like Benning just loves throwing picks onto deals. Anyway.

Pittsburgh's really top heavily offensively and super thin defensively... We're really top heavy defensively and meh offensively.. Wonder if there's a deal to be made in the not so distant future (I'm looking at you, Emelin and Gilbert)

Pittsburgh aren't top heavy offensively. They have plenty of depth and scoring ability from top to bottom. Maybe they were top heavy a few years ago... But with Kessel, Hornqvist, Kunitz, Perron, Dupuis, Bonino, Fehr, Plotnikov on top of Crosby and Malkin, that's just depth on all levels.

Their defense isn't sexy, but a healthy Letang and Maata would go a long way for them. Pouliot could establish himself as a top 4 as soon as next season as well... But at the end of the day, having this many question marks on defense, and MAF between the posts, very well might cause their downfall come postseason.

 

[Ezpz]

Benning is easily the worst GM in the league. In a vacuum Bonino is better than Sutter. So he adds the better pick AND a decent prospect.

 

[SB164]

 

[Ezpz]

Pittsburgh aren't top heavy offensively. They have plenty of depth and scoring ability from top to bottom. Maybe they were top heavy a few years ago... But with Kessel, Hornqvist, Kunitz, Perron, Dupuis, Bonino, Fehr, Plotnikov on top of Crosby and Malkin, that's just depth on all levels.

Their defense isn't sexy, but a healthy Letang and Maata would go a long way for them. Pouliot could establish himself as a top 4 as soon as next season as well... But at the end of the day, having this many question marks on defense, and MAF between the posts, very well might cause their downfall come postseason.

There's no guarantee Plotkinov is even an NHLer. Same goes for Fehr, we all saw what happened the last time he left Washington. Could just be a case like Gomez in New Jersey where he can't play anywhere else. Not to mention Dupuis and Kunitz have degraded massively, Dupuis not even being an NHLer anymore possibly due to injury.

 

[LaP]

There's no guarantee Plotkinov is even an NHLer.

Plotnikov is a physical guy. At worst he will be a decent 4th liner imo.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Pittsburgh is definitely all in this year. If they don't win or go to the finals, I think Malkin is gone and from what he said, Montreal is the only team he'd want to play for other than Pittsburgh.

Dream come true, Montreal vs. Pittsburgh in the ECF, we win go to the finals and trade for Malkin in the off season and become perennial cup contenders for years to come
Ok maybe far out but that's what dreams are for!

 

[The Great Weal]

Pittsburgh is definitely all in this year. If they don't win or go to the finals, I think Malkin is gone and from what he said, Montreal is the only team he'd want to play for other than Pittsburgh.

Dream come true, Montreal vs. Pittsburgh in the ECF, we win go to the finals and trade for Malkin in the off season and become perennial cup contenders for years to come
Ok maybe far out but that's what dreams are for!

Their D is way too weak to make it to the conference finals imo

 

[Habsawce]

5.5 AAV 6 years for Couturier? Am I missing something here? My goodness.

 

[Hackett]

I don't mind this trade pens/canucks trade on the surface.

The larger picture is more concerning for a canucks fan. They are coming off a good season, so you could understand if they just tried to improve upon what they have. That was certainly the impression they gave last season, otherwise, they wouldn't sign Miller and vrbata.

But what happened one year later? You trade bieksa for draft pick. Okay, maybe you want to start a rebuild, but wait, you traded kassian for a vet, and you are sticking with Miller and trading lack.

What's the message here? The canucks should choose one general direction, and stick with it.

 

[Ezpz]

Bergevin should be on the phone with Benning trying to trade Emelin, Gilbert and Desharnais for Vrbata, Edler and a 2nd.

 

[Team_Spirit]

5.5 AAV 6 years for Couturier? Am I missing something here? My goodness.

4.33/6 years.

Lars Eller makes 3.5 and Couturier put up better numbers.

Benning is easily the worst GM in the league. In a vacuum Bonino is better than Sutter. So he adds the better pick AND a decent prospect.

A Sutter is being overrated, anyone surprised?

 

[LaP]

5.5 AAV 6 years for Couturier? Am I missing something here? My goodness.

According to RDS it's 26M for six years which is 4.3 a year. Not a bat bet for a big guy good defensively and already doing around 40 points at 22.

 

[Habsawce]

4.33/6 years.

Lars Eller makes 3.5 and Couturier put up better numbers.



A Sutter is being overrated, anyone surprised?

my bad, saw a tweet that said 5.5 but it was deleted. 4.633 is fine for him even though he's a 3rd line centre.

 

[Apoplectic Habs Fan]

There's no guarantee Plotkinov is even an NHLer. Same goes for Fehr, we all saw what happened the last time he left Washington. Could just be a case like Gomez in New Jersey where he can't play anywhere else. Not to mention Dupuis and Kunitz have degraded massively, Dupuis not even being an NHLer anymore possibly due to injury.

Fehr has been a consistent NHLer for like 10 years and has had consistent production outside of one shortened season. Last time, you mean the one time he wasnt in washington.

Just like Gomez? Oh boy. Gomez even had a one good year in mtl and good seasons in nyr. Ludicrous statement that he couldnt play any where but jersey

 

[PricePkPatch*]

Hmm...

What is happening with Franson? Is he as bad as some people say he is? How much do you think he will end up getting paid?

..do you think we would have been a better team if the Gorges trade had happened?

 

[Whitesnake]

And Here's another "best candidate we missed" that doesn't look too good so far....Jim Benning. Geez, he was even one of my candidates...but his work has been underwhelming so far. Just another proof that "best candidate no matter the language" isn't as clear cut as some want it to be....

 

[PricePkPatch*]

And Here's another "best candidate we missed" that doesn't look too good so far....Jim Benning. Geez, he was even one of my candidates...but his work has been underwhelming so far. Just another proof that "best candidate no matter the language" isn't as clear cut as some want it to be....

Bergevin literally broke the trade deadline paradigm last year.

This year, he ran away with the single best bargain of the bunch.

He managed to acquire a few high-potential prospects and projects at minimal cost,

.... I personally think Bergevin was, by far, the best candidate.

 

[Cole Caulifield]

The Despres trade was such a bad trade. I could not believe it when they announced it. To me Lovejoy has always been a borderline AHL dman. I still can't believe a NHL caliber GM made this trade.

Three words : erat for forsberg

 

[CupInSIX]

Letang, Maata, Cole, Lovejoy, Maata, Scuderi, Dumoulin...

Seriously, it's just up there with the worst D groups of the league. Hell, after Maata and Letang, I don't think any single one of these guys would make our top-7.

The Maata twins should become a fierce defense pairing.

 

[Team_Spirit]

ROR

 

[Hackett]

Hmm...

What is happening with Franson? Is he as bad as some people say he is? How much do you think he will end up getting paid?

..do you think we would have been a better team if the Gorges trade had happened?

He mentioned a couple weeks ago that there are 5-6 teams interested, but there is a definite cap crunch involved with some of the teams.

It made me think that the teams he really desires out of that group have to make other moves to fit him in, and that he is betting on the dominos to fall. It was also clear that he is sick of short term deals, and this market is being really stingy with term.

It's a tough year for the UFA players.