BrooksBurner

I’m not sure what you are calling bullshit. You claimed that Drury traded Buchnevich simply to faciliate an Eichel trade. Prove it? He took what he thought was the best deal for Buch and there were several reports talking about the looming cap space issue the following summer, with so much money locked up at wing already and no long term 2C. I didn’t like seeing Buch go for so little. Nobody really did. I also think Drury probably took the best deal he could get at the time for him. You know who really made the Buch deal look like shit? Not the Blais injury. The two guys who it was supposed to open up ice time for, both of whom could have helped make us forget about Buch: Kravtsov and Kakko. As we now know, Kravtsov jetted back to Russia and Kakko fell completely on his face again. By the sounds of it at this moment, it looks likely that those two guys will get yet another try at it, and we’ll be crossing our fingers hoping they don’t fuck it up again.

Ok. Then explain why Kakko was benched for G6 if you really think he's that far along? I'll have to see the context of the entire question and answer before guessing if this was a potentially legitimate opinion vs canned handling of media questions.

Age: 26 Cap Hit: $3.25M Contract: Expires after '22-'23 season Background Been doing some reading and looking into this guy. He was an undrafted free agent out of the Swiss League 2 years ago, where he coming off an MVP season there (30 goals, 53 points in 50 games). The Blackhawks signed him to a 1 year $925k contract. He put up 14 goals and 27 points in 55 games (20 goal, 40 point 82 game pace), playing largely with Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat. Last summer, he signed a 2 year contract with the Detroit Red Wings. This past season, he put up 15 goals and 36 points in 82 games playing with Filip Zadina and Robby Fabbri. Obviously a significant drop in linemate quality from Chicago, but still respectable numbers. Blogger warning ahead! These articles are just some fan speak, but some interesting comments from Blackhawks bloggers who watched the games nonetheless. The Blackhawks shouldn't have let him go: https://blackhawkup.com/2021/08/03/chicago-blackhawks-really-shouldve-hung-onto-forward-pius-suter/ The Blackhawks made a mistake letting him go: https://puckprose.com/2022/02/08/chicago-blackhawks-made-mistake-letting-pius-suter-go/ Additionally, Detroit is still in a building phase, and it seems likely that they would entertain trading Suter for picks or prospects. They aren't really close to competing, and I have to imagine Suter is pretty likely to leave after his contract is up. What I think he offers I think he might be an ideal and affordable target to acquire at the center position. I think he's shown he can produce at a solid clip playing with talented players like he did in Chicago, and as a rookie in the league. I think he's shown he can still be a good 3rd line option playing with much less talented linemates in Detroit. He was right near 50% on faceoffs and he took 1000 of them last year. Nearly all of his production in the NHL is at 5v5. In my mind, he has potential to surprise by playing with a guy like Panarin, much like Stromer did, who was a 35-40 point guy himself before coming here. There's also potential for an affordable extension if he has a solid year. Potential cost A decent young prospect or two, maybe in combination with a pick, although the Rangers are light on picks. Maybe the Wings are interested in a package around one of the Rangers' young defensemen like Zac Jones. Their right side with Seider and Hronek is pretty well set, so there may be little interest in Lundkvist. I think Lundkvist maybe holds a little more value than being used in a Suter trade, though there may be a creative option to piggyback Nemeth onto it. Yzerman already showed he was willing to take a cap dump for a price when he took Staal.

I mentioned in the offseason thread, but I’m “Team Stop Gap” for the 2C/Mid-6 C approach, via affordable trade for an expiring contract. Some potential options I see Sean Monahan (caveat: injury concerns, one year cap hit - might be buyout UFA target) Erik Haula Pius Suter Frederick Gaudreau Less likely options due to trade cost and/or many other reasons Dylan Larkin Ryan O’reilly Bo Horvat Thin lists, but I also think it’s important to give Chytil the opportunity to move up the lineup if his play deserves it. If they get someone too good such that it blocks him regardless of how he plays, they might as well trade him for a guy who fits 3C qualities more.

