Whatever, it's possible, but they can have the bum. He might have one of his 1 in 3 outliers for them, but I'm just glad to be free of his contract. Korpisalo's resume sucks, he's had 3 quality seasons out of 9, only 2 in the last 8, so at least Ullmark has that going for him and would be defying career norms if he were to play poorly in Ottawa.
It's not really Ullmark vs Korpisalo though, it's the Bruins team's defense vs ours. I think Ullmark is more talented but it all comes to down to us finally "playing the right way". Goaltending IN OTTAWA has basically been the hardest job in the NHL for years.
Last year's roster was missing Pinto for 41 games, Norris for 32 games, Chabot for 31 games, Traded Tarasenko for the final ~25 games,
Add to that the upgrade from League worst goaltending to a guy that won the Vezina, and this roster is really much better than last years when you assume reasonable health.
Better goaltending would make the biggest difference because our goalies were really bad last season but we also have NOT helped the goalies for years. It's all about the overall team game the coaching staff will have this group playing
Better health could really help too but there's always injuries. However in Norris and Chabot's cases, it would be great to have them healthy as they haven't been for 2-3 seasons now
Boston will be an interesting case,
Lindholm in, but DeBrusk out.
Zadorov in, but Grzelcyk and Forbert out.
and the big one, going from Ullmark to Korpisalo.
They've improved, but they did it by replacing pretty good players, so the net difference isn't as big as it could be.
Yeah but they don't need Ullmark that much with Swayman being ready to be a N.1. Korpisalo could do fine in front of one of the best "team defense" in the NHL
Grzelcyk's game (who is very similar to Brannstrom btw) dropped a lot recently, Zadorov is a huge upgrade right now. And while DeBrusk is a nice player, Elias is a gigantic add. One of the biggest factors for them is also Lohrei progression, this guy could become quite good.
Yes and now, I agree everyone will have a good statline when they get good goaltending, but the issue is how rarely we got good goaltending,
Agreed, we haven't gotten a lot of great goaltending during the rebuild but last season was easily the worst we got.
Joseph certainly had a good year, but that was a career year and he's notoriously streaky. I'm not convinced he'll reproduce those numbers, and Perron adds different elements. 9 years older isn't really relevant, we care about what they do for the duration of their contracts, they are not core pieces. I'll gladly take Perron over Joseph, I'm fairly confidient he will outproduce Joseph this year, while adding grit and leadership that Joseph does not. Having said that, I would have preferred to keep Joseph over adding Amidio, that's the more comparable player imo.
God I hope Perron outproduces Joseph this season. He costs 1 M$ more, is an offensive player and will be fed a lot of PP time. We had to give away a 3rd to move Joseph too. I am a bit wary of this signing, like I was with Kubalik last off-season (if you remember). I think it can't be as bad as Kubalik though.
Speaking of Joseph, yes he is streaky offensively but he is a defensive player first and foremost and I thought that kind of player is what we DEARLY missed during whole Dorion's rebuild.
Also, looking at Joseph raw numbers (on hockeydb.com for example) is misleading, his PPG over the years :
2020-21 : 0.34
2021-22 : 0.43
2022-23 : 0.32
2023-24 : 0.49
With Joseph, you get a defensively responsible player who excels on the PK and will provide around 30 pts at ES (per 82 games played). I'd want more of these, we have enough guys for the PP (like last year, I predicted Kubalik wouldn't produce as usual)
No he isn't, but he is quick to get up to speed which is sometimes more practical that being faster. Well have to wait and see how they pan out, but imo Joseph is replaceable, and wasn't going to play the same role Perron will so the comparison is an odd one.
Yeah I think it's the first steps acceleration that makes Joseph look so fast. Most NHL players can be very fast but not all of them have "nitro" like a Formenton.
I'm not trying to compare Joseph and Perron for their roles but more how wem decided to spend the money. I would have preferred to sign Amadio and keep Joseph
Greig - Stutzle - Giroux
Tkachuk - Norris - Batherson
Joseph - Pinto - Amadio