tomh009

The question is less of Dauphin than of Poehling: has he reached his ceiling or not yet?

Dauphin can play C and appears to be at least as good as Poehling. And then there is Pitlick (Rem), too. That's five centres (not counting Perreault), so I should hope we can get a credible 3C and 4C from that bunch, at a minimum.

No, not a terrible return. But we are not short of 3C/4C guys. If we acquire another centre, it really needs to be someone with solid 2C potential. Otherwise I'd rather spend all our credits on D.

I think Vegas is second only to Habs on the injury front this year.

I wonder whether it's really that Ducharme was so bad, or whether it's that St Louis has enabled Caufield. A lot of NHL coaches believe in their systems, and want the players to fit into those systems. This clearly didn't work with Caufield and Ducharme's system. But St Louis' approach really seems to be to allow the players to do what they can do best, and then build his system/concept around those players.

Habs hold down eighth and ninth in rookie scoring at the moment. Caufield … and Pitlick! I do expect Caufield to finish in the top six at least.

Now tied for 10th in rookie scoring.

No argument on the bad early goal on him. But that was also $6.5M worth of D in front that didn't bother with defending. As with the second goal. I just saw no effort on either play.

Ugh. Montembeault should have had that first one. Last one, maybe, but it was in the top corner, a tough save to make. Petry was cruising around on the first two, Kulak couldn't handle the forward on the third one, and Romanon mishandled the puck for the SH breakaway. Plenty of blame to go around. But if we're going to lose one, I don't mind it being this one.

Pezzetta! (well, at least he was standing in front of the net!)

It appears that he really doesn’t want to be traded after all.

A very good point. But I think they'll be very, very reluctant to open that can of worms, and start judging who should be retired or not ... One thing they could do is keep all the numbers in the rafters, but allow some of them to be reused ... kind of semi-retired? As an aside, Dickie Moore winning a second consecutive scoring title -- with his wrist in a cast for the second half of the season! -- really is the stuff of legend. Whether that should merit retiring his number is up for discussion though!

Maybe we can go more than six rounds of shootout without any scoring? 🙄

5-3 Coyotes. I think the empty-netter was their 15th shot on goal.

That pot has already been stirred so vigorously that we have broken more spoons than Caufield has broken sticks. Let's leave it alone.

I prefer a good prospect to a late first.

What would the Devils be looking for in exchange for Zacha? It looks like he might be able to do 40-50 points in a full season. But my concern is that in six seasons he has yet to play even 70 games. Prone to minor injuries?

The only comparable thing is the points total. And it turns out to be meaningless, as you say. They're counting on progression even though there isn't significant progression this year (or in Montreal). Oh well, it's their problem. (They have about $19M in cap space left, with five UFAs (totaling $15M) and four RFAs remaining to be signed.)

Using the simplistic points/game criterion for NHL centres (some of who really aren't playing C) for this year: Suzuki is #52 (0.73 and still improving) Pitlick is #65 (0.65, but is it sustainable?) Hoffman is #93 (and not playing C) Dvorak would be #103 (0.47 but is listed as LW) Kotkaniemi is #124 Evans is #149 Dauphin is #194 Poehling is #198 We have yet to see what Dvorak can do with St Louis behind the bench. But Pitlick's current (career year!) production is pretty close to a lower-end 2C.

Sarah Civian on the Athletic wrote an analysis for this. Her conclusion was that it might be a slight overpay, but only slight. (The reader comments, mostly from Carolina fans, also supported her view.) However, what her view is predicated on is that Kotkaniemi is only 21 and will still develop. And yet ... he's about to finish his fourth full NHL season, and he's not showing a strong upward trajectory. There has been little to indicate a strong work ethic or a desire to improve. She compared him to Lehkonen, who she said is scoring at a similar level (actually Lehkonen is about 10% higher) but younger (yes) and a centre (yes). But Kotkaniemi, in spite of also being a Finn, is in many ways the anti-Lehkonen. Lehkonen is a 200-foot player, can play PP and PK, and gives the team his all on every shift. I don't think "entitlement" is in Lehkonen's vocabulary. So, I don't really see the evidence why Kotkaniemi should be all that much more valuable. In any case, it comes to the question of whether Kotkaniemi will improve. If he turns into a solid 2C, the contract will be fine. But if he stagnates and remains a bottom-six centre or winger, Waddell will yet regret that contract.

Clearly it's extremely unlikely that he will shoot at 20%+ in the long term. Yet he can shoot, he can pass, he can skate and he can even play defensively. So, why did he fail to find a spot in Nashville and Minnesota, and was waived twice? Yes, those are stronger teams but at the minimum Pitlick looks like a legit bottom-6 NHL player, maybe middle-6.

Pitlick now has his shooting average up to an even 30% (12 goals on 40 shots). Clearly unsustainable ... and yet he's still putting the puck in the net. For now. It's impressive, even if he regresses next year.

Incredible bad luck on injuries. Hopefully neither Lehkonen or Poehling has a serious injury.

Better them than us.

He’s only on the roster because there is no other uninjured goalie on an NHL contract.