I get there was some level of interest, and unless I missed something in those links, it read more like typical speculation than anything concrete. Let me clarify, because I am not disagreeing there was some level of interest. To suggest the Eichel interest was serious enough that they started cap clearing measures for the purpose of trading for him before a trade was agreed to, is something I find to be a huge reach. I think Drury was trading Buchnevich regardless of a potential Eichel trade happening or not.

I never saw any of this. Who reported that?

I don’t think they were ever seriously involved with getting Eichel. I don’t think they were going to make moves in anticipation of Buffalo trading Eichel here. I think you have to go Occam’s razor on the Buch trade. Drury didn’t want to use the cap on Buch and he also thought Blais would provide a heavy N/S game to help change the lineup. It also opened up ice time and opportunity for Kakko and potentially Kravtsov (before he bolted).

In my mind, Drury’s biggest task this offseason is in how he can get rid of Nemeth. $2.5M cleared off the books gives much needed cushion to make it a lot easier to make the rest of the moves required. If he can somehow operate effectively without clearing Nemeth, he will have to be an absolute magician.

I loved Motte, but I have major question marks going to $2M or even in the vicinity of $2M for another bottom 6 (translated: exclusively 4th line) player. If Jesper Fast, a better overall player who can contribute offensively in addition to what Motte does, gets $2M and we let him walk for it, then Tyler Motte is worth $1.5M maximum. Really he is not worth more than the contract he is coming off of. Also, what’s the history with him and games played? Guy has never played a full season. Only one time got close to a full season. Injuries? Rotated out of lineup? Anyone know the story?

I admittedly was not aware of just how many injuries and surgeries Monahan has been through. It’s a big risk. It’s also why he would be significantly cheaper. Actually, he’s almost more attractive as a depth option to me because he might wind up being a buy out option for the Flames. Hard to see anyone consuming that full $6M cap hit, and the ones that could would probably be on his 10 team NTC. If he’s bought out, he could probably be had for a dirt cheap amount of $1-2M. Can you think of a better situation for him to try and rejuvenate his career than coming here and possibly playing with Panarin? But yeah, counting on him to stay healthy might be too big of a stretch to not have more depth.

A hypothetical to consider, and I’m going to rule out Copp from this hypothetical because he has not made a lot of money in his career relative to Strome ($12M total career contract value for Copp versus $25M for Strome ). What if the market isn’t that good and the long term offers aren’t that good? Might there be potential for Strome to take a 1 year deal to run it back here and re-visit UFA status next summer? I fully expect Strome to lock in a multi-year bag if a good offer comes his way, but I think there’s a chance that might not happen. He seems to have a stigma around him that he is largely a product of Panarin, and that he doesn’t particularly shine in traditional center traits. There may be a lot of skepticism from teams offering him the bag that people seem to be expecting him to get.

Yes. You need more than one playoffs to establish trend. Panarin is still a potential Hart caliber player. And I only say potential because there’s a few players in this league who it is hard to see getting beat for that honor over the next several years. I’m not sure Strome or Copp are top 6 players away from Panarin, but they will both get paid to be most likely.

Correct. Things have to go pretty perfectly this offseason and during the season to have a shot at getting back to where we got this year. There's likely a step back year coming up. Then things get serious again. The step back won't feel so bad if we know it's coming at least.

All the tools except speed, shot, physicality, finish

I'll kick some things around because why not. I don't care if it's a day after elimination. The offseason will be shortened and go quickly. My early general sentiment for next season* 1) I think Kreider, or possibly even Panarin, might be told to work on the right side this offseason and the plan is going to be to move Lafreniere up. Lafreniere long term extension is signed early before doing this, just like the Devils did with Hughes. 2) Address center holes. Lafreniere - Zibanejad - Kreider Panarin - <empty> - Kravtsov Goodrow - Chytil - Kakko Blais - <empty> - Hunt Lindgren - Fox Miller - Trouba Braun - Schneider Early options I see for 2C: Sign Copp or Strome long term. I no longer think this is a good idea. Lafreniere and Miller should get the long term $ and we can't jeopardize that with another long term contract amongst what we already have. Long term now will keep both players' cost down in the long run. Trade for an established long term center. Guys in that Larkin/Scheifele type bracket. I don't think this is a great choice either for the same reasons as above. It's the same reason I am softening the "trade Kakko" stance I've had for some time now. He's fine on the 3rd line for another year, and ultimately if I was going to trade him, it would have been in a deal for a long term 2C. I think they have to pump the brakes for a year on committing any long term money to guys on the outside right now. Trade for an unproven early-mid 20s center who is cost controlled. This is a gamble because it's not guaranteed to work, but if said player is cheap enough, they can pivot from him if needed. I don't like this option because Chytil already fits this criteria, and we don't need two unproven kids at center. Trade for an expiring contract. Another stop-gap to buy Chytil another season to see if his playoff performance was the actual goods or not, and if he can be that future 2C guy. Sign a 1 year stop gap center. The UFA market sucks for this. Not too viable. Go Chytil! YOLO! Option 4! The issue will be finding a target that would not cost entirely too much via trade, but still has the potential to replace to not be a massive hit from losing Strome. My current target would be Sean Monahan from the Flames. He's coming off a disappointing season (really two disappointing seasons) and injury. Calgary has $27 million in cap space and needs the $ for Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Mangiapane, and Kylington. If they want to keep all of those guys, they need to clear Monahan's cap off the books. He could be an excellent 1 year center option who I don't believe would break the bank via trade. He has scored 30 goals a few times and pretty good in the dot. I could see him with a decent chance to rebound and replace Strome's production alongside Panarin. 4C I don't care. I don't feel like digging in the UFA fodder right now. * subject to change 3278497982347289 times this offseason

I don't care much about the Kakko/Strome thing. I think it's being blown out of proportion. Kakko wasn't changing anything out there. I do think at times during this playoff run it felt like there was a bit too much unwillingness to mix things up to try to get Panarin and really all of the guys on the 2nd line going a little more. Everyone was raving about the kid line, but did they get increased amounts of ice time? Or were they still watching the Panarin line struggle for 18-20 a night? This is all hindsight and not even 20/20 hindsight because none of it was guaranteed to change anything. But it might have. There's valid critiques here, but it doesn't override the season he had coaching here or my optimism for him as coach next year and beyond. It does pain me that Trotz is available though. By the way, I don't see how anyone could possibly lump Vatrano in with Hunt and Rooney when talking about needing better players. Frank was terrific for this team. To think he wasn't suggests the expectations were totally unrealistic for what he was brought here to do.

He was outcoached this last series, but I’m not sure how much you take from that. Cooper, as much as I think he’s a smug and arrogant asshole, is probably the best coach of this current generation. There’s no shame in being outcoached in that series IMO.

Awesome. And I think that means he is staying.

He can clean those things up. The combination of size, speed, reach is excellent. Even if he doesn’t progress quickly he’s still a quality 2nd pairing.

Strome gave everything he had tonight. He left it out there. He must be hurt pretty good. Fans mad at him for lacing up the skates if he couldn't play the whole game. Feels like the same fans would have called him a pussy with no heart if he didn't go at all No win for him going into tonight's game. Especially after the near miss on the doorstep G5.

So who are the Rangers targeting in the 1st round? Figures. All the conditional shit the Rangers put on picks coming back in the McDonagh, Zuccarello, etc., trades never hit...the one time the Rangers do it in reverse, they don't make the conditional hard enough. Should have been SCF - no exceptions. No, I'm not mad they lost the pick. I'm mad it never works out the other way LOL.

I missed where I said he sucks.

It's probably just a preference in game styles. I always felt Chytil played the game with speed and pace, especially for his size, and some of the other positional stuff would come with experience. Kakko is the opposite. We're going to have a fun time on this board debating Kakko over the next few months. For the record, I fully expect he'll be back next year and probably slotted in the top 6, because it's the safe move...and I think it'll be a mistake as his value all but disappears after another 30 point season.

Nit-pick: 21. And 3 seasons in. Just think he's the chip you move to help solve the clear top 6 problem.