LindG1000

The price that Anaheim was asking for Henrique and Vatrano was 1st+Kakko. They ended up moving Henrique and Carrick for 1st and 5th. I have to imagine that Vatrano would be pretty pricey, and when you have Guentzel and Toffoli and Buchnevich and Zucker and Duclair out there - guys who aren't just feasting on PP time and playing acceptable but unimpressive 5v5....I don't think paying the premium for Vatrano makes sense here.

Yup. Dude's genetically engineered to play for Brind'Amour

I have it on the record that this trade worked before.

Yup. 100%. If it's legal, take it to the nth degree. Banners fly forever, cap hits are temporary. On a related note, Jacob Trouba was looking super limpy the other day, no?

Yeah. That's true. When you know that second-round pick is Will Cuylle or Ryan Lindgren, that's another story. But right now, that pick is merely a 17 year old with a 16% chance of making the NHL and sticking.

We also know enough to know that scouts are actually kinda good at their jobs. We know that a guy picked in the late first round is usually a coinflip to become an NHL regular, a guy drafted in the second is more of a 3-in-10 chance....like....we're not selling ironclad things here. We're selling hope. And to be fair - yeah, sometimes teams fuck up enough in tandem that David Pastrnak is sitting there in the early 20s. But that's not the normal case and those situations are pumping UP the outcome data.

Mystery box value assessments of draft picks. This is a 10-player draft in which we will, at best, hold like...26 and 58. Chalk this one up as a "who fucking cares" in my book.

Dom Loosechicken is already tracking shenanigans/60

Seems like we're official here. Starting the "trade completed" thread. Will let this slow burn for a bit before closing it up.

And so ends the Adam Henrique to the Rangers rumor era. Much to the relief of our resident @Phil

Henrique might be off the table in just a bit

Yep. Exactly. Bang-the-fuck-on. Would hate losing Berard, but we're so stacked at LW that he's an expendable chip. That's the level we should be thinking here.

I think we need to cool it with the big trade packages here. These things never happen the way we think they do. Every year, there's a big prize and every year it's "oh, it's going to take a first and another first, and the guy you used your first rounder on last year, and evidence of a virgin birth" to get them. And every year, it's the same goddamn package for the big guy - a 1st, maybe a conditional 1st on top, a mid-level prospect with some promise, and someone you haven't heard of. Sometimes, that works out. We got Ryan Lindgren for Rick Nash! Sometimes, it doesn't. See - Ryan McDonagh trade. But under absolutely no circumstances should we be thinking that Kakko, Othmann, or Perreault are on the table for a pure rental like Guentzel. It's simply never the case. And it shouldn't be, because if nobody wants to pony up the young prospect, the Penguins can just let him sit there and be on the Penguins at 3pm on Friday. And get nothing.

Don't quote me on this, but I think NHL salaries are paid out by days on active roster, not games played. So sending them down for any extended period of time would cut their salaries to their AHL levels for an extended period of time. It would create an additional 70k in cap space or so over the course of the week, but I can't imagine how that moves the needle more than these kids actually getting their NHL paychecks.

Can we just all agree on one thing? We will not freak out when Matt Rempe, Will Cuylle, and Adam Edstrom are all sent to Hartford on Friday for the "playoff eligibility paper transactions"

I'd rather give this years pick tbh. Both drafts are very top-heavy, but we're clear enough on there being little difference between 10 and 55 in this draft. That, and a general manager/president never looks at it that way. The ECF conversion is paying a pick that has a 15% likelihood of being a decent NHLer - not a star, a player - for a player and at minimum six home games of playoff revenue. In 2022, that was nearly $5m a game. Might be closer to $6 this year. The Rangers would look at that as if it were trading #29 overall for Vatrano and $36m. More, if they're a top seed and these series' go long, which....we're the Rangers. They do. And that, my friend, is a trade they make every single day.

So, let's close that door then. Also, just gonna say it....make the goddamn pick conditional on making the ECF like you know you want to and get the deal done for Frankie V, Dru.

I don't know if there's a world where Goodrow is on this team next year. His buyout is just not prohibitive at all. The only year his contract significantly exceeds league minimum in a buyout circumstance is the one year we can unequivocally take the hit (all we would need is for Trouba and Panarin to each agree to a 1m/y pay cut, and both will agree to bigger cuts than that if they want to stay). But, for now? Eh. Not worth bringing up the offseason until, I hope, mid-June.

I have never been a Goodrow apologist, but games like last night's make me feel like this doesn't matter too much. Goodrow was noticeable in good ways. He got in front of shots, took away lanes, and made smart plays. He's a guy you use almost exclusively in defensive situations, and he excels as that guy. Yeah, he makes too much for his boxcars or his advanced stats, but I'm willing to tolerate it for this playoff run at the very least because I think his value shines through when the ice gets smaller and the stakes get higher. This is cliche. It isn't backed up by the numbers. I know that. And still, it's cliche for a reason.

As I said last night. we went toe-to-toe with them the whole way. Barkov had the assist of the goddamn season to break through for the first goal. When they got the winning bounce, they showed us how to work to defend a lead and close a game. All credit goes to the Panthers for that third period - that was a masterclass in how to win a one-goal game. There's not much of a gap here right now. And if I were Chris Drury or Bill Zito, I'm feeling pretty good after that one. Make the moves and lock horns again in two weeks.

So what you're saying is that the deflection that barely deflected wouldn't have gone in had Shesterkin actually read the release properly and been ready. Look, I'm all for understanding the physics of the game, but we can just admit that Shesterkin, as one of the 15 or so best in the world at this, should probably have had a sub-70MPH shot from 50 feet out. Even with the minor deflection, it's a soft goal and one you expect Shesterkin to get. Move the guy 20 feet forward, and he fires from the dot? Sure, I buy your argument. Not from that far. Hell, if you really want to get into the math of it - the average NHL shot is around 80mph, as you noted. That shot was not 80 - we both agree there. That shot was, conservatively, 70mph, from around 50 feet out (twice the radius of the circle, plus the hashes, plus the distance from the circle to the goalie). 70 miles per hour is 102.67 feet per second. That puck travels 50 feet in around .48 seconds, and Trouba deflects it very early, meaning that Shesterkin would have had nearly double the reaction time you say is required to make that save. It's a bad goal.

Let the Devils feel like shit is okay and not win a Stanley Cup. That's fine by me.

All I know is I'm pulling for Gallant to come on and coach the Devils.

So you can't adjust to one, but it barely moved, which in theory would make it....more likely to be stopped because a puck that moves less is more likely to hit you if you're in position